How and how much to cook stuffed peppers, recipe

All the best! Today we are preparing a hearty dinner, quite balanced. There will be vegetables, cereals, meat, and gravy. Most people enjoy these types of culinary arts. An exception may be children who do not like pepper.

I will write for you 8 ways to cook stuffed bell peppers. And the filling will be based on rice and meat. This dish is most often stewed in a pan with tomato or sour cream sauce. But you can go the other way: use an oven or slow cooker.

By the way, from minced meat you can prepare not only the well-known cutlets, meatballs or, as in our case, stuffed vegetables. You can make some very interesting goodies. For example, chips or waffle cake. Recipes on this topic are available on my website here.

Classic recipe for stuffed peppers with meat and rice in a saucepan

Stuffed peppers in the classic version are stewed in tomato sauce with vegetable sauté. And served with sour cream. This is a dish familiar to everyone from childhood, juicy, with a rich taste of vegetables and satiety of meat.

Ingredients:

bell pepper - 12 pcs. average
pork - 0.5 kg
beef - 0.5 kg
onions - 1 pc.
rice - 150 gr.
salt, seasonings - to taste
sour cream - for serving

for the sauce:

tomato juice - 0.7 l (or grated tomatoes)
tomatoes - 2 pcs. (optional)
carrots - 1 pc.
onion - 2 pcs.
allspice - 2-3 pcs.
bay leaf - 1-2 pcs.
coriander beans - 10 pcs.
vegetable oil for frying
salt, sugar, spices - to taste

Cooking method:

1. Wash the peppers and carefully remove the stem along with the seeds, maintaining the integrity of the fruit.

Try to use vegetables that are roughly the same size so they cook at the same time. You can take different colors.

2. You can take not necessarily two types of meat. You can get by with just one. Twist it into minced meat. If you have time, finely chop it with a knife, it will turn out much tastier. To the meat you need to add chopped onion, salt, pepper and mix everything.

3. Boil the rice until half cooked in salted water. Pour liquids just a finger above the cereal. It will take about 10 minutes to prepare.

4.Mix the meat and cereal together and be sure to taste for salt. Now you can add other spices to your taste. For example, a complex seasoning for pork.

5.Stuff all the peppers with the resulting filling. Fill the voids carefully so that there is no empty space left. During stewing, the meat will release juice and decrease slightly in volume, and the rice, on the contrary, will become more plump.

6.For dressing, cut the onion into half rings, and simply grate the carrots on a coarse grater.

7.And now you need to make one interesting point that will make the taste of the dish more rich. Heat vegetable oil (about 2 tbsp) in a frying pan and quickly fry the stuffed peppers on three sides over high heat. First place them vertically on the base, then lay them on their sides.

Be careful not to burn the vegetables. Enough ruddy color. A lid with holes will protect you from splashes.

8. Transfer the fried peppers to a wide saucepan; this is where the dish will be cooked until cooked. It is advisable to install the fruits in one layer.

9.The next step is preparing the sauce. Fry the onions and carrots for 3-4 minutes.

10.Add tomato and fresh tomatoes cut into slices (you can do without them) to the vegetables. Stir and cook for another 5 minutes. Salt, pepper, add spices as you like. It could be coriander, allspice, bay leaf. Also add a little sugar to even out the acidity. Try what works.

Now you need to bring the sauce to taste by adjusting the salt, spiciness, and acidity.

11.Pour the resulting tomato dressing over the stuffed peppers in a saucepan and boil. Now turn the heat up a little, cover and simmer for 35 minutes until the meat is cooked through.

12.Serve this second dish with sour cream, or sprinkle with fresh herbs. No additional side dish is required - this is a completely complete and harmonious meal. You can only add a salad of fresh vegetables.

Peppers stuffed with meat and rice. Recipes.

Peppers stuffed with meat and rice “in sour cream sauce”

Bulgarian multi-colored sweet peppers – 20 pieces, medium size.
Minced meat is optional here, you can take a piece of meat and make it yourself, or purchase ready-made minced meat. Minced meat – 300 grams. Minced meat – 200 grams of beef and 100 grams of pork.
Round rice – 180-200 grams.
Tomato paste - 4 tablespoons (it is better to use cooking sauce, it has a milder taste).
Sour cream – 4 tablespoons.
Onion - 2 medium-sized pieces.
Carrot – 1 large piece.
Salt and black pepper - to taste.

Wash and clean the inside of the pepper, carefully cut off the caps and put them in the middle of the vegetable. Now let's peel the onions and carrots. Cut the onion into small cubes, carrots on a coarse grater.

Now let's cook the rice, make sure that it is half-raw, because it will still be stewed in the pepper and turn into porridge. If you want the grain to be crumbly, simply undercook it.

Meanwhile, fry the minced meat in a frying pan in sunflower oil (this is optional, many people add raw minced meat), add salt and pepper, and leave to cool. We will also fry onions and carrots, make a fry, which we will mix with the cooked minced meat, rice, taste for salt, add the seasonings we want.

Now stuff the peppers, put them in a saucepan, tightly. Let's make sour cream with tomato paste: just put the ingredients in a frying pan, you can add oil, let it boil, add water. Pour this mixture over the peppers, cover with a lid, turn it off after an hour and let it brew.

Peppers stuffed with minced meat “tomato with herbs”

Sweet bell peppers – 15-20 pieces, large size.
Meat – 300 grams. It is better to take equal quantities of pork and beef so that after frying our minced meat is not dry.
Long rice – 200 grams.
Onion – 2 large pieces.
Tomatoes - 3 large pieces.
Tomato paste – 4 tablespoons. Use the pasta to make the dressing spicy.
Basil, parsley and dill - a quarter of a bunch each.
Salt, pepper, paprika, oregano, khmeli-suneli.

Wash the pepper and clean the middle, cut off the caps and leave them in the pepper. Let it dry and prepare the vegetables. Peel the onions and cut them into medium cubes. Pour boiling water over the tomatoes, remove the skin, and cut into cubes.

Let's set the rice to cook, but don't cook it all the way, leave it to cool. Meanwhile, fry the onion over low heat. Now mix it with rice. Let's add tomatoes.

Now let's chop the meat into small cubes. Pour vegetable oil into a deep frying pan and fry over high heat until crispy. Add the meat to the rice, onions and tomatoes, mix well, add salt and seasonings.

Wash the greens and finely chop them, and add them to the filling. We put tomato paste there and mix everything well, taste for seasonings and salt, don’t forget, the pepper should be hot, because when cooking, the water will still take away the salt and seasonings, the taste may be bland.

Stuff the peppers, place them tightly in a saucepan, fill with water, place on medium heat for 1 hour, and cover well with a lid. Let the dish brew for 20-30 minutes and taste.

How to cook peppers with rice and minced meat in sour cream sauce - step-by-step recipe

Sour cream goes very well with stewed peppers. Therefore, in addition to traditional tomato sauce, you can also make sour cream, which will also be delicious. The dish turns out juicy and even festive.

Ingredients:

large sweet pepper - 12 pcs.
minced beef - 700 gr.
rice - 200 gr.
onions - 2 pcs.
carrots - 2 pcs.
garlic - 3 cloves
sour cream - 3 tbsp.
tomato paste - 3 tsp.
salt, spices, sugar - to taste
greens - optional
vegetable oil for frying

How to cook:

1.Rinse the rice well several times to get rid of excess starch. Fill it with water so that the liquid covers the cereal only 1 cm. Boil until half cooked (10 minutes).

If there is any water left in the rice after cooking, drain it in a colander and rinse. Let the moisture drain.

2.Cut the onion into cubes and fry in vegetable oil until transparent. There are a lot of vegetables in this pepper to make the filling more juicy and tasty. Grate the carrots on a coarse grater.

3.When the onion becomes just a little golden, add the carrots to it and fry everything together for another 3 minutes. There is no need to cook for a long time - the vegetables will come out during stewing.

4. Wash the pepper. To clean it easily, grab the tail and press it inward, moving in a circle. Now take out the stalk along with the seed box. Rinse the inside of the fruit with running water to remove any remaining seeds.

5.When the carrots give up their color and the frying becomes yellowish, turn off the heat and add finely chopped garlic. Stir and let the mixture cool.

6. It’s time to combine all the filling components. First, mix the rice and sautéed vegetables. Add salt and pepper. If desired, you can add some finely chopped herbs.

7. Add minced meat to the still-vegetable mixture, mix thoroughly and taste. The taste should be harmonious, with enough salt.

8.Stuff the peppers with the prepared filling. It is convenient to use a teaspoon with a long handle. Place the prepared semi-finished products in a large saucepan.

9. The sauce is made one or two times. Place sour cream, tomato paste and salt in a bowl. Stir and pour water (about a glass), shake everything again.

10. Pour sour cream sauce over the stuffed peppers. Add water to the pan until it reaches the top of the vegetables. Place on the stove and bring the liquid to a boil.

11.Cover with a lid, turn the heat to low and simmer the dish until soft (about 30 minutes).

To make dinner even tastier, let it brew for about 20-30 minutes. After this you can serve it to the table.

12.On a plate, pour the sauce in which it was cooked over the stuffed peppers. You can also add fresh sour cream. This is a delicious way to feed your family nourishingly and healthy. Use it for your health.

Video on how to cook stuffed peppers baked in the oven

I offer you a video recipe for preparing our dish in the oven. The cheese-crusted peppers are actually quite juicy. The main thing is not to overexpose it in the oven.

Ingredients:

Minced beef – 400 gr
Rice - 5 tablespoons
Bell pepper – 6 pcs
Onions - 1 pc.
Cheese - 200 gr

If you think they are a little dry, you can add sauce. Fry chopped onion and grated carrots, add a little tomato paste and sour cream. Add salt and stir. Pour the peppers onto the baking sheet, but do not cover the tops. It will also turn out very tasty.

Delicious stuffed peppers with meat and rice, baked in halves in the oven

This recipe will differ from the others, first of all, in that it is cooked in the oven, and secondly, it will be given a boat shape. The preparation has its own peculiarities, so read the recipe carefully.

Ingredients:

bell pepper - 6 pcs. large
minced meat (pork or mixture with beef) - 0.5 kg
rice - 100 gr.
onions - 1 pc. (large)
garlic - 4 cloves
greens - optional
egg - 1 pc.
hard cheese - 50 gr.
Mozzarella - 100 gr.
vegetable oil
salt, spices

Preparation:

1. Wash the pepper and cut it in half. Remove the seeds, you can leave the tails, it will be more beautiful.

2. Cover a baking sheet with parchment. Grease each half with vegetable oil on both sides (sunflower, or preferably olive). This can be done by hand or with a pastry brush. Place the boats, skin side up, in a baking dish.

3.The oven should already be preheated to 200º. Place the peppers in it for 20 minutes. Rinse the rice and cook until almost done, but do not overcook it into a mess. 15 minutes of cooking will be enough. Drain the cereal in a colander, rinse and let the water drain.

4. Finely chop the onion, chop the garlic in a convenient way (with a knife or through a press). Heat the vegetable oil in a frying pan and put both of these vegetables in it at once to fry until translucent.

5.Wait for the baked peppers and cooked rice to cool.

6.Prepare the filling. To do this, mix minced meat, rice, grated hard cheese, onion-garlic sauté, finely chopped herbs, and egg. And don’t forget about spices: salt and pepper are a must.

You can also add seasoning to meat or vegetables.

7. Fill the pepper boats with the well-kneaded filling, turning them over with the indentation towards the top.

8.Grate the mozzarella on a coarse grater and place on top of the minced meat.

9.Place the baking sheet with the workpiece in an oven preheated to 160º for 45 minutes.

10. This time is enough for the meat to cook. The filling will be saturated with the released juice and will not be dry. Well, cheese will give the dish a special charm. Can be served with sour cream or tomato sauce. A fresh tomato salad is also suitable.

Method for cooking whole peppers with minced meat and rice in the oven

This recipe is for those who like to use the oven not only for baking, but also for preparing main courses. It can also be used for stuffed peppers. Although the cooking principle is similar for all options, each has its own twist and this recipe is no exception.

Ingredients:

bell pepper - 6 pcs. large size
minced meat - 500 gr.
onion - 1-2 pcs.
garlic - 3-4 cloves
potatoes - 1 pc.
raw rice - 90 gr.
tomato juice - 500 ml.
dry aromatic herbs - 1 tsp.
paprika - 2 tsp.
ground black pepper - 0.5 tsp.
salt to taste
water
vegetable oil for frying

How to cook:

Wash the peppers, dry them, trim the ends, and remove the seeds.
Place the frying pan on the stove, pour in the vegetable oil, and after it warms up, add the diced onion. Fry for a couple of minutes. Then add washed raw rice, paprika, dry herbs, and squeeze out the garlic. Fry until the onion is ready.
Place the hot roast into the minced meat and stir quickly. Add salt, ground black pepper, mix thoroughly again.
Fill the prepared vegetables with minced meat. Since the rice here is raw, do not fill it completely with the filling, leaving a little space for it to swell.
Lightly grease the baking dish with vegetable oil. Peel the potatoes and cut into circles. These will be the lids that need to be used to cover the filling. Instead of potatoes, you can use tomato slices. Place stuffed peppers in a bowl.
Now you need to pour tomato juice over the vegetables. You can make it yourself from fresh tomatoes or use store-bought ones. Add a little more water so that the peppers are more than half covered. Taste the gravy; it should not be bland. Add salt and sugar, adjusting to your taste.
Cover the dish with a lid. And if your form does not have it, then cover it with foil. Place in the oven and bake at 200 degrees for 50 minutes. Then open the foil and keep in the oven for another 20 minutes or a little more, so that the sauce evaporates a little, thickens, and the peppers brown a little.

Recipe for stuffed peppers in vegetable gravy with tomato paste

For the gravy you will need the most popular vegetables: onions and carrots. And definitely tomato paste, without which you won’t be able to achieve the desired taste. Sour cream is not needed here, so the calorie content of the dish will be less than with its presence.

Ingredients:

bell pepper - 1-1.2 kg
any minced meat - 800 gr.
boiled rice - 3 tbsp. (1.5 tbsp. raw)
onions - 2 pcs.
carrots - 1 pc. large
tomato paste - 2 tbsp.
salt, spices, sugar - to taste
khmeli-suneli - 1.5 tsp.
water - 1 l
vegetable oil for frying

Cooking steps:

1. Boil the rice until half cooked. Remove the seeds from the peppers, leaving the fruits whole.

2. Grate the carrots on a coarse grater, cut the onion into quarter rings.

3.Pour vegetable oil into the frying pan and add chopped onions and carrots. Stir, cover and turn heat to medium. Simmer for 5-7 minutes. There is no need to fry it over high heat, you just need to soften the vegetables a little.

4.After 3 minutes, season the roast with salt and desired spices. This approach (adding spices in the pan) will make the final dish tastier.

5.For the filling, mix rice and minced meat.

6.Add half of the stewed vegetables from the frying pan to the resulting mixture. Also add salt to taste and add suneli hops. This seasoning goes well with meat and vegetables.

Using your hands, thoroughly knead the filling for the peppers so that all the spices are evenly distributed.

7.Fill the pepper with the filling, compacting it so that there is no empty space left. Place the ingredients in a pan.

8.To prepare the dressing, mix the remaining roasted vegetables with tomato paste. Fill with warm water and season with salt.

9.Pour the gravy over the stuffed vegetables. If necessary, add more water.

10.Place the pan on the stove, bring the filling to a boil and simmer under the lid for about 40 minutes. During this time, everything will have time to soak in each other’s juices and exchange tastes.

11.This is a delicious way to feed your family a balanced meal of vegetables, grains and meat. And with fresh herbs it will be even more beautiful and healthy. Eat for your health!

How to freeze stuffed peppers for the winter in the freezer?

You and I have already made many different preparations for the winter. But this one is different from the rest. It will look like frozen store-bought convenience food. It is convenient to use it when there is no time to cook. Then you can simply take the stuffed peppers out of the freezer and simmer them either in a saucepan or in a frying pan. There is no need to defrost it first.

Ingredients:

sweet pepper - 2.5 kg
any meat - 2 kg
rice boiled until half cooked - 2 tbsp.
onion - 4-5 pcs.
garlic - 5 cloves

Preparation:

1. Twist the meat into minced meat. Cut the onion into small cubes and add to the mixture. In the same mixture, add finely chopped garlic, boiled rice until half cooked and stir.

2.Salt and pepper the filling, mix again and try what happens. If necessary, you can add your desired spices.

3. Wash the peppers and carefully cut out the stem along with the seeds. Rinse the inside too so that there are no seeds left there. Stuff the hollow fruits with the filling. Lay it tightly, compacting it.

4. At this point, the semi-finished products are ready. They do not need to be cooked. Take small bags and place the peppers in them in a single layer. Release as much air as possible and tie the bags.

5.Place your future dinner or lunch in the freezer drawer.

6.This concludes this recipe. I will only say that such preparation for the winter is very convenient.

Frozen stuffed peppers can be stored for about 3 months at a temperature of -20º.

Bell pepper stuffed with minced chicken (sauce with tomatoes)

Most often, stuffed peppers are stewed in a saucepan. Moreover, you need to take the dishes as wide as possible so that all the vegetables fit. This recipe will have a lot of vegetables in both the filling and the gravy. We will take chicken meat - more dietary and lean.

Ingredients:

minced chicken - 600 gr.
raw rice - 0.5 tbsp.
tomato - 1 pc.
garlic - 2 cloves
onion - 2 pcs.
carrots - 2 pcs.
bell pepper - 10-15 pcs.
salt, spices
parsley - 3-4 sprigs
vegetable oil for frying

For the sauce:

onion - 2 pcs.
carrots - 2 pcs.
tomatoes - 5 pcs.
sweet pepper - 2 pcs.
garlic - 3-4 cloves
bay leaf - 2 pcs.
salt, black peppercorns

How to do:

1. Boil the rice, but not until fully cooked. Let it be a little hard and crumbly. Mix it with the prepared minced chicken (you can just finely chop the fillet with a knife), add salt and pepper to taste.

2. Peel the pepper from the seed box and wash it thoroughly. To make the dish tasty, before stuffing these vegetables need to be quickly fried in vegetable oil on two or three sides to get a golden brown crust.

3.Cut the tomato into small cubes, just finely chop the parsley. Add all this to the filling.

4.Also add 2 cloves of garlic to the minced meat.

5.Chop a couple of onions into cubes, and grate two carrots on a coarse grater. First fry the onion in vegetable oil until transparent, then add the carrots and sauté for another 3 minutes.

5.Add fried vegetables to the filling, and also season with the seasoning that is available. For example, suneli hops or a mixture of spices for meat. Mix everything thoroughly and get a fairly rich mass. You need to try what you get and balance the taste.

6.Fill the fried peppers with minced meat and place them in a saucepan where you will simmer them.

7.The active steps don’t end there, because you still need to make vegetable gravy. Dice the onion and squeeze the garlic into it. Chop the sweet pepper into strips, and this time grate the carrots on a fine grater.

8.Grate the tomatoes for the sauce on a coarse grater, leaving the skins on.

The second option is to first remove the skin (pour boiling water for 2 minutes, making cuts), then blend in a blender.

9. Heat the oil in a frying pan, first add the onion and garlic to fry. After three minutes, add the pepper, after another couple of minutes, add the carrots. The grated tomatoes are added last.

10. Season the sauce to taste with salt, bay leaf, and black peppercorns. It is also good to add a teaspoon of sugar to balance the acidity. Simmer the dressing for 5 minutes.

11.Pour the prepared gravy over the peppers and distribute it evenly. There is no need to add additional water. Place the pan over medium heat and simmer until tender, about 40 minutes. After boiling, reduce the heat so that nothing burns.

12. Delicious pepper stuffed with meat and rice is ready. Although this is not a lazy recipe, it requires time to prepare the sauce and fry the main component, but it is worth it.

Cooking features

Using this recipe, you can safely cook peppers not only on the stove, but also in a slow cooker. Some housewives prefer to use a casserole dish or stew stuffed peppers in the oven. If you use frozen peppers, you do not need to defrost them first; simmer for the first 15 minutes not in cold water, but immediately in boiling water. In general, the cooking process for fresh or semi-finished products takes 45 minutes.

Note!

The sauce plays an important role in preparing stuffed peppers! No matter how tasty and satisfying the filling is, if you add little liquid to the dressing, you will get an insufficiently juicy, bland result.

This rule works not only for home-stuffed peppers, but also for store-bought products, cabbage rolls and other stuffed stewed or baked vegetables.

Cooking secrets

To ensure that the finished dish turns out tasty and juicy, has a pleasant consistency and is not overcooked, you need to listen to several useful tips:

To cook stuffed peppers, you need to take a container that is sized so that all the ingredients fit tightly in it “standing up”, without squeezing each other or dangling.
It is best to cook this dish in a saucepan with thick walls and a bottom, it can even be a high frying pan or a casserole dish.
If you like a more spicy flavor, place a few allspice peas and cloves in the bottom of the container, and 1 bay leaf on top.
To give the dish a more delicate milky flavor, you can add a few tablespoons of sour cream or melted butter to the sauce.
If you like a fattier, heartier meal, replace the water in the recipe with meat broth.
Do not cook peppers over high heat in a thin pan - they may burn on the bottom!

In order to get not only tasty, but also beautiful results, it is better to use multi-colored bell peppers.

Video recipe for stuffed peppers in a slow cooker with potatoes

This video will show you how to prepare a dinner that will please the whole family. In this case, everything is prepared in one container - a multicooker. There will be a potato side dish and stuffed peppers with rice and meat. And, of course, you can’t do without gravy with sour cream and tomato paste.

Ingredients:

sweet pepper - 800 gr.
minced meat - 0.5 kg
potatoes - 800 gr.
onion - 150 gr.
carrots - 100 gr.
tomatoes - 400 gr.
tomato paste - 1 tbsp.
sour cream - 2 tbsp.
salt and spices
sunflower oil
water

Substituting Ingredients

Stuffed peppers are a delicacy not only for meat and rice lovers. You can make many additions to the recipe to suit your taste:

If you are fasting or a vegetarian, you can prepare the filling with mushrooms instead of minced meat. Fresh or frozen honey mushrooms, oyster mushrooms, and porcini mushrooms are perfect for this.
Some people like to add buckwheat to the filling. It is mixed with rice in a 1:1 ratio or completely replaces rice. This option will turn out more crumbly.
If you don't have fresh tomatoes for the sauce, feel free to use tomato paste, juice or ketchup. In this case, it is worth choosing the proportions, guided by personal taste preferences.

The process of preparing stuffed peppers is a wide field for experimentation and imagination. Don’t be afraid to make your own additions to the recipe, carefully follow the cooking time frame - and the result will delight you with its excellent taste and aroma!

Bon appetit!