Stuffed Peppers

This delicious stuffed peppers recipe is made without rice. Instead, I use cauliflower rice in the very flavorful, well-seasoned stuffing mixture.

Course Main Course

Cuisine American

Prep Time 30 minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes

Total Time 1 hour

Servings servings

Calories 547kcal

Author Vered DeLeeuw

Ingredients

Olive oil cooking spray

Seasonings mix:

1 (6 oz can) tomato paste (omit for a keto version)
1 tablespoon minced fresh garlic
1 teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt or ½ teaspoon sea salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon paprika

Stuffed peppers:

4 large bell peppers (6 small peppers for the keto option)
1 small cauliflower head cut into large chunks (a small cauliflower head is 4 inches in diameter and weighs about 9 oz)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, chopped (6 oz)
1 lb. lean ground beef (85/15)
1 cup chopped cilantro
4 oz shredded sharp cheddar

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a square 8-inch baking dish with olive oil.
In a small bowl, mix together the tomato paste, garlic, salt, pepper, chili powder, cumin and paprika. Set aside.
Remove the tops of the peppers, core and seed them.
Place the cauliflower in your food processor. Process until it resembles rice. You should get about 2 - 2.5 cups of riced cauliflower.
Heat the olive oil in a large, deep saucepan over medium-high heat, about 2 minutes. Add the riced cauliflower, the onion and the beef and cook, stirring and breaking the beef up as it cooks, until the onion and cauliflower are soft and beef is lightly browned, 5-7 minutes.
Add the seasoning mixture. Cook 2 more minutes, stirring, until everything is well blended. Remove from heat and stir in the cilantro and the cheese.
Fill each bell pepper with ¼ of the mixture, packing it in, and place the stuffed peppers on the prepared baking dish. Spray them with olive oil.
Bake, uncovered, 30 minutes, until peppers are tender. Carefully remove from the baking dish into paper towels and let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Video

Notes

This recipe as originally written is not a low carb dish, mostly because of the tomato paste. So if you're on a keto or very low carb diet, I suggest you omit the tomato paste. In addition, use six medium bell peppers instead of four large ones, dividing this recipe into six servings instead of four. This will considerably lower the carb content.

Nutrition info for one serving of the low carb version (1 medium stuffed bell pepper): Calories 344, Fat 23g, Saturated Fat 9g, Sodium 383mg, Carbohydrate 14g, Fiber 4g, Sugars 5g, Protein 21g.

Nutrition