Turkey Stuffed Peppers
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Published Mar 11, 2020, Updated Nov 21, 2023
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These turkey stuffed bell peppers are an easy and healthy weeknight meal loaded with ground turkey, brown rice, tomato sauce and spices. Serve with a side salad for a veggie-packed meal.
I’m so excited to share this stuffed pepper recipe with you! It’s simple enough for a weeknight dinner, but would also be fun for a weekend dinner party!
Ingredients in Stuffed Peppers
- Bell peppers – The star of the show slash what gives this recipe its name! Any color bell pepper works great.
- Ground turkey – I used ground turkey in this recipe but any ground meat would work! You could do ground chicken or ground beef. And if you’re vegetarian or vegan, you could use lentils, crumbled tempeh or tofu.
- Yellow onion and garlic – I’m convinced that most (if not all!) meals should include onion and garlic. They just add amazing natural flavor to the meat!
- Brown rice – We’re adding texture, flavor and fiber to this meal by mixing in brown rice with the ground turkey.
- Tomato sauce – The tomato sauce is what holds all of the filling together and gives it lots of flavor. Aim for an organic tomato sauce with no sugar added. I love the Muir Glen brand!
- Shredded mozzarella cheese – I sprinkled shredded cheese on top because I knew it would excite the cheese lovers, but if you’re dairy-free, feel free to skip or sub in dairy-free cheese.
- Spices – This recipe is loaded with great spices – Italian seasoning, sea salt, ground pepper and ground cinnamon are all added to the turkey mixture.
How to Make Healthy Stuffed Peppers
Start by prepping your peppers. Cut them in half, remove the seeds and set aside.
In a large skillet, brown the ground turkey with the onion and garlic. Once brown, remove from the heat and add in the rice, tomato sauce and spices.
Add the prepped peppers to a 9 x 13 baking pan. If your peppers are wobbly or not sitting properly, you can cut a strip off the base so they sit evenly. Add about 1/2 cup of the turkey mixture into each pepper, top with an additional tablespoon of tomato sauce and sprinkle with cheese.
Pour 1 cup of water in the bottom of the baking pan to help steam the peppers (and keep them from getting too crispy!), cover with foil and bake for 35 minutes.
I decided to serve the peppers with a side salad to really up the veggie count of this meal! Feel free to keep your salad super simple with a base of greens, sliced fresh veggies and a delicious dressing. Here are two of my favorite homemade dressings: lemon vinaigrette and zesty tahini, as well as, my top 5 healthy store bought dressings.
More Turkey Recipes
Be sure to check out all of my ground turkey recipes here on EBF!
Turkey Stuffed Peppers
Ingredients
- 4 bell peppers, any color
- 1 lb ground turkey
- ½ medium yellow onion, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 ½ Tablespoons Italian seasoning
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground pepper
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 cup cooked brown rice
- 1 ⅓ cup tomato sauce, divided
- ⅓ cup shredded mozzarella cheese
Instructions
- Cook brown rice if you haven’t already.
- Cut bell peppers in half, remove seeds and discard. Set aside.
- In a large nonstick pan, brown ground turkey with chopped onions and garlic. Use a spatula to break ground turkey into small pieces while it cooks. It should be fully cooked after 7-8 minutes. Remove from heat and add rice, 1 cup tomato sauce (save remaining 1/3 cup for later), Italian seasoning, salt, pepper and cinnamon to the pan. Mix well.
- Preheat oven to 375°F. Add halved bell peppers to a 9×13 baking dish. If the peppers are leaning too much, you can trim the bottom of the pepper to help it lay flat in the pan without the stuffing falling out.
- Stuff each bell pepper with about 1/2 cup of the turkey and rice mixture and top each with 1 Tablespoon tomato sauce and a sprinkle of shredded cheese. Carefully pour 1 cup water in between peppers in the bottom of the pan to help steam the peppers while baking.
- Cover baking dish with foil and bake for 35 minutes. Remove foil and place peppers back in the oven uncovered for about 5 minutes more, until cheese melts and peppers are soft. Serve immediately.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I sort of made this…lol…instead of stuffing the whole peppers, I diced orange, red & green peppers and added a cup of diced celery. Sauteed it all and put in the bottom of a casserole. Put the meat and sauce on top (no cheese) and baked, covered, for 25 min. Then removed the foil and crumbled 3 gf/df corn bread muffins I had on top(tossed with a drizzle of olive oil) and baked another 10 minutes, uncovered. Really good!!
Wish I had seen your post be4 I made mine! Sounds so good as does using lentils! I used the small sliced open peppers and basically just put the meat mixture on top. Being hungarian, we usually just put the stuffed pepps in tomato juice and let them cook, and use egg for binding. Can’t wait to see how this turns out.
This was really interesting to read! I love the range of posts, there is really something for everyone, great post!
SO SO good! 5 stars from each person in our family.
Ahh that makes me so happy to hear, Kara!! I’m glad this recipe was a hit with your family. Thanks for trying it and for coming back to leave a comment and star rating, I really appreciate it. <3
A fantastic recipe! Swapped the turkey for lentils and it was a delicious meal.
I’m so glad you enjoyed this recipe, Madison!! Thanks for coming back to leave a comment + star rating. It means the world to me. <3
So delicious! I added some chili powder and some more salt and pepper as well. Next time I’ll probably use a bit less cinnamon. I’m excited to make it again!
So glad you enjoyed this recipe, Aneta! 🙂
I made this and added sautéed zucchini, can of fire-roasted tomatoes and 1/2 t.fennel seed. All I can say is FABULOUS! The flavors are out of this world!
Yay!! So glad you loved this recipe, Kim. I so appreciate you making it and coming back to leave a comment + star rating. It means the world to me. <3
This recipe calls for WAY too much Italian seasoning. It definitely overpowered any other flavors even after adding more spices to compensate. I would recommend three TSP (at most) definitely not three TBSP.
Hey Kay, just curious – where did you get 3 TBSP? The recipe calls for 1.5 TBSP. Did you double the recipe?
Looks so yummy!! Must try. Can I make these in the crock pot?
I’ve never tried it, but I bet you could! Let me know if you end up trying it.
I just found your blog and I’ve made so many of your recipes already! I’m so happy I found it!:) I made this for dinner last night in an un-stuffed version and it was SO good! I cut up red and orange peppers and sauteed them instead of stuffing them. My husband couldn’t stop eating it – I loved the flavors that were brought out from the addition of the cinnamon to the receipe! I also added a bit of tomato paste and roasted yellow squash to the mix. We ate it with wild rice – definitely another keeper recipe. Thank you!
Ahh yay!! That makes me so happy to hear!! I’m glad you found me too. 🙂 Thanks for coming back to leave a review, Megan. I so appreciate it!
This is one of my favorites! I use one bag of boil n bag brown rice and substitute my favorite pasta sauce for the tomato sauce. Since I am cooking for one, I make the meat mixture and freeze individual portions. It’s a grea5 quick meal when I am short on time. With the extra rice, I have 5 single meals.
So glad you’ve been enjoying this recipe, Carol! Thanks for the review. I so appreciate it!
Amazing recipe! I’m a bit of a novice cook, so I’m wondering what I can do next time to ensure the peppers are a bit softer..( I believe that’s the goal, right?)..thanks!
Hey Adam – You could cook the peppers before filling them for a few minutes to soften them up and then add the filling and recook.
These were delicious! Our whole family enjoyed them. The peppers were the perfect texture (not too soft, not too crunchy) and the brown rice and turkey sausage mixture was really tasty. I used leftover pasta sauce which worked out well!
Ah yay! I’m so pumped to hear these stuffed peppers were a hit, Carmen! Thanks so much for trying them out and coming back to leave a review. It means so much to me!