How To Precook Peppers For Stuffed Peppers
Precooking the peppers is not a necessary step for this recipe, but it can save you some time by softening the peppers. To precook, slice the tops off of the peppers and clean them. Place them in a large pot, then fill with water, making sure the peppers are filled so they dont float. Bring to a rolling boil for 2-3 minutes, then transfer the peppers to an ice bath to stop the cooking process. Proceed with stuffing the peppers with the filling.
Turkey Stuffed Peppers Recipe Variations
- Swap out the ground turkey and use ground beef, ground chicken, ground pork or ground sausage.
- Choose red, yellow or orange peppers for a sweeter taste grab green bell peppers for a less-sweet, more zesty taste.
- Any variety of rice will work. I like to use cooked white rice, but cooked wild rice or cooked brown rice will both be delicious, too. For a shortcut, try microwaveable packets of rice like Uncle Ben’s Ready Rice. You can even try this recipe with cauliflower rice for more veggies!
- Instead of rice, use cooked quinoa or cooked couscous.
How To Make Stuffed Peppers:
The old-fashioned, classic stuffed pepper recipe calls for beef, but for a quick weeknight dinner we love to keep things as lean and healthy as we can, so weve opted for ground turkey stuffed peppers instead. Meaty, lean ground turkey is cooked with lots of onions, garlic and spices, so you really dont miss the beef. Heres how to make our super easy, turkey-stuffed bell peppers:
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Italian Stuffed Peppers: Ingredients & Substitutions
- Ground turkey.Ground beef or chicken can be substituted for the turkey.
- Olive Oil. Avocado oil or canola oil are substitute for olive oil.
- Garlic/onion powder. Minced garlic and finely diced onion can be used in place of the powders. Just add them to the
- Diced tomatoes. you can choose a variety with flavors like Italian diced tomatoes or fire roasted diced tomatoes.
- Choose your favorite – mine is tomato basil.
- Mozzarella cheese. You can substitute any cheese for mozzarella, I like adding parmesan cheese too.
- Brown rice. this recipe calls for 2 cups cooked brown rice, which is 1 cup uncooked. You can use any rice variety you’d like, even quinoa is delicious in this recipe.
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Top Tips For This Recipe
- What Color Peppers are Best for Stuffed Peppers? This is really a personal preference. Green peppers tend to have a heavier flavor, while red, yellow, and orange peppers are on the sweeter side. Any of them will be delicious, but I tend to lean towards the sweet reds and yellows.
- Can You Freeze Stuffed Peppers? Absolutely! These stuffed peppers actually freeze quite beautifully for up to 6 months. Allow baked peppers to cool, then place in a ziploc freezer bag or airtight container. To eat, thaw overnight in the fridge, then bake at 350 degrees until heated through .
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Stuffed Bell Peppers With Ground Turkey
You can’t beat good old-fashioned ground turkey stuffed peppers for a simple and hearty family-friendly dinner. It’s a great way to use up plenty of fresh bell peppers, and the flexible recipe can be adapted to accommodate a variety of taste and dietary preferences. Add sausage for even more flavor, swap out the rice for cauliflower rice, or use mozzarella cheese for an Italian spin. There are so many ways to make these easy stuffed peppers your own!
I’ve shown sweet red bell peppers here, but any color or combination will work — red, yellow, orange, or green bell peppers. It’s just a matter of personal taste preference. The red, yellow and orange peppers are generally much sweeter than the green peppers . Green bell peppers tend to have a zesty taste, which pairs well with the savory meat, cheese, rice and tomato sauce.
Colorful Turkey Stuffed Peppers
These easy baked stuffed peppers are a colorful and irresistible dish that can be made with red, yellow or green bell peppers. This recipe is delicious with either our extra lean ground turkey or mild turkey sausage.
Total Time
bell peppers, preferably a mix of yellow, green or red
package JENNIE-O® Extra Lean Ground Turkey Breast
tablespoon fresh basil or 1 teaspoon dried basil leaves
teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
can low-sodium diced tomatoes or seasoned diced tomatoes, drained
cup cooked white or brown rice
cup shredded low-fat Cheddar cheese, divided
paprika, if desired
Heat oven to 375°F.
Cut bell peppers lengthwise through stems keeping stem halves intact to hold stuffing.
Cook peppers in boiling salted water 5 to 6 minutes or until crisp-tender.
Drain and immediately place peppers in ice water to stop cooking process.
Drain peppers well and place cut side up in 8 x 8-inch baking dish.
Spray skillet with nonstick cooking spray. Preheat skillet over medium-high heat. Add ground turkey to hot skillet. Stir to crumble, approximately 14 to 16 minutes. Always cook to well-done, 165°F. as measured by a meat thermometer.
Add onion, garlic, basil, salt, if desired, ground pepper, tomatoes, and rice continue to cook 5 to 6 minutes or until heated through and most of the juices have reduced.
Remove meat mixture from heat and stir in ½ cup cheese.
Mound heaping ½ cup of mixture into each pepper half.
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How To Make Turkey Stuffed Peppers
This recipe is so quick and easy! Ground turkey stuffed peppers are perfect for meal planning and great to pack in work lunches throughout the week! Since its packed with protein and low in carbs, its a lunch that you can feel great about eating.
Tips To Make The Best Ground Turkey Stuffed Peppers
- Play around with the veggies you use. This recipe calls for mushrooms, but you can play around with the veggies you love most. Use one or a combination of a couple. Remember, this is such an easy way to up your veggie intake!
- Use different colored bell peppers. If you want to uplevel your presentation, use several different colors of bell peppers. The variety of red, green, yellow, and orange will look wonderful on a serving platter.
- Try to find bell peppers with flatter bottoms. Peppers with flatter bottoms will stand up better in your baking dish.
- Use lean groundturkey. Lean ground turkey will produce the least amount of grease and prevent your peppers from turning out soggy.
- Be generous with the cheese. Top each pepper with a hefty amount of cheese. Dont be shy!
- Use a Dutch oven to bake the peppers. If you have a Dutch oven, use it! The steaming effect cooks the peppers much more evenly and makes for a richer overall flavor.
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How Long To Cook Stuffed Peppers
Cook the ground turkey stuffed peppers at 350 degrees F in a casserole dish for 40-45 minutes. Keep it uncovered to release extra fluid from the peppers.
How do you know when stuffed peppers are done?
Bake until the peppers are tender and not mushy or watery and the filling is cooked through. When they are finished cooking, add extra cheese on top and freshly torn or chopped basil for a little extra flaaaaava!
Turkey Stuffed Peppers Recipe
Im always looking for easy meals that are packed with flavor, but finding low-carb options is a huge bonus when Im really trying to watch what I eat. These stuffed peppers are very similar to my air fryer stuffed peppers, but that recipe uses ground beef and rice along with all the other ingredients. I do find that adding rice or quinoa to a stuffed pepper makes it more filling, but I also know a lot of people are searching for grain-free or low-carb recipes. Thats why I wanted to create a stuffed pepper recipe that was basically meat, cheese, and veggies.
But dont let the simplicity of these turkey stuffed peppers fool you! These little bites of heaven are filled with so much flavor! Theyre cheesy and meaty with savory garlic and caramelized onion in each bite. This makes it one of my favorite things to throw together on busy weeknights! Youre going to love them. Especially if youre looking for quick, easy, and inexpensive meals that you can work into your diet! Find more low-carb, keto-friendly meal ideas here.
A Readers Review
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Stuffed Peppers With Ground Turkey Or Beef
This stuffed peppers with ground turkey recipe is a quick and easy gluten-free weeknight dinner option that tastes absolutely delicious!
This is my mothers recipe for stuffed peppers with ground turkey or beef and boy are they good. A meal in and of itself, stuffed peppers are classic comfort food, no matter which way you look at it. This stuffed peppers recipe is so simple and uses mostly pantry staples. Plus, its gluten-free!
To make life even easier, you can make these ahead of time right up to the point of putting them in the oven. Simply cover the turkey stuffed peppers with foil or cling wrap and refrigerate until youre ready to bake them. This would be a great meal to prep on Sunday for a busy night later in the week. Quick, easy, delicious what more could you want, right?
Tips For The Best Ground Turkey Stuffed Peppers Recipe
- For a shortcut, use leftover rice from the night before or a packet of microwaveable rice .
- Garnish the finished dish with fresh herbs just before serving. They add a nice colorful, fresh touch!
- Use red, orange or yellow peppers if you prefer a sweeter taste. Try green bell peppers for a zestier bite.
- For the Slow Cooker: To make these stuffed peppers in a Crock Pot, skip the step of pre-cooking the peppers in the microwave. Stuff the peppers with the rice and ground turkey filling, cover, and cook on LOW for 3-4 hours. Top with the cheese and continue cooking until the cheese melts .
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Crock Pot Stuffed Peppers Aroma Fills The House
One of the best smells is the aroma that fills the air when I walk into the house and can smell these slow cooker stuffed peppers cooking away!
There is no worrying about prepping vegetables for dinner, slaving away over a hot stove, or making last-minute trips to the grocery store because I forgot an ingredient.
Nope! I thought ahead, stuffed the bell peppers with a bit of ground turkey and rice, and Cohl and I are now about to enjoy the fruits of my labor.
Anyone else out there get super excited when you come home to Crock Pot recipes?
Ground Turkey Stuffed Peppers Recipe
In an effort to reduce the amount of red meat we consume, weve been eating a lot of ground turkey.
Ground turkey recipes offer a great way to reduce some of the fat in the dish, and frankly, I think my kids must prefer the taste of ground turkey to ground beef because these always go down the hatch without any complaints.
Thats saying a lot when it comes to my kids.
This ground turkey stuffed peppers recipe is great because its so versatile.
If you would prefer ground beef, its an easy swap. You can also easily add more veggies to the mix or change the cheese.
You can lighten this recipe up even more by cutting back on the cheese or using a reduced fat cheese!
I hope you enjoy this ground turkey stuffed peppers recipe. You can print the recipe below!
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Can You Make Stuffed Peppers With Ground Turkey
Yes! I like to use a blend of meats half ground turkey and half ground beef. I actually usually do this whenever any recipe calls for ground beef. Mixing ground turkey with ground beef is a little bit healthier and it produces a really yummy and less greasy tasting flavor. If youre curious to know how much better for you ground turkey is than ground beef, you can read more about that here.
Feel free to go all-turkey if you want to really cut down on fat. Or use any ratio you want as long as the total weight of meat is met, youll be good.
Three Reasons This Is The Best Healthy Stuffed Bell Pepper Recipe Ever:
Savory, hearty, healthy, and a little spicy, this dinner proves that healthy does NOT have to mean bland or boring. Like anyone else, sometimes were just too tired to do anything but order a pizza and call it a day. But when weve got a few minutes to make dinner, and some simple ingredients on hand, making a meal that fills our familys bellies with ultra-healthy foods like quinoa, lean ground turkey and black beans makes us feel like superheroes.
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Can I Freeze These Stuffed Peppers
Yes! When I make stuffed peppers this way, cut in half and with lots of filling, I like to tell people how to freeze them in case eight peppers is just too much for your family. If you look at my Taco Stuffed Peppers, I have a video that shows this method of freezing them individually.
How To Make Stuffed Peppers With Ground Turkey
Step One: Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Heat a large deep skillet or dutch oven over medium-high heat. Once hot, add the olive oil and then ground turkey. Brown the turkey, breaking it up as it cooks.
Step Two: Once the turkey is brown, add the diced onion, minced garlic, Italian seasoning, salt, black pepper, and red pepper flakes. Cook for 3-4 more minutes or until the onion is tender.
Step Three: Add the marinara sauce and chopped spinach. Let the sauce simmer for 2-3 more minutes until the spinach is wilted. Remove from the heat and stir in the brown rice and parmesan cheese.
Step Four: Stuff the pepper halves with the filling and place them in a 9×13 casserole dish.
Step Five: Bake uncovered at 375 degrees for 30-35 minutes.
Step Six: Remove from the oven and top the peppers with the mozzarella cheese. Return them to the oven and bake another 10 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly and starting to brown. Garnish with fresh chopped basil and parsley.
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What Should I Serve With Stuffed Peppers
You dont have to serve them with anythingthese Mexican-spiced turkey stuffed bell peppers are so loaded with goodness that they absolutely qualify as a stand-alone dish. However, if you want a little extra something green on your plate, a simple side salad is always a nice touch, and doesnt add too much meal-prep time.