Stuffed Peppers Recipes {with beef and zucchini}

Classic Stuffed Peppers made with beef, zucchini, and onions. This is a great dinner that can be made ahead. Honestly, the leftovers are better than the first time around.

Stuffed Peppers

This is a main dish my sister used to request for her birthday dinner. I was never a fan of peppers until I started craving new foods with each pregnancy. It’s amazing how your taste buds will change. Now, I love pepper in foods like this pan-fried cabbage and noodles recipe and this recipe for Slow Cooker Sloppy Joes. There’s still hope for my finicky eater.

What I love about this recipe:

• It’s an oldie but a goodie – an old-fashioned recipe that’s filled with so many delicious flavors
• perfect for harvest season – put those peppers, tomatoes, onions, and zucchini to good use in this flavorful dish
• it’s easy to make – always a big bonus in my book
• you can change flavors by simply substituting other vegetables
• it’s a great base for stuffing other foods like squash or onions

FAQs

Make-Ahead and Storage:

Can I Make Stuffed Peppers in Advance?

Yes! This is one of those dishes that actually tastes better the next day. It has ample time to really blend the flavors while sitting overnight. I would do everything except add the tomato sauce to the top. Cover with foil and store in the refrigerator for up to 2 days. When you are ready, add the tomato sauce to the top and bake as directed

Storage: Store leftovers covered in the refrigerator

Reheating: If you still have tomato sauce, add some fresh sauce to the top of the peppers. Reheat stuffed peppers by placing non-stick foil over the top and baking for 10-15 minutes or until heated through.

Can I Freeze Stuffed Peppers?

Yes! You can freeze cooked or uncooked stuffed peppers. They can be frozen for a few months.

To make it easy, grab an aluminum foil baking dish for storing stuffed peppers in the freezer. Make sure you wrap tightly with foil and consider placing the dish in a large freezer bag for storage.

Thawing and Baking Frozen Stuffed Peppers:

Baking Cooked Frozen Stuffed Peppers – Cooked stuffed peppers will require less time than uncooked ones. Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes or until heated through

Baking Uncooked Frozen Stuffed Peppers – Add an additional 20 minutes to your baking time

Do you have to cook the ground beef before stuffing the peppers?

• You do not technically have to cook the ground beef before stuffing the peppers, but I find that it flavors the vegetables and rice nicely when cooked together before stuffing the peppers

What are some good vegetables that I can stuff with a beef mixture?

You can use this beef mixture to stuff all sorts of vegetables, like:

• tomatoes
• eggplant
• zucchini
• butternut squash
• acorn squash
• cabbage rolls
• onions

What can you serve with Stuffed Peppers?

• Salad
• Green Beans
• Toasted Bread

Tips and Tricks:

• I’ve seen a lot of frozen pepper images with cheese melted on top. You can easily add cheese to the top of these peppers. Just sprinkle some shredded cheese like Colby Jack cheese, Cheddar cheese, or Mozzarella cheese directly over the tomato sauce
• Other vegetables that you can stuff with  this beef mixture include, tomatoes, eggplant, rolled-up cabbage, and most squash like acorn or butternut squash
• When reheating, try adding more tomato sauce to the bottom and over the vegetables as it tends to dry up or soak into the dish

Are you ready to make these delicious stuffed vegetables? Let’s make sure you have everything you’ll need:

Ingredients:

• Green Peppers – Cored – Try to find some that have some width to them for stuffing
• ground beef – I like to use ground sirloin
• onion  – chopped. Try using a sweet onion like a purple onion or Vidalia
• zucchini – peeled and chopped. This is a delicious addition, but if you don’t have zucchini that’s ok
• tomato – a juicy beef steak works well for the tomato
• garlic powder
• salt
• ground black pepper – a couple of twists on the pepper grinder – or – a couple of dashes
• Worcestershire sauce
• tomato sauce – divided
• Cooked white rice – 2 cups of cooked rice
• Butter – I used unsalted butter because that’s all I had on hand, but I really think salted butter would be heavenly

How do you Make Stuffed Peppers?

Instructions: 

1. Cook rice
2. Cut, core, and boil peppers
3. Cook beef
4. Add vegetables to beef and cook until tender
5. Add rice to vegetables and beef
6. Pour half of the tomato sauce into the bottom of the pot
7. Add the boiled peppers that have been drained
8. Stuff them with beef, rice, and vegetable mixture
9. Pour more tomato sauce over the peppers and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes
10. Serve with bread, salad, and green beans

More Stuffed Dinners to try

Pizza Stuffed Shells 

Vegetable Stuffed Peppers 

Cream Cheese and Bacon Stuffed Mushrooms 

~Melissa – KidFriendlyThingsToDo.Com