Instant Pot Stuffed Peppers

These delicious stuffed peppers are made easily in the Instant Pot and are packed full of flavor! With ground beef, rice, plenty of cheese, tomato sauce, and Italian herbs, this quick dinner recipe is so good!

What Makes This Recipe So Good

• It’s the best kind of one-pot meal – an Instant Pot meal! Cooking is fast and easy, and clean-up’s a breeze. You’ll need to cook the rice before you start this recipe, but otherwise all the cooking takes place in the Instant Pot! And honestly, you could cook the rice in the Instant Pot, too.
• Talk about flavor! Juicy bell peppers stuffed with lean ground beef, herbaceous Italian seasoning, tender rice, and shredded cheese. You don’t even really need a side dish for this recipe if you don’t feel like it – you’ve got your meat and veggies right here!
• Leftover Instant Pot stuffed peppers will keep up to 5 days if you refrigerate them in an airtight container, which means you could double the recipe and make enough for lunch all week. Meal preppers rejoice!
• You can mix up the ingredients and create endless stuffed pepper variations! Swap out the Italian seasoning for taco seasoning and now you’ve got taco stuffed peppers. OR, you could leave out the rice but add in diced onion, breadcrumbs, and a little egg for meatloaf stuffed peppers! Let me know what variations you try in the comments.

Key Ingredients

Ground Beef – Unlike the rice, the ground beef should be uncooked when you start the recipe! It’ll cook completely in the Instant Pot. The leaner your ground beef, the less grease you’ll have inside the peppers after the filling’s cooked. Any ground meat will work here, so feel free to sub in ground turkey or ground chicken if you’d prefer.

Bell Peppers – Use the largest bell peppers that will fit in your Instant Pot. If you’re using a small Instant Pot, you may need to cook these stuffed peppers in 2 batches. Just be sure all of your peppers are roughly the same size, so they cook evenly!

Shredded Cheese – Use any kind of shredded cheese you like! Since this recipe uses Italian seasoning and tomato products, shredded mozzarella or an Italian cheese blend would be perfect additions.

Chef’s Tips

• I used a 6-quart Instant Pot for this recipe, but you can absolutely use an 8-quart instead. All you need to do is increase the amount of water you use! The cook times will stay the same.
• Make sure to drain your diced tomatoes really well so you don’t end up with a lot of excess liquid inside the bell peppers. If you’re not sure how well you drained them and want to be on the safe side, you can poke small holes in the bottom of the bell peppers to let any extra liquid drain.
• Instant Pots are no different than any other appliance when it comes to cook times, which means times can vary from one Instant Pot to another. Altitude is a factor, too, just like with ovens. Make any adjustments needed for your specific Instant Pot!
• The stuffed peppers will be pretty soft when you take them out of the Instant Pot. If they’re impossible to pick up without them completely falling apart, though, then they’re a little overdone. First, be sure you’re doing a quick release and not a natural release. If that’s not the issue, you can try cutting back on the cook time by 1 minute the next time you make them. Just 1 minute, though, as any more than that and you run the risk of the meat not cooking completely.

Other Instant Pot Recipes You Need to Try

• Instant Pot Red Beans and Rice
• The Best Instant Pot Chicken Tikka Masala
• Instant Pot Jambalaya
• Instant Pot Refried Beans
• Japanese Curry in the Instant Pot
• Dreamy Instant Pot Chicken and Rice
• Instant Pot Applesauce
• Instant Pot Chicken Wings

Recipe By: Cheryl Malik

5 from 2 votes

Instant Pot Stuffed Peppers

Prep 15 minutes minutes

Cook 25 minutes minutes

Total 40 minutes minutes

These delicious stuffed peppers are made easily in the Instant Pot and are packed full of flavor! With ground beef, rice, plenty of cheese, tomato sauce, and Italian herbs, this quick dinner recipe is so good!

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Equipment

• Instant Pot
• Trivet
• Sharp knife
• Medium bowl
• Tongs

Ingredients

• ▢ 1-1 ½ cups water
• ▢ 4 large bell peppers any color
• ▢ 1 teaspoon salt
• ▢ ½ pound lean ground beef at least 80/20
• ▢ 1 ½ teaspoons Italian seasoning
• ▢ 2 cloves garlic finely chopped
• ▢ 1 8-ounce can tomato sauce organic preferred
• ▢ 1 14-ounce can diced tomatoes drained
• ▢ 1 cup cooked rice white or brown
• ▢ 1 ½ cups shredded cheese divided
• ▢ fresh parsley chopped, for garnish

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Instructions

 

• Place trivet in Instant Pot. If using a 6-quart Instant Pot, pour in 1 cup water. If using an 8-quart Instant Pot, pour in 1 ½ cups water.
• Trim approximately ¼-inch from top of bell peppers, then remove stems, ribs, and seeds. Salt insides of bell peppers, then place empty peppers on trivet inside instant Pot.
  
• In medium bowl, mix together ground beef, Italian seasoning, salt, garlic, tomato sauce, and diced tomatoes, until mostly combined. Add in rice and 1 cup shredded cheese. Gently combine mixture, then spoon filling into peppers.
  
• Secure lid on Instant Pot and set to Manual High Pressure for 9 minutes. Instant Pot will take approximately 10 minutes to come to pressure, then 9 minute cook-time will start.
• When cook-time is finished, carefully turn venting knob to quick release pressure.
• Remove lid. Sprinkle remaining cheese on tops of bell peppers. Return lid to pot and allow cheese to melt.
• Using tongs, carefully remove peppers from Instant Pot. Garnish with fresh parsley if desired and serve immediately.

• Make it Gluten Free: Make sure the shredded cheese you’re using doesn’t include any gluteny starches to keep it from clumping. Your best bet is to shred your own cheese. Double check your tomato products, too, but most brands should be fine.
• Make it Lower Carb: Use cauliflower rice instead of rice.
• Make it Vegetarian: Use a plant-based meat substitute, chopped mushrooms, or black beans.

 

Recipe yields 4 stuffed peppers. Nutritional values shown are general guidelines, and reflect information for one stuffed pepper. Macros may vary slightly depending on specific types and brands of ingredients used.

This recipe was tested and perfected using a 6-quart Instant Pot.

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Approximate Information for One Serving

Serving Size: 1stuffed pepperCalories: 388calProtein: 27gFat: 18gSaturated Fat: 10gTrans Fat: 1gCholesterol: 80mgSodium: 1330mgPotassium: 1025mgTotal Carbs: 30gFiber: 6gSugar: 12gNet Carbs: 24gVitamin A: 6258IUVitamin C: 228mgCalcium: 374mgIron: 4mg

Nutrition Disclaimers

Number of total servings shown is approximate. Actual number of servings will depend on your preferred portion sizes.

Nutritional values shown are general guidelines and reflect information for 1 serving using the ingredients listed, not including any optional ingredients. Actual macros may vary slightly depending on specific brands and types of ingredients used.

To determine the weight of one serving, prepare the recipe as instructed. Weigh the finished recipe, then divide the weight of the finished recipe (not including the weight of the container the food is in) by the desired number of servings. Result will be the weight of one serving.

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