Filled with flavor, protein, and fresh ingredients, these Mediterranean Stuffed Peppers are completely adaptable, easy to make, and can be prepared ahead for a healthy weeknight dinner. Vegetarian-adaptable.
It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.
Oriah Mountain Dreamer
These healthy Mediterranean Stuffed Peppers are filled with your choice of ground meat (or plant-based meat) rice, kalamata olives, feta cheese, tomatoes, spinach, and fresh herbs- such savory goodness! Tender, sweet bell peppers cradle the delicious filling, offering great flavor and texture!
Why You’ll Love This
- Healthy! Packed with lean protein, whole grains, and fresh veggies. Vegetarian-adaptable.
- So easy! Prep in under 30 minutes.
- Meal prep. Make the stuffed peppers or filling in advance for busy weeknights!
Ingredients
- Bell peppers: Red, yellow, or orange—or use a mix!
- Cooked rice: brown rice, or sub white rice, quinoa, farro, cauliflower rice, black rice, or wild rice.
- Red onion and garlic: Add a savory pungent bite that contrasts nicely with the other ingredients.
- Ground turkey: Or your choice of protein—plant-based “ground meat” , ground chicken, ground lamb, or ground beef.
- Seasonings: Sea salt, black pepper, oregano, red pepper flakes, sherry vinegar (or red wine vinegar), tomato paste.
- Fresh greens and herbs: Spinach, dill, and mint for fresh and herby flavor.
- Kalamata olives: Add a nice tanginess and distinct Mediterranean flavor.
- Cherry tomatoes: Add a bit of juiciness and sweetness.
- Cheese: Feta cheese and parmesan cheese are optional, but take the dish up a notch and make it even more satisfying! You can use vegan feta.
How to make Mediterranean Stuffed Peppers
Preheat oven to 400F.
Step 1: Prep the bell peppers. Slice peppers in half from the stem down. Discard seeds and pith.
Step 2: Sauté aromatics. Sauté onion in extra virgin olive oil over medium heat, 5 minutes. Add garlic, stir, and cook for a few more minutes.
Step 3: Add protein and seasonings. Add ground turkey (or your protein of choice), salt, pepper, oregano, and chili flakes. Cook for 5 minutes until the turkey is cooked through. Add vinegar, tomato paste, and spinach. Turn off the heat. Stir until well combined and the spinach wilts.
Step 4: Add remaining ingredients. Mix in cooked rice, olives, tomatoes, feta, parmesan, dill, and mint. Taste and adjust for seasonings.
Step 5: Fill peppers. Scoop mixture into bell pepper shells.
Step 6: Bake. Bake for 20 minutes. If you prep the filling in advance, check to make sure the filling isn’t cold. If it is, allow for 10 more minutes.
Serve with a splash of fresh lemon juice and more fresh herbs!
Recipe Variations
Adapt the filling as you’d like depending on what you have on hand and what is in season!
- Vegetables: Add finely chopped zucchini, fennel bulb, mushrooms, or eggplant sautéing along with the onions.
- Meat: Substitute the ground turkey with plant-based, ground “meat” (or your preferred ground meat alternative), ground chicken, lamb, or beef, or try finely chopped mushrooms, or even minced tofu like our sofritas
- Grains: Quinoa, farro, wild rice, or orzo would all work great.
- Cheese: Swap feta for chèvre or leave out the dairy and top with 1/2 cup of walnuts or pine nuts, or try this Vegan Cheesy Sprinkle.
- Herbs: Swap out fresh herbs for some that you have on hand, such as fresh parsley or rosemary.
Make Ahead, Storage & Freezing
- To meal prep this recipe, you can make the filling 1-2 days ahead of time.
- Store in the refrigerator for 3-4 days in an airtight container. Reheat in a warm oven or in the microwave.
- To freeze the peppers, let them cool completely, then transfer them to freezer-safe containers and freeze for 1-2 months. Thaw in the fridge before reheating them in the oven. Add a splash of water or vegetable broth to the baking dish and cover the peppers while baking.
FAQs
No, but if you prefer the peppers to be softer, simply place halved unstuffed peppers on a baking tray, open side down for 5-10 minutes at 400F. Add a tablespoon of water to help them soften. The softer texture can make them a little more pliant for stuffing.
Nope! Simply place the halved peppers on the tray as is. When reheating the stuffed peppers, you may want to cover them with foil to prevent them from drying out.
Any Mediterranean- style salad, like our Orzo Salad, Chickpea Salad, Classic Greek Salad, Caprese Salad or Mediterranean Swiss Chard Salad. You can also serve with Tomato Bruschetta or Basil Pesto.
Enjoy the Mediterranean Stuffed Peppers, and let us know how you adapt them in the comments below!
xoxo
More Recipes You May Enjoy
Mediterranean Stuffed Peppers
- Prep Time: 25 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 6–8 servings 1x
- Category: main, vegetarian
- Method: baked
- Cuisine: Mediterranean
- Diet: Vegetarian
Description
Filled with flavor, protein and fresh ingredients these healthy Mediterranean Stuffed Peppers are completely adaptable, easy to make and can be prepared ahead for a healthy weeknight dinner.
Ingredients
- 4 large bell peppers ( red, yellow or orange, or a mix)
- 1 cup cooked brown rice, (or sub white rice, quinoa, freekeh, farro, or cauliflower rice)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 small red onion, about 1 cup diced
- 2 teaspoons garlic, minced
- 1 pound of ground turkey or choice of protein ( ground plant-based meat, lamb, chicken, beef)
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
- 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 2 teaspoons sherry vinegar or red wine vinegar
- 2 teaspoons tomato paste
- 1 cup fresh spinach, chopped
- 10 kalamata olives, quartered lengthwise
- 10 cherry tomatoes, quartered or chopped
- 1 cup (4 ounces) feta cheese, diced or crumbled
- 1/4 cup parmesan cheese, grated (optional)
- 1/4 cup fresh dill, roughly chopped
- 1/4 cup fresh mint, roughly chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400F
- Slice the bell peppers in half from the stem down. Discard seeds and pith.
- Sauté the onion in olive oil for 5 minutes over medium heat. Add the garlic stirring in cooking for a few more minutes.
- Add the ground turkey (or protein of choice), salt, pepper, oregano, and red pepper flakes. Cook for 5 minutes until turkey is cooked through. Add vinegar, tomato paste and spinach and turn the heat off. Stir until everything is incorporated and spinach wilts.
- Mix in cooked rice, olives, tomatoes, feta, parmesan, dill and mint. Taste and adjust seasonings if needed. Scoop mixture into halved bell pepper shells. Bake at 400F for 20 minutes until hot through. Allow for 10 minutes more baking time if the filling is cold.
Notes
If you prefer a softer well-cooked pepper, set on a tray, cut side up, with a tablespoon of water and bake in a preheated oven at 400F for 5-10 minutes.
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 342
- Sugar: 9.7 g
- Sodium: 636.2 mg
- Fat: 15 g
- Saturated Fat: 5.3 g
- Carbohydrates: 34.3 g
- Fiber: 5.7 g
- Protein: 19.7 g
- Cholesterol: 57.6 mg
This is an excellent recipe. Thank you! I prepare in a slightly different way. Cook onion in 3 tbl olive oil until lightly brown. Add garlic for 2-3 min. Add halved cherry tomatoes and cook for 15 -20 min until they are broken down. Add olives now. Add oregano and red pepper flakes and cook 5 min. Continue to add olive oil by the teaspoon so ingredients remain wet. Push mixture to the side of pan and add Turkey. Cook till browned 15-20 min. Add tomato paste and add more olive oil to paste and stir until it softens and breaks down. Incorporate everything in the pan and add the feta and rice. Cook until bubbly and add double spinach until it completely wilts. Add a cup of grated Parmesan and incorporate, remove from heat. Heap spoons into the halved peppers, sprinkle each with more Parmesan and bake 400 for
About 50 mins. Let rest for 15 minutes. Serve :0)
Love it! Thanks for sharing your technique. 🙂
This was delicious! I used veggie crumbles and goat cheese since I didn’t have feta and it still turned out great. I’ll definitely be making it again.
Wonderful, so glad you enjoyed!
Very tasty!
Delicious! Thank you for the recipe! I used 99% lean ground turkey for low cholesterol. I don’t like tomatoes or olives, so I used some fresh zucchini from my friend’s garden, mushrooms, celery, carrots, a little chicken broth and wine instead of vinegar. I stuffed four pepper halves, and I’ll use the rest of the stuffing in an egg white wrap for lunch!
Sounds great, so happy you enjoyed!
Another Fabulous recipe!
Glad you liked this one!
This recipe is just wonderful! I love the mix of flavors.
Wonderful to hear this Johanne!
Could this recipe work well with green bell peppers? I don’t see any suggestions of that substitution, so wondering if the green pepper flavor would not be a good match.
It should be fine!
Can the stuffed peppers be cooked with tomato sauce pourd over them before baking?
Sure, I think that would work fine. The peppers may get softer that way and require less baking time?
These are the bomb! I love making these! The flavor is just so unique!
Awesome Michelle, so happy you enjoyed!
I wasn’t sure if making these with crumbled tofu would be a little bland…but the rest of the flavors were so delicious they still came out great!
Oh awesome Amanda!
Another wonderful recipe for our vegan household-thank you! Made exactly as written but with plant based ground meat and cauliflower rice
Perfect Sue, happy to hear you adapted!
I never comment on recipes… make plenty of winners and losers… I’ll post and save the good ones and forget the bad ones happened.
Cue “jump to review” button
THESE WERE ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS!!!!!!!!!
I didn’t have and sherry or red wine vinegar so I used a teaspoon of white wine vinegar and one of balsamic and it works perfect! Next time I make these I’ll add some tzatziki to serve it with! So so good!
So happy to hear this Amber! Tzatziki would be amazing. 🙂
These were SO good. We are new to cooking Mediterranean and I wasn’t sure how I’d like the dill and the mint because it’s not something I typically cook with but WOW. All of the flavors went together perfectly and this will become a new weekly staple. Easy and affordable too! Thank you!
So great to hear this Nikki!
My favorite stuffed pepper recipe 😋
Great to hear!
This blog is becoming my biggest go-to as a vegetarian household that occasionally fish-cheats and seeks more vegan possibilities. I spent time in Greece, and I dare say this rivals the best of stuffed peppers they have there. Keys? Fresh herbs! Make more Greek style? Add lots of extra-fresh olive oil to bottom of baking dish. I had some aging green beans so threw them in the dish around the peppers with some potatoes too a la Greece. Used Field Roast Italian “sausages” torn up for the protein and made one batch w/o parm, one subbing tomato powder for paste, and one with farro and one with purple barley. Really love the heartiness of those grains and the adaptability of the herbs, fillings, whole darn recipe. Could do tomatoes instead of peppers too, or both! I love how so many recipes here offer wonderful structure and inspiration but are easily adaptable to what is on hand.
Stephanie, this is so great to hear! Love your adaptions!
This recipe is so flavorful! The fresh dill is a highlight. Thank you, Sylvia. I always look forward to making your recipes.
We are so happy you enjoyed this!
Made several changes only cuz I didn’t have some. I used arugula in place of spinach, ricotta in place of feta and dried dill. Excellent.. I will definitely use this recipe again. Easy to bring together.
Great to hear Debbie!
I was looking forward to leftovers for the next day while cooking a massive plate of these. My boyfriend ate half of it, and we were left with nothing for the next day 😉 I guess I will have to make another one! 🙂
I used ground chicken and served the peppers with sour cream, and it was just amazing. Thank you for this recipe!
Ha…glad they were enjoyed!
Easy and full of flavour! We halved the recipe for two of us. As our peppers were on the small side, it filled 3. Looking forward to having the extra one for lunch today! I used ground pork and lots of fresh mint from my garden. Will definitely make again. Thank you!
Sounds great Terry, so glad you enjoyed!
Loved this recipe. Loaded with great flavours. And pretty quick to make also.As it was the first time I made this dish, I didn’t make any adjustments. But I did make some zhoug yogurt to accompany. Another great recipe from Sylvia! I have enough for 2 meals so looking forward already to having it again.
Thanks for these great reicpes.
Great to hear Margaret!