Stuffed bell peppers with rice are hands down one of the best Mediterranean culinary traditions. We make our vegan version of this best-selling recipe with big red bell peppers. This creates a meaty, juicy, sweet, and smokey flavour bomb. We season them with plenty of fresh dill, parsley, and cilantro. You can make them in a pot or roast them in the oven. In either case, they’ll be freaking delicious!
You can’t go wrong with these juicy and rich vegan stuffed bell peppers. So when I saw this recipe on the Instagram channel of my colleague “Lady with a fork”, I was super inspired to remake this recipe with some delicious red peppers, a ton of fresh herbs, and rice. A sure hit for all eaters.
You’ll need the following ingredients. We recommend white rice as peppers already contain a ton of fibre and whole grain rice would just take way too long to cook for this recipe. We prefer red bell peppers for their bright colour and sweetness. If you prefer you can use green peppers for a less sweet dish. Yellow and orange peppers work well too.
Try to use very ripe red vine tomatoes to give max flavour to the rice. Onion, garlic, tomato paste, and paprika are important to give full flavour to the rice. We extra virgin olive oil to gently fry onion and garlic and build extra flavour. We always recommend sea salt for fuller flavour and freshly ground black pepper. Flat-leaf parsley, cilantro, and dill will add a ton of freshness and flavour to the stuffed peppers. And vegetable bouillon to cook the rice with. Make sure you pick a brand that is preferably organic and doesn’t use glutamate.
Ingredients
- 1.5 cups rice (280 grams)
- 5 whole red bell peppers
- 4 whole tomatoes
- 1 whole onion
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp pepper
- 1 handful flat-leaf parsley (40 grams)
- 1 handful cilantro (40 grams)
- 0.5 handful dill (20 grams)
- 2 tbsp vegetable bouillon powder
- 1 litre water for the vegetable broth
Instructions
- In a pot, make the vegetable broth by adding the vegetable bouillon powder to 1L (2 pints) of water. Bring to boil and let simmer while you proceed to the next steps.
- Remove the stems and chop dill, cilantro, parsley
- Chop garlic and onion
- Remove the stem and cut the tomatoes into small dice. Use a serrated knife.
- Cut the top off of the bell peppers (save for later) and remove the white flesh and seeds inside, set aside
- On a pan on medium heat, gently fry the onion in the oil for one minute. Then add the garlic and fry for another minute.
- Add tomato paste, paprika, pepper, salt and some vegetable broth to obtain a curry-like paste. Cook for one minute.
- Add the rice. You can measure the rice by filling up one of the peppers. You will need two peppers of uncooked rice to fill up five red peppers.
- Add the chopped tomatoes and the chopped herbs to the rice mix and stir for three minutes on medium heat. Add two ladles of broth.
- Start filling the red peppers with the rice mix, then place the peppers into a tall pot.
- Add some vegetable broth into the peppers, and some into the pot. Then cover the peppers with their top part.
- Cover with a lid and cook the peppers on medium heat for about 45 minutes. Add some more broth into the peppers half way into the cooking. Make sure the pot is never dry, or the peppers will stick to the bottom.
- Serve these delicious stuffed peppers with some fresh parsley on top.
Looking for more hearty and filling vegan dinner recipes? Try making my vegan pasta salad recipe. This easy vegan pasta salad recipe is quick to make. The veggie salad is refreshing and features a lemon-mustard vinaigrette dressing.
For dessert, try making my lemon custard tart with seasonal fruit. This decadent vegan fruit tart recipe features lemon custard and seasonal fruits like strawberries and peaches.
This recipe was republished with permission from The Plant-Based School.
