These Southwest Stuffed Peppers are chock full of beef, rice, corn and beans. Sub ground turkey or chicken for an even leaner meal!
This beautiful colorful dish is so easy to make and chalk full of veggies and lean meat!
How to make Southwest Stuffed Peppers
Cut the ends off of your rainbow of peppers. Save those tops because we are chopping them up and tossing them in the meat mixture. More veggies!
This recipe calls for rice but who wants to spend 30 minutes watching it cook. I got a secret! OVEN BAKE YOUR RICE! While you are cooking up the beef filling on the stove top your rice is cooking away in the oven. Once you make your rice like this, you will never go back to pot watching!
You can also Oven Bake Quinoa and Brown Rice!
HOW TO OVEN BAKE RICE:
Combine rice, hot water, cover and bake for 25 minutes. It will come out fluffy every time! (see recipe card below for exact instructions).
So your rice is ricing in the oven and you are working on the stuffing. Hang in there..you are almost done and you just got started!
Cut the tops off the peppers and remove the seeds and veins. Add a bit of water to the casserole dish, cover with plastic wrap and microwave on high for 2-3 minutes. This will soften up the peppers and they will be perfectly done when the dish bakes in the oven.
So you have done all your chopping, mixing and TASTING FOR SEASONING! Especially when working with seasonings like chili powder and cumin. They vary greatly in their intensity.
Now its time to stuff ’em!
Your all stuffed up and ready for the oven! Bake about 20 minutes, top with cheese and you have a hearty but healthy meal!
We eat these for days. I chop up the leftovers and toss them in salads and stuff them in tortillas. They make a great lunchbox treat as well!
We love our Southwest and Mexican flavors around here…check out two of our most popular recipes:
One Pan Southwest Chicken and Rice – Even the uncooked rice goes in the same pan!- made with store bought rotisserie chicken and a handful of ingredients you probably have in your pantry !
Healthy Mexican Casserole – made with ground chicken, turkey or beef along with black beans and Enchilada sauce for a super flavorful but healthy dinner…oh and fast!
To Easy Dinners with Tons of Flavor!
Clink!
Kathi
What do you think about this recipe? Have questions? Comment below! Don’t forget to like us on Facebook, and connect with us on Instagram and tag your @Laughingspatula recipes with #laughingspatula, while you’re at it…We love to see your pics!
Southwest Stuffed Peppers
Ingredients
- 1 pound lean ground beef ground chicken or turkey
- 1 cup cooked white rice brown rice, quinoa or couscous
- cup yellow onion, chopped
- 2 large garlic cloves, chopped
- 6 whole peppers 2 green, 2 yellow, 2 red
- 1 poblano pepper, seeded and chopped or one 6 ounce can roasted chilies
- 1 cup tomato puree or tomato sauce
- 1 cup yellow corn fresh or thawed frozen
- 1 cup black beans, drained and rinsed
- 2 tablespoons chili powder
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 1/2 cup grated mexican blend cheese
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- For the one cup of rice, you can follow my easy oven bake recipe or just follow the directions on the package. To oven bake rice. In small casserole dish combine 1 cup rice with 2 cups very hot water. (I microwave water on high 2 minutes before adding to rice). Cover tightly with foil and bake for 25 minutes. You will not need all of the rice for this recipe. Remove one cup and save the rest for another use.
- Slice tops off of green peppers . Remove seeds and veins. Remove the stems from the tops of the pepper and chop up to use in the filling.
- Place peppers in baking dish. Add 1/3 cup water. Cover with plastic wrap and cook in microwave on high for about 3 minutes or until slightly soft. Discard remaining water from baking dish.
- In large skillet, brown ground beef over medium high heat. Drain fat if any. Add chopped onion, the chopped pepper tops, and garlic. Season with salt and pepper. Saute until onions and peppers are soft. Add tomato puree, cooked rice, corn and beans.
- Add chili powder and cumin. Taste for seasoning. More salt, pepper or spices?
- Using a large spoon, divide beef mixture into the peppers. Bake uncovered for 25-30 minutes until filling is heated through and peppers are tender.
- Top with cheese. Put back in oven for 5 minutes and serve with your favorite southwest toppings like sour cream, avocado and salsa!
- Store leftovers in the fridge. These are great chopped up and thrown on a salad or in a tortilla!
This recipe sounds amazing and is beautiful with all those colors. I’m curious though, can I substitute the chili powder and cumin with taco seasoning without it altering the taste too much? If so, how much would you recommend? Thank you!! Can’t wait to make this.
Hi Yvonne – yes you can sub a packet of taco seasoning, use the entire package. We like the low sodium stuff if you can find it! Hope you love the results!
I made these stuffed peppers for dinner recently and served them with sour cream. They were delicious. Then I made enough for 5 more meals and froze them.
So glad you loved them…good meal prep!
Excited to try these! I just figured out the WW Blue points, 6 points per pepper ☺️
Love this dish.
I made it twice with prepared Puerto Rican Rice from Tony’s finer foods.
Just made a second batch, I’m in heaven over here
With tall glass of beer on the side.
Keep em coming.
Thank you! My daughter was so excited for them!
These are just so bright and colourful.
Perfect for a mid week meal with friends.
Pinning 😀
Stuffed peppers are so versatile and greta way to include veggies into our menu. Love your recipe and the combination of flavors. All complement perfectly the peppers.
These stuffed peppers look so colourful, filling, and delicious! Love the idea of chopping it up and adding it to a salad or putting it in a wrap too! Thanks for sharing.
Stuffed peppers are one of our family favorites. I’m always looking for new recipes. This southwest style sounds delicious.
It’s is fantastic
Earlier today I was beginning to brainstorm meals for next week and I-kid-you-not stuffed peppers was top of my list! This looks like the perfect recipe to try!
Yummy! I’d definitely have to have extra cheese and avocado on mine 🙂
I love stuffed peppers! these look stuning, love that you added black beans and cumin! delicious combination of flavors!!
Thank you for the nice note Albert! I hope you get a chance to try the recipe!