Taco Stuffed Peppers are a meal in themselves or a taco-like nosh to enjoy while watching your favorite sports event or streaming show in the comfort of your home.
Sweet, crunchy bell pepper boats have a meaty rice filling topped with melted cheese. They don't win points for looks, but these delicious, hearty "tacos" with veggie shells score where taste and nutrition is concerned!
Plus, they're fun to eat since you can simply pick them up with your hands.
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Table of contents
Ingredients
- Bell peppers
- Olive oil
- Onions
- Garlic
- Ground turkey
- Green chile
- Chile powder
- Cumin
- Oregano
- New Mexican chile powder
- Salt and pepper
- Tomato sauce
- Brown rice
- Black beans
- Corn
Bell peppers: Red, yellow, or orange peppers have a sweeter taste. Green peppers are fine in this recipe, too.
Olive oil: Use olive oil that is meant for cooking. Leave the green, extra-virgin (expensive) bottle in the cupboard.
Onions: Here again, sweetness is important, so I use large yellow onions, but white onions can be substituted.
Garlic: Fresh minced has the most flavor, but feel free to swap in a Tablespoon of powder.
Green chiles: These add delicious Southwestern taste. Choose hot or mild according to your preference.
Spices: I like to pair regular chile powder with New Mexican or ancho chile powder to up the flavor complexity, but you can omit it. The filling is still great with just regular chile powder.
Ground cumin adds essential earthiness, and dried oregano is a healthy herb that improves the flavor blend of the filling but isn't overpowering.
Salt and pepper: Please add what you want. Kosher salt is best. Use black pepper, a pinch of red pepper, or even cayenne if you want more heat.
Ground turkey: Please don't use turkey breast. A 93% or 85% grind tastes the best. Of course, you can substitute lean ground beef.
Tomato sauce: You'll need a small can. Low-salt sauce is okay if that's what you usually choose.
Brown rice: This stuffing/filling is perfect for leftover cooked rice. You can sub white rice although it has less fiber, vitamins, and minerals. Frozen brown rice is fine, too.
Black beans: Choose low-sodium if possible.
🌽Corn: Frozen is easiest because you can simply pour out what you need and pop the package back in the freezer. Here again, an excellent recipe for leftover corn.
Note: This ingredient list is on the long side, but the recipe is easy and actually comes together in under 30 minutes (not including bake time).
How to Make
Wash your hands for 20 seconds, lathering with soap and rinsing. (Time yourself by singing the birthday song!)
Line two foil sheet pans, coat them with non-stick spray, and heat the oven.
1 After washing the bell peppers, remove the tops and slice them into quarters. Line the quarters up on the foil-lined sheet pans. You'll have about one and half pans.
2 Heat the olive oil in a large, high-sided skillet. Add onions and cook until translucent.
3 Add minced garlic and cook for maybe 30 seconds, until fragrant.
4 Place ground turkey on top of the onion and garlic and cook until no longer pink, breaking up meat with a spatula or wooden spoon.
5 Turn the heat to low and add the green chile and spices. Use a fresh, clean utensil to stir, thoroughly mixing with the turkey-onion-garlic mixture.
(Be sure to clean any areas/tools that came in contact with the turkey with a disinfectant wipe or warm, soapy water.)
6 Add remaining ingredients: tomato sauce, brown rice, black beans, and corn and increase the heat to medium and stir to mix all together. Heat to bubbling and stir occasionally.
7 Remove from heat and place the skillet close to the sheet pans with pepper quarters. Pick up each quarter and use a soup spoon to fill them with the turkey mixture.
8 Sprinkle with grated Colby-Jack cheese. Place in the oven for 20 to 25 minutes, until cheese is melted and peppers are hot through.
Serve as dinner or as a healthy appetizer on a Southwestern buffet with items such as quesadilla wedges, taquitos, guacamole, chips, and salsa.
For full instructions and ingredient amounts, see the recipe card below.
Cooking Tips and Timesavers
🧅Frozen onions can save you chopping time.
Whenever you use onion in a recipe, dice the whole thing and put any unused onion in a zip bag. Stash it in the freezer. (You may need to double-bag it to tame the strong odor.) Pull it out whenever you have a recipe that starts with an diced onion saute.
🧄You can also sub garlic powder for the fresh minced garlic, or simply use a bag of taco seasoning for all the spices. The store often carries lower sodium taco seasoning if you're watching salt intake.
You can prep the peppers and make the filling up to a day ahead of time. If you meal prep for the week, you can freeze the filling. Thaw and spoon into freshly quartered peppers when you're ready to cook.
Choose lower sodium ingredients like canned beans and tomato sauce if possible. Taste the filling when it's assembled. You can add more salt if necessary at that time.
Also, remember that cheese will up the salt quotient after it's sprinkled on top.
❄️Storage
Place any leftover peppers in a container in the refrigerator for two to three days. Reheat in a 350 F oven or in the microwave.
You can also freeze the pepper boats, although the texture will be less firm when thawed, and you will need to eat them with a knife and fork!
Are Pepper Boats Healthy?
Absolutely!!! Nutrients in this recipe include vitamin C, fiber, iron, magnesium, potassium, vitamin A, and antioxidant plant compounds.
One main dish serving has about double your daily needs for vitamins C and A.
You'll get nearly half of your daily iron requirement and more than a third of your daily fiber intake (depending on your age and gender).
One serving is a good source of potassium and calcium.
Antioxidant phytonutrients, especially xanthophyllic carotenoids, are also plentiful in these bell pepper boats.
Capsanthin is found in red bell peppers and violaxanthin is found in yellow bell peppers. These nutrients may be especially beneficial for eye health.
This is an excellent recipe if you have diabetes. Four of the pepper boats count as less than two and a half servings of carbohydrates. (There's room to add tortilla chips to the plate! 😁)
❓FAQs
No. They only soften slightly in the final cooking.
Yes, They're meant to be eaten with your hands although they are a little sloppy! (Napkins necessary.)
A good way to modify the recipe for vegetarians would be to use some textured vegetable protein crumbles or perhaps some sort type of "Impossible" ground "meat."
An excellent source has at least 20% of a person’s daily requirement.
A good source supplies 10% of the daily requirement.
Example: The daily requirement for vitamin C is 75 mg for a woman and 90 mg for a man. So, a good source would provide 7.5 mg for a woman and 9 mg for a man. An excellent source would supply double that amount for each.
Did you know that paprika spice is made from dried, ground bell peppers?
Other recipes you might like...
Another popular rice-heavy recipe is this Smokin' Jambalaya with chicken sausage and shrimp. It's high in protein, just like these pepper boats and is basically a one-pot meal.
If you favor the flavor of hearty Southwestern dishes, try this Pozole Verde y Rojo. It's a chile-spiked one-dish meal made in the slow-cooker.
If you want a recipe that supplies ample vitamin C and potassium and is an easy fix, you might like this calcium-rich Broccoli Cheese Potato Bake. With the help of the microwave, these stuffed taters are ready in less than half an hour.
PIN THIS IMAGE ⬇️
Bell peppers are sliced into quarters that act like a taco shell to hold the cheesy, spicy filling. You don't have to use a knife and fork. Just pick up the pepper and munch away.
Pepper Boats with Taco Stuffing
Equipment
- high-sided skillet
- measuring cups
Ingredients
- 6 bell peppers red, yellow, orange, or green
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil
- 1 cup onion diced
- 1 Tablespoon garlic chopped
- 1 pound ground turkey do not use ground turkey breast
- 2 Tablespoons green chile finely chopped, add more or less according to personal preference
- 2 teaspoons chile powder
- 1½ teaspoons ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- ½ teaspoon chipotle or New Mexican chile powder
- ½ teaspoon salt, Kosher
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper finely ground
- 2 cups brown rice cooked
- 1 can black beans, 13 to 15 oz, rinsed or low sodium
- 1 can tomato sauce 8 oz, no salt
- ½ cup corn frozen or canned
- ¾ cup Colby-Jack cheese grated
Instructions
- Wash hands thoroughly, lathering with soap and rinsing with water, for 20 seconds.
- Preheat oven to 375 F. Line two sheet pans or baking sheets with foil.
- Cut bell peppers into quarters, removing the stems, seeds, and white membranes. Line the pepper quarters up on the baking sheets and set them aside.
- Place a large, non-stick skillet with high sides over medium heat and pour in the olive oil. When the oil is shimmering, add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until translucent and slightly browned. Add garlic and cook for about 30 seconds, until fragrant.
- Add the ground turkey to the onion-garlic mixture and saute until no longer pink. As you cook the turkey, break it into small pieces with a spatula.
- Place the spatula or spoon used to cook the turkey in the sink to clean later. Using a fresh utensil, add the green chiles and spices to the skillet and stir. Add the remaining ingredients, up to the cheese. Make sure all ingredients are evenly coated with spices and thoroughly mixed. Cook on low until bubbly for 5 minutes. Turn off the heat.Note: Filling can be prepared up to this point and refrigerated for a day or two before you're planning to serve the peppers.
- Taste the turkey-rice stuffing and adjust salt and other spices, if necessary. Using a soup spoon, ladle stuffing into each pepper quarter. Sprinkle with cheese and bake for 20 to 25 minutes until the cheese is melted and slightly browned.
- Serve as an entree that can be eaten out of hand or placed on a buffet with other appetizers like quesadillas, taquitos, guacamole, chips, and dips.
Nutrition
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Jani H. Leuschel
So happy you're willing to give it a try! Hope they are a hit in your household!