Stuffed Peppers with Mince and Rice — from the Oven
Halve the peppers, mix mince with cooked rice, softened onion, egg, cheese and seasoning, fill, set in a dish with tomato sauce and bake covered for 30 minutes at 200 °C, then 15 minutes uncovered with cheese. The rice must be pre-cooked or it stays hard, and the sauce keeps the filling moist.
Stuffed peppers are the dish that is everything at once — vegetables, meat, rice — and still often disappoints: hard peppers, dry filling. Both come down to the sauce. The peppers must sit in tomato sauce and steam under a cover; then they turn soft and the filling stays moist. With yesterday's leftover rice it is in the oven in 20 minutes.
Ingredients
- 4 pieces Bell peppers (large, red and yellow)
- 400 g Minced meat (mixed)
- 250 g Rice (cooked)
- 1 piece Onion
- 2 pieces Garlic cloves
- 1 piece Egg
- 150 g Gruyère (grated)
- 1 tsp Paprika
- 1 tsp Ground cumin
- 1 tsp Salt
- Pepper
- ½ bunch Parsley
Sauce
- 1 tin Tomatoes (chopped, 400 g)
- 1 dl Stock
- 1 tbsp Olive oil
Method
- 1
Prepare the peppers
Preheat the oven to 200 °C. Halve the peppers lengthways, remove seeds and white membranes, leave the stalk on — it holds the half together.
- 2
Filling
Finely chop the onion and garlic and soften in a little oil for 3 minutes. Mix with the mince, rice, egg, half the cheese, seasonings and chopped parsley. The meat stays raw — it cooks in the oven.
- 3
Fill
Mix the tomatoes, stock and olive oil in a baking dish, salt. Fill the pepper halves generously and press lightly. Set in the sauce.
- 4
Bake
Cover with foil and bake 30 minutes — the peppers steam soft. Foil off, remaining cheese over, bake 15 minutes uncovered until the cheese is golden and the filling cooked through.
- 5
Serve
Spoon over the tomato sauce from the dish. Bread, salad or more rice alongside.
Tips
- The filling is flexible: couscous instead of rice, feta instead of Gruyère, sweetcorn and beans added (Mexican), or mince replaced by 200 g lentils and 100 g mushrooms (vegetarian). The rule stays: cooked grain, an egg to bind, sauce in the dish.
- Filled and unbaked they keep a day in the fridge — ideal for guests. Baked, two days; reheated at 180 °C for 20 minutes they are almost better.
- The same works with courgettes, aubergines, tomatoes and kohlrabi — hollowed out, filled, baked in sauce. One recipe for the whole summer.
What can I substitute?
The vegetarian filling, just as filling. With 1 tbsp tomato purée and more cheese so it binds.
Couscous absorbs the most sauce. Bulgur is the Balkan version, quinoa the higher-protein one.
Feta into the filling, not on top — it does not melt. Mozzarella on top for strings.
Nutrition per serving
Estimated from the ingredients.
Frequently asked questions
Why do my stuffed peppers stay hard?
Without sauce and without a cover they dry out in the oven instead of cooking. They need liquid in the dish and 30 minutes under foil so they steam. For completely soft peppers, blanch the halves 3 minutes in salted water before filling.
Does the rice need to be pre-cooked?
Yes. Raw rice in the filling stays hard after 45 minutes because it does not get enough liquid. Leftover rice from yesterday is ideal — 250 g cooked is about 100 g raw.
Can I freeze stuffed peppers?
Baked, yes, up to two months, with the sauce. Reheat from frozen at 180 °C for 30 minutes. The peppers soften a little, the filling stays good.
Which peppers are best for stuffing?
Large, evenly shaped red and yellow ones — sweeter and softer than green. Pointed peppers work too but take less filling. Two halves per person as a main.
How you collect recipes
Paste a link
Copy the address of any recipe page — including this one. Ingredients, amounts and steps are recognised automatically.
Photograph a cookbook
Take a photo of a page from your cookbook. Even handwritten recipes from your grandmother get read.
Pull from Cookidoo
Got a Thermomix? Your Cookidoo recipes come into your collection with one click.
