Middle Eastern-Style Stuffed Peppers

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Spice up your weekday dinners with these protein-packed peppers.

a white bowl with stuffed red, yellow, and orange peppers
Photo:

Jason Donnelly

Prep Time:
25 mins
Cook Time:
50 mins
Total Time:
1 hr 15 mins
Servings:
4
Yield:
8

Add a little spice to your week with our Middle Eastern-Style Stuffed Peppers. These hearty peppers are stuffed with beef, quinoa, and feta cheese, plus a sprinkling of spices like paprika, cumin, and cinnamon. This stuffed pepper recipe even has toasted walnuts and dried cranberries mixed in for even more texture and flavor. The recipe calls for fresh parsley or mint as a garnish. You can use either or both. Our recipe testers preferred the combination of both parsley and mint.

When picking out your peppers, look for ones that are short and wide. They will be easiest to both stuff and eat, and you'll be able to pack them full with your filling. Quinoa is great if you want a gluten-free meal or looking for some extra protein, zinc, or fiber in your diet. However, if you're not a fan of quinoa or just want to mix it up, this recipe easily allows for substituting brown rice or any other rice or grain blend. Like quinoa, brown rice is also fiber-rich and gluten-free. When in doubt, stick to a whole-grain substitution, since most of the fiber and nutrients are found in the bran.

When it comes to a delicious and healthy meal, you can't go wrong with these stuffed peppers. Serve them with this Fresh Fava Bean Salad for a fresh and flavorful dinner.

Ingredients

  • 1 lb. ground beef

  • 1 cup chopped onion

  • 8 ounces cooked quinoa or brown rice

  • 1 cup crumbled feta cheese (4 oz.)

  • ½ cup chopped toasted walnuts

  • cup dried cranberries, chopped

  • 1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley and/or fresh mint

  • 1½ tsp. ground cumin

  • 1½ tsp. tsp. paprika

  • ¼ tsp. salt

  • ¼ tsp. ground cinnamon

  • ¼ tsp. black pepper

  • 4 red, yellow, or orange bell peppers, halved lengthwise

Directions


  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F. In a 10-inch skillet cook beef and onion over medium until meat is browned; drain off any fat. Stir in next 10 ingredients (through black pepper) until well combined.

  2. Remove the seeds and membranes from the bell peppers. Arrange cut pepper halves in a 3-qt. rectangular baking dish. Spoon the beef mixture into the pepper halves.

  3. Pour 3/4 cup water into bottom of dish around peppers. Bake, covered, until the peppers are tender, about 50 minutes. Serve topped with additional parsley, mint, and/or crumbled feta

Make-Ahead Tip: To make this stuffed pepper recipe ahead, prepare as directed, except after filling pepper halves with beef mixture, cover and chill them up to 24 hours. Add water to dish and bake as directed, except increase baking time to 1 hour.

Nutrition Facts (per serving)

629 Calories
35g Fat
40g Carbs
40g Protein
Nutrition Facts
Servings Per Recipe 4
Calories 628.8
% Daily Value *
Total Fat 35.1g 45%
Saturated Fat 12.6g 63%
Cholesterol 126.2mg 42%
Sodium 516.8mg 22%
Total Carbohydrate 40.2g 15%
Dietary Fiber 4.1g 15%
Total Sugars 14.6g
Protein 39.8g
Vitamin D 0.1mcg 1%
Vitamin C 48.9mg 245%
Calcium 233.4mg 18%
Iron 5.3mg 30%
Potassium 765.3mg 16%
Fatty acids, total trans 0.9g
Vitamin D 6.8IU
Alanine 2.3g
Arginine 2.7g
Ash 4.3g
Aspartic acid 3.5g
Caffeine 0mg
Carotene, alpha 9.6mcg
Choline, total 114.4mg
Copper, Cu 0.5mg
Cystine 0.4g
Energy 2630.5kJ
Fluoride, F 0.8mcg
Folate, total 56.6mcg
Glutamic acid 6.2g
Glycine 2.3g
Histidine 1.2g
Isoleucine 1.8g
Leucine 3.1g
Lysine 3.1g
Methionine 1g
Magnesium, Mg 79.2mg
Manganese, Mn 1.3mg
Niacin 7.8mg
Phosphorus, P 460.5mg
Pantothenic acid 1.7mg
Phenylalanine 1.6g
Phytosterols 16.4mg
Proline 2.2g
Retinol 38.8mcg
Selenium, Se 34.4mcg
Serine 1.8g
Starch 0g
Theobromine 0mg
Threonine 1.5g
Vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol) 1.1mg
Tryptophan 0.3g
Tyrosine 1.3g
Valine 2.1g
Vitamin A, IU 1247.2IU
Vitamin A, RAE 94.6mcg
Vitamin B-12 3.7mcg
Vitamin B-6 0.9mg
Vitamin K (phylloquinone) 71.7mcg
Water 198.3g
Zinc, Zn 9.1mg

*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.

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