I love stuffed peppers! In Croatia they will be cooked in tomato salsa and served with mash potatoes. When you make them that way, rice in the stuffing doesn’t need to be cooked.

Believe it or not, this mid-west American did not get these lovelies growing up, but would like to try it as a way to get my beau to put a little more veggie on his plate! I always thought that the ground beef needed to be pre-cooked....is this one of your mom's ways to make this "less fussy"? (I would like to substitute turkey for the beef.)

No precooking the meat. A half hour in the oven in the pepper at 350 is sufficient. ~Elise

Looks yummy. I've never made one before so this will be my first stuffed pepper making. One question though - Do you cook the ground beef first or mix it with everything raw?

You mix it with everything raw. The meat gets cooked in the oven. ~Elise

Ground beef without onion is like a day without sunshine. Instead of ketchup try them with sour cream.

Do I understand correctly that you combine cooked rice with raw ground beef to stuff the peppers? Just checking. I love stuffed peppers and occasionally make them when I have friends over but hardly ever for me alone. They don't make the best leftovers.

Yes, cooked rice and raw ground beef. ~Elise

These look really good (though I am also planning to check out your dad's recipe). I am a vegetarian, so I leave out the meat, but I add corn and zucchini in mine. I've never tried it with the combination of spices you have listed here but since I was planning to make them tomorrow anyway (needing to use up some bell pepers from the garden), I think I'll try your mom's way. Thank you for sharing.

What's really great about stuffed peppers is you can basically stuff them with practically ANYthing you may have leftover in your fridge and cupboards! I sometimes use the green peppers, but I love the yellow, red and orange peppers best. Store sometimes have the 'stoplight peppers' package, green/yellow/red, which is perfect for this.

I do one thing differently though: I put the bell peppers alone in the oven first to par-cook them, then fill them and put them back in.

Stuffed peppers are great to make and freeze! I make a veggie version:
Two cups of cooked rice
A can of black beans (rinsed)
A can (or half a bag if frozen) of corn (rinsed)
A can of Rotel, which is diced tomatoes and jalapenos (You can drain or not)
Put that into six bell peppers.
In a 1 cup measuring cup (okay, honestly we just put in a coffee mug!), put half a small can of tomato paste and fill it up with water. Pour 1/2 of that over the peppers before you put them in the oven (350 for half an hour) and then pour the rest over it when you have five minutes left.

I've never had rice-stuffed peppers; my family recipe calls for bread crumbs and chopped link sausage with lots of spices. But since my favorite comfort food is rice and ground beef cooked with onions and bell peppers, I don't know how these couldn't be wonderful!

Hmmm... a couple of red bell peppers (another innovation that never occurred to me!) came home from the store with me the other day; might be dinner!

For a little different take on stuffed peppers, we like the ingredients in a favorite casserole, Arroz con Jocoqui (Rice and Sour Cream Casserole) found in 'Elena's Secret's of Mexican Cooking', by Elena Zelayeta.

Peppers are halved longways, partially cooked, and filled with a combo of cooked rice, sour cream, diced green chilies, shredded jack cheese (corn is another good addition); and topped with grated cheddar. Bake until heated through and cheese is melted. Good served with salsa. Makes a great side dish with any meat, or a great vegetarian entree.

I prefer red, yellow, and orange bell peppers over green bell peppers because, like you mentioned, they have a "sweeter" taste. I make a sweet and savory version with cooked ground meat (turkey, beef, or lamb), leftover rice, chickpeas, sauteed chopped onion and carrot, sliced almonds, sultanas, salt, pepper, cinnamon, allspice to taste, and a drizzle of olive oil. For a vegetarian option I just omit the meat; the chickpeas and nuts are great protein sources. These stuffed peppers make a wonderful light meal or a nice side dish.

Your recipe sounds delicious. I look forward to trying it.

Wow, I love all the comments with variations on this theme. The Turkish version sounds most intriguing. In my version, I do not pre-cook the peppers and I cut the peppers in half lengthwise. Sometimes if the filling I have isn't quite enough to fill all the peppers, I'll add some black beans to the mixture and top them with a little cheese at the end. Yummy!

Nice recipe Elise (again as usual :))

Do you know that here in Egypt stuffed vegtables such as green bell peppers, zucchini, small eggplants, tomatoes and a certain green leaf are a very famous plate, one of our big time favourite comfort food.

I love stuff vegetables. We,Turks stuff a lot of vegetables. Some of them are grape leaves, peppers, cabbage, eggplant, zucchini, tomato even spinach...

Thanks for this reminder about stuffed peppers and thanks to the commenter for the recipe for Turkish stuffed peppers. My Turkish aunt made these for me in 1988 when I was last in Turkey, and I count it among my top 10 pleasurable eating experiences, and I had no idea how she did it. In fact she defrosted them from frozen, so perhaps the Turkish method lends itself to freezing more than other methods.

Mmm these sound good. Has anyone tried a version with some cloves, cinnamon or allspice, lamb (kind of moussaka-ish) instead of the beef and herbs? I think, topped with a dollop of bechamel to brown, this might be good too. Also, try a version with chicken, basil, some spicy chilies, and a few drops of fish sauce, for a thai influence.

That is wonderful. I love eating stuffed vegetables. One suggestion though: you suggest serving with ketchup. Try it with plain yogurt on top. I know yogurt on food is strange for Americans but trust me, it is wonderful and that's the way to go outside the US.

I am 30 yrs. old now. But I to grew up eating stuffed bellpeppers. The only difference is we used 1/2 can of plain spagetti sauce and added it to the rice mixture and then we sprinkled cheese on top of the bell peppers right after they came out of the oven.

I think I'll try this recipe out. Has anyone tried yemista? It's a Greek dish that is somewhat similar to stuffed peppers. You can use tomatoes or peppers, the stuffing is made with ground beef and rice, and you use a bechemal sauce on top of the veggies.

I just made stuffed peppers the other night, but the recipe of my childhood is a bit different. I parboil the peppers in water until just soft and set aside to stuff. For the stuffing, I precook the ground beef or turkey in a skillet with onions and the chopped up tops of the peppers, and once cooked, combine with Spanish rice (recommend Zatarains Spanish rice mix) which I cook while the meat is cooking. I usually add a little of my favorite salsa to taste and about a half cup of whatever melty cheese I have on hand. Then I stuff the peppers with the meat/rice mixture, top with some more shredded cheese and bake at 350 until nice and hot and the cheese is melted.

We made these last night (and will be adding them to the regular rotation). They were great, but no where near done after a half hour in the oven. An theories as to what could have caused the longer cooking time? We did use 8% fat ground beef instead of ground chuck... could that be it?

More likely that you were using larger peppers than we were. ~Elise

I made this for my family tonight. I also had rice on the side with two peppers. It was great, everyone loved it.

I made a sauce to go with it (instead of using ketchup). I got it from here: http://www.bigoven.com/165563-Barbecued-Beef-Brisket-recipe.html

Everyone thought it went well with it. Maybe someone else wants to try it?:

* 1 1/4 cups ketchup
* 1/3 cup Worcestershire sauce
* 1/3 cup lemon juice
* 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
* 1 tablespoon yellow mustard
* 1 large clove garlic, crushed

I removed the butter and water from the mixture shown originally in the website.

WOW! While looking a recipe for stuffed peppers (I have 5 in the fridge) I cannot believe my luck. Now I am going to try to combine a couple of recipes and see what I come up with. I especially like the thought of using black beans for protein. Thanks to you all, this was my first visit.

I love to make stuffed peppers. My mother in law lives in New Orleans and she taught me to add raw shrimp into the meat mixture. It is delicious (if you like shrimp).

We have always added an raw egg or two (depending on the amount of meat and rice mixture). Also we use tomato soup sometimes instead of spaghetti sauce. Delish!

Thanks so much - can't wait to try this recipe - I use poultry seasoning in my meatloaf, so will subs. that for the seasonings listed. good tip with the olive oil to brown the peppers! Bon appetit!