Vegetarian Stuffed Peppers

5 from 3 ratings

These Veggie Stuffed Peppers are a delicious and filling meal! Filled with brown rice, black beans, and vegetables, this is a vegan dinner recipe with a Mexican flavor.

Prep Time25

Cook Time15

Total Time40

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Mexican

Keyword: stuffed peppers

Servings:

Calories: 196kcal

Author: Becca Ludlum

Equipment

Baking Dish
Kitchen Knife
Cutting Board

Ingredients

2 cup mushrooms chopped
1 ½ cup zucchini chopped
½ cup onion chopped
6 medium bell pepper color doesn't matter, choose your favorite. 3 for dicing, three for stuffing.
1 cup corn, canned frozen or canned
1 tsp garlic minced
2 tsp chili powder
½ tsp cayenne pepper optional
½ tsp smoked paprika
½ tsp ground cumin
½ tsp oregano
¼ tsp black pepper
1 cup black beans drained and rinsed
1 cup brown rice cooked
1 cup cheddar jack cheese shredded, divided into two bowls

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350º. Chop mushrooms, zucchini, and onion into 1/4 inch pieces. 2 cup mushrooms 1 ½ cup zucchini ½ cup onion
Cut the tops off of the bell peppers and place the bottoms in a baking dish. 6 medium bell pepper
Place pepper bottoms in the oven and allow to bake for 15 minutes while you're preparing the veggie filling.
Dice the pepper tops, set aside.
Add frozen corn to a skillet and cook on low for 5 minutes. 1 cup corn, canned
Add garlic, chili powder, optional cayenne pepper if you like spice, smoked paprika, cumin, oregano, salt, and pepper to skillet, stir. 1 tsp garlic 2 tsp chili powder ½ tsp cayenne pepper ½ tsp smoked paprika ½ tsp ground cumin ½ tsp oregano ¼ tsp black pepper
Add zucchini, mushrooms, bell pepper tops, and onions to skillet and allow to cook for 5 minutes.
Add black beans and cooked brown rice, remove from heat. 1 cup black beans 1 cup brown rice
Add 1/2 of cheese to the top of the veggie mix in the pan. 1 cup cheddar jack cheese
Place the pepper bottoms in a baking dish. Fill peppers with veggie and cheese mix.
Divide the rest of the cheese between the six peppers, topping the veggie mix.
Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes, until cheese is melted and beginning to brown.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 5-10 minutes. Serve on plates or in bowls (peppers will most likely tip to the side when placed on individual plates).

Notes

Portion Fix/21 Day Fix

For the regular plan:
- For each filled stuffed pepper, count 1 1/3 green container, 1 yellow container, and 1/2 blue container.
For the Vegan plan:
- For this version, remove the cheese from the recipe and increase black beans to 1 1/2 cups. For even more protein, swap brown rice with 1 1/2 cups quinoa (this will double the red containers).
- For each filled stuffed pepper, count 1 1/3 green container, 2/3 yellow container A, and 1/3 red container.

Weight Watchers:

Each serving is 2 points on the 2025 plan when using fat free cheese. If you skip the cheese the total is 1 point.

2B Mindset:

This is one of my favorite vegetarian recipes that even the biggest meat lovers rave about! It's definitely a veggies-most recipe, and an easy way to get all of your vegetables in. While this is a pretty balanced meal it might need a bit of protein added to make this a complete 2B Mindset lunch. I'd add in some cooked tofu for protein. One half cup of tofu adds about 10 grams of protein to your plate.

Recipe Tips

I love this recipe because it is easily adaptable and very forgiving! I like making it vegan or vegetarian but if you're not a fan of meatless meals, you can add cooked ground beef or turkey to the cooked veggie mixture as well. More tasty additions to the filling are fire roasted tomatoes, freshly chopped jalapeños, or diced and cooked tofu.
There are also a lot of different toppings you can use on these peppers after they're cooked like fresh chopped cilantro, diced green onions, diced tomatoes or halved cherry tomatoes, sour cream or plain Greek yogurt, pickled jalapeños, or cotija cheese.
This is a great recipe for meal prep! On your prepping day, wash and chop all of the veggies, cook the rice, and mix together the taco seasonings. Then, when you're ready to make the healthy vegetarian stuffed peppers, it all comes together super fast! It's a fresh and filling meal that tastes so good the next day too!
This recipe doesn't call for tomato sauce or soups to hold it together–I think the liquid that comes from the mushrooms and zucchini are perfect for making sure this doesn't dry out.
If you end up with leftover filling, go ahead and save it in an airtight container to use in quesadillas, tacos, or as a side dish. They're all perfect quick recipes for busy days.
Struggling to fill the whole peppers? No stress there–go ahead and slice them in half and place peppers on the bottom of a baking dish, then fill them.
We have added cooked and diced sweet potatoes to this mixture and it's delicious. I'd caution not to stir it too much, because the sweet potatoes fall apart easily, but I add them to the veggie and rice mixture right before I put it in the peppers.
No brown rice in the house? You can use white rice, or any other type you have on hand!

Nutrition