Stuffed bell peppers are awesome, but I always find them slightly awkward or difficult to eat. Can’t I just throw the ingredients in a bowl and eat it with a fork?! (I feel that way about a lot of food, TBH). So that’s what I ended up doing! These super simple unstuffed bell peppers are cooked in one skillet to make your (my) life super easy and delicious. #yesplease
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Can I Use Cauliflower Rice Instead of White Rice?
Unfortunately, you can not swap out cauliflower rice for the white rice in this recipe. Cauliflower rice releases liquid as it cooks, whereas white rice absorbs it, so you’ll end up with a stuffed bell pepper soup. :) But hey, that actually doesn’t sound so bad! You can also try using cauli rice and skipping the broth, but you’ll be missing a lot of flavor with that option.
Can I Freeze Unstuffed Bell Peppers?
Yes, this recipe freezes great! Make sure to divide the skillet into single serving portions just after cooking, and chill them completely in the refrigerator before transferring to the freezer. Once frozen, they’ll keep in the freezer for about three months and can be reheated in the microwave straight from the freezer (use the defrost setting first, then high until heated through).
Tips for Making One-Pot Rice Dishes
Even cooking plain rice on the stovetop can be a bit challenging for some folks, and when you add in other ingredients it can end up a little more tricky. To make sure your rice cooks thoroughly and evenly, keep these things in mind:
- Cookware: A really good quality (thick and heavy) skillet is really important for making this recipe work correctly. Heavy cookware conducts heat really evenly so the sides of your skillet will cook at the same rate as the part that is right above the flame. If it’s a thin skillet, it might scorch right in the center and leave the outer edges uncooked. If you don’t have a good skillet, a dutch oven or heavy soup pot would also work well.
- Heat level: Another key to cooking rice is making sure the water in the pot (or skillet) is simmering the whole time, but the heat is not so high that it burns on the bottom. So once you’ve got everything in the pot and have already brought everything up to a boil, turn the heat down to the lowest setting that still maintains a light simmer. Since this can vary from stove to stove and the type of cookware you’re using, you’ll need to adjust this based on what you’re hearing and seeing in the pot. Once you get the hang of it, though, it will be easy!
- Use a burner close in size to the bottom of your pot or skillet. If you’re using a wide bottomed pot or skillet over a very small burner, the outside edges of your pot or skillet may not receive enough heat to simmer and cook the rice through.
Love skillet meals? Check out my Chorizo Sweet Potato Skillet, Creamy Chicken and Rice Skillet, or One Pot Teriyaki Chicken and Rice.
Unstuffed Bell Peppers
Servings 6 1 ⅓ cups eachIngredients
- 1 clove garlic ($0.08)
- 1 yellow onion ($0.32)
- 2 bell peppers ($1.53)
- 1 Tbsp olive oil ($0.16)
- 1/2 lb. ground beef ($2.85)
- 1 15oz. can diced tomatoes ($1.00)
- 1 cup long grain white rice (uncooked) ($0.62)
- 1 tsp dried basil ($0.10)
- 1 tsp dried oregano ($0.10)
- 1/4 tsp freshly cracked black pepper ($0.02)
- 1.5 cups beef broth ($0.07)
- 1 8oz. can tomato sauce ($0.26)
- 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce ($0.01)
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella ($0.85)
- 1 Tbsp chopped parsley (optional garnish) ($0.05)
Instructions
- Mince the garlic and dice the onion and bell pepper.
- Add the olive oil and ground beef to a deep skillet. Cook the beef over medium heat until it is fully browned.
- Add the diced onion, bell pepper, minced garlic, basil, oregano, and pepper to the skillet. Continue to cook and stir until the onions are soft.
- Next, add the diced tomatoes (with juices), uncooked rice, and beef broth. Give everything a brief stir to combine.
- Place a lid on the skillet and turn the heat up to medium-high. Allow the broth to come up to a full boil. Once boiling, turn the heat down to low and let it continue to simmer for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, turn the heat off and let it rest, lid still in place, for another five minutes.
- While the pot is simmering, combine the tomato sauce and Worcestershire sauce.
- Once the rice has rested for 5 minutes, remove the lid and fluff it with a fork, gently folding the ingredients back together (peppers and tomatoes may float to the top while it simmers).
- Pour the prepared tomato sauce over top, then sprinkled the shredded mozzarella over the sauce. Place the lid back on top and let the heat from the skillet melt the mozzarella. Once melted, sprinkle a little chopped parsley on top and serve.
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Equipment
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!Scroll down for the step by step photos!
How to Make Unstuffed Bell Peppers – Step by Step Photos
Mince one clove of garlic and dice a yellow onion and bell pepper. Add ½ lb. ground beef to a deep skillet with 1 Tbsp olive oil. Cook the ground beef over medium heat until it has fully browned. Add the diced bell pepper, onion, garlic, 1 tsp dried basil, 1 tsp dried oregano, and about ¼ tsp freshly ground pepper to the skillet. Continue to cook and stir until the onions are soft.
Next, add one 15oz. can of diced tomatoes (with juices), 1 cup uncooked long grain white rice, and 1.5 cups beef broth to the skillet.
Give everything a brief stir to combine. Place a lid on the skillet, turn the heat up to medium-high and allow the broth to come up to a full boil. Once boiling, turn the heat down to low and let it continue to simmer for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, turn the heat off and let it rest, lid still in place, for an additional 5 minutes.
While the rice is simmering, prepare the tomato sauce. Combine one 8oz. can of tomato sauce with 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce. Set the sauce aside.
After the rice has rested for five minutes, remove the lid and fluff it with a fork, gently folding the tomatoes and peppers back into the rice.
Pour the prepared tomato sauce over the rice in the skillet, then top with 1 cup shredded mozzarella. Place the lid back on the skillet and let the residual heat melt the cheese.
Top with chopped parsley, if desired, and serve!
You know when you make something but you have no idea how amazing it’s going to taste? Yea, this is one of those. It’s too good to put into words, you just have to make it yourself..!
I just finished the final green pepper harvest for this year and I wanted a quick recipe to make with a couple of the peppers. I love stuffed green peppers but didn’t want the hassle and work of mixing, cooking and baking needed to make them. I saw this and made it. So glad I did. Great time saver great taste.
Thanks
Any idea on how you would cook this using a crockpot? I’d love to freeze some of this for when our baby gets here.
Made this tonight for my sister and I. Only change I made was to use one red and one orange bell pepper. This was fantastic.My sister had two gigantic bowls of it and just kept raving about how good it was. It’s been added to my regular recipe rotation. Definitely a repeater.
I have see a lot of your recipes and I was wondering why do you add the price? How do you know if I will pay the same as you. I might be able to get it cheaper or I might have to pay more. I really don’t know why you add the price.
You probably won’t pay the same as me because prices vary not only from store to store, but region to region and even day to day. :) I list the prices just as an example so you can see how each ingredient effects the overall cost and can either help or hurt when trying to cook on a budget. Here is a post about how I calculate the prices for each ingredient and recipe.
Can you substitute the rice with cauliflower rice? Would you still need to add the broth?
I’ve never actually cooked with (or eaten) cauliflower rice, but I assume that it doesn’t absorb moisture nearly as much as dry rice, so you’d need to change this up quite a bit to make it work. :(
This was surprisingly flavorful for being so simple. I topped with cheddar, but it really doesn’t need it. However, I would disagree that this serves 6 – I only got 4 reasonable size portions.
Just made this! It turned out amazing! Definitely a recipe keeper!
I love this recipe and we fix it frequently. Tonight I fixed it in my electric pressure cooker and it was even better than usual. (My cheap skillet tends to burn in the the middle with the edges being underdone if I’m not careful). I sautéed the beef and onion, then mixed in the rest of the ingredients except the tomato sauce topping and cooked on my InstantPot’s rice setting (defaulted to 12 minutes on low pressure). Did a 10 minute natural pressure release and topped with tomato sauce mixture. Perfection!
I personally love the texture of this meal. Next time I will try with turkey meat. It was very satisfying. I actually substituted the rice with quinoa. It was very good.
I plan on making this recipe sometime this week, and I was just wondering if I could use instant white rice? Thanks!
Instant rice might require less broth to cook than regular white rice, but I’ve actually never used it, so I’m not sure.
This was awesome. Maybe I don’t measure things so good, but I needed a full 2 cups of broth for this to be right. Otherwise, just about perfect. Thanks!
Just a quick question before I make this – do I need to drain the meat? Sorry if that sounds silly to ask, but I’ve made a dish where I forgot to drain the meat and it was very greasy, so I just want to make sure. My husband and I love stuffed peppers, but he is not a fan of cooked green peppers and usually ends up eating the filling, lol, so this would be perfect :)
That’s not a silly question at all. :) It actually depends on the amount of fat in the beef that you buy. If you buy a very lean ground beef (like 7%), there may not be anything to drain off. Higher fat ground bee (15 or 20%) will have quite a bit of fat left in the skillet after it is browned and you’ll want to drain that off. You can judge for yourself based on how much grease is in the skillet after it’s browned (before adding the bell peppers).
Thank you so much for replying!! I am so trying this tonight! :)
Im sorry to tag along on another comment, but i cant see where to add a comment. Anywho, i took out 1lb of ground beef. Should i double the recipe for this? Im not opposed as i love left overs and freezing them but overall i just want a yummy dish.
Also can i use dry beef bullion (mixed with water ) in lieu of the broth?
Yes, you can use dry bouillon in place of the broth (I actually use Better Than Bouillon paste). You can double this if you have a skillet large enough to hold it. It will freeze well. :)
Made this tonight for dinner.
Instead of using any Diced Tomatoes & or the Tomato Sauce, I just used Ketchup because my husband hates chunky tomatoes. I also used Jasmine Rice instead of white rice as well.
I love stuffed peppers! & this is like even more!
Easier to feed the kiddos & get them to eat a well balanced meal.
Made this last night for supper and it was soooo good!! I only had red and yellow peppers laying about as we prefer them and my husband ate two huge portions! Added it to my recipe book. Your recipes haven’t failed me yet!