Instant Pot Stuffed Peppers with any ground meat, any rice and in half the time of your mom’s. Juicy, flavorful and easy weeknight meal – sign me up!
Need more “crazy easy”? Try my Ukrainian grandma’s Instant Pot cabbage rolls (lazy way).
Pressure Cooker Stuffed Peppers
Instant Pot stuffed peppers. Raise your hand if you grew up with stuffed peppers? I see a lot of hands.
My Ukrainian mama and grandma cooked them non-stop September-October while peppers were in season. 100% childhood memories right there. I bet you can relate. Nowadays, we can make stuffed peppers twice faster and year round. Life is amazing, friends! 🙂
Before making this recipe, I asked mom what she used to add to her peppers. She laughed and said “Salt, pepper and fried onion. We had no other spices”. So here you go, glorified and simplified mom’s stuffed peppers in Instant Pot.
Only thing easier is stuffed pepper soup.
Ingredients You Will Need
Tender meat and rice deconstructed in flavorful sauce on your plate, with a bit of yogurt or sour cream, and a healthy dose of freshly cracked pepper. Who can resist?! 🙂
- Bell peppers: Pick large and straight bell peppers. Red, orange and yellow are sweeter, green is more bitter (which I love). Make sure peppers are firm to the touch without soft spots. If packed in a bag, look closely.
- Ground meat: Ground beef, turkey, chicken, pork, lamb works. Poultry is more lean, so I add a few tablespoons of oil.
- Rice: White or brown rice works, just different cook times. I share method below.
- Tomato sauce: I use plain low sodium canned tomato sauce. Nothing expensive or with many ingredients.
- Onion and simple seasonings: Raised in Ukraine on very simple food, I still cook the same way – same 30 ingredients. Because tasty food doesn’t have to be complicated. So, no Worcestershire sauce, friends.
How to Make Stuffed Peppers in Instant Pot
If you still don’t have an Instant Pot, check out which one you should buy. And then I have Instant Pot guide that will help you get started.
- Cook rice right in your Instant Pot while you are prepping peppers. You can’t use uncooked rice because once mixed with meat it will be undercooked and peppers and meat overcooked.
- Cut pepper tops off with paring knife and close to the tail part. Then scoop out seeds with a tablespoon. Ukrainian in me loves no waste. 🙂
- Make stuffing and stuff peppers by combining with ground meat, cooked rice and spices. And then dividing evenly among the peppers.
- Layer peppers in your Instant Pot: Add stock, trivet and peppers in layers. 8 quart will fit all 8-9 peppers. For 6 quart, cook in 2 batches or cut recipe in half. Top each pepper generously with tomato sauce on each layer.
- Cook for 10 minutes on high pressure and then release pressure right away.
Tips for Best Stuffed Peppers
- 3 quart Instant Pot should fit 4 peppers. So, just cut recipe in half and keep same cooking time.
- Stacking peppers this high up is fine – there is enough space between peppers for pressure to build up.
- You can replace rice with uncooked quinoa, then cook for 15 mins in 8 quart and 20 mins in 6 quart.
How to Store, Reheat and Serve Stuffed Peppers
We serve stuffed peppers with plain yogurt and rye bread. Toasted whole wheat bread mimics freshly baked rye bread as well. I like to break stuffed peppers on my plate, mix with yogurt and dip bread into the sauce.
Stuffed peppers are a meal on its own. We usually do not make any sides to go with the recipe besides green smoothie, if we feel like it.
Refrigerate stuffed peppers for up to 5 days. I do not recommend to freeze cooked or uncooked peppers because fibers in bell pepper are not too strong for the freezer. Pepper will almost disintegrate once thawed.
To reheat stuffed peppers, place them in a pot with the juices, cover and cook on low for 10 minutes. Steam will warm them through.
More Instant Pot Recipes
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- Instant Pot chicken and rice – kids can’t get enough of.
- Instant Pot chicken and potatoes – with lots of leftovers.
- Instant Pot spaghetti – 15 minutes and even pasta cooks in same pot.
- Instant Pot stir fry using frozen chicken and veggies.
Looking for more dinner ideas? Check out my most popular collection of 30 healthy Instant Pot recipes.
Instant Pot Stuffed Peppers
Instant Pot Stuffed Peppers with any ground meat, any rice and in half the time your mom’s. Juicy, flavorful and easy weeknight meal – sign me up!
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Instant Pot
- Cuisine: Ukrainian
Ingredients
- 8–9 medium-large bell peppers
- 2 lbs any ground meat (I used ground turkey)
- 3/4 cup uncooked rice or 2–2 1/2 cups cooked
- 1 large onion, minced
- 1 tsp oregano, dried
- 1 tsp thyme, dried
- 1 tsp basil, dried
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/8 tsp red pepper flakes
- Ground black pepper
- 15 oz can tomato sauce, low sodium
- 1 cup stock, low sodium
Instructions
- Cook 3/4 cup rice with 3/4 cup cold water in Instant Pot: white rice – 3 mins and brown rice – 22 mins. Natural release pressure for 10 mins.
- While rice is cooking, using the paring knife cut around the tail of a pepper and discard seeds using a tablespoon. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, add ground meat, cooked rice, onion, oregano, thyme, basil, salt, red pepper flakes and ground black pepper.
- Using your hand or spatula, mix all ingredients really well.
- Stuff peppers with mixture diving evenly.
- To Instant Pot, add trivet and stock.
- Arrange 1 layer of peppers and top with half of the tomato sauce. Lay remaining peppers and top with remaining sauce.
- Close the lid, turn release vent to Sealing and press Pressure Cook or Manual on High Pressure for 10 minutes.
- Release pressure immediately by turning the valve to Venting – Quick Release. Your stuffed peppers are ready.
- Serve with plain yogurt/sour cream and juices from the bottom of the pot (turkey baster is the best to suck those up).
Store: Refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 3-4 days.
Make Ahead: Refrigerate stuffed uncooked peppers for up to 2 days and cook when ready.
Notes
- If using ground turkey, add a few tablespoons of oil to make it more moist.
- Any Italian dried herbs work.
- I have 8 quart Instant Pot and it’s large enough to cook all peppers at once. If yours is 6 quart, cook in 2 batches.
- You can’t use uncooked rice because once mixed with meat it will be undercooked and peppers and turkey overcooked.
- You can replace rice with uncooked quinoa, then cook for 15 mins in 8 quart and 20 mins in 6 quart.
Did you make this recipe? Please give it a star rating in the comments.
Loved this! My Instant Pot is a 6 qt so I have to cook in 2 batches. I am new to Instant Pot. The stackable steamer pans are on their way. Would I be able to utilize those to cook more at one time?
★★★★★
Yay! Mmmm stackable pans are more for one pot dinner convenience to cook 2 things at same time. They actually fit less food then IP. They are good for meatloaf and potatoes.
Thank you for the advice. I decided to return the stackable pans and put the money towards a second instant pot.🤗
Worked out perfect! So delicious. Thanks!
★★★★★
I also just realized the quinoa is completely raw….
Hmmm I don’t see how peppers can be falling apart with raw quinoa…Maybe Instant Pot didn’t come to pressure. Sorry, I am not sure. 20 mins under high pressure is enough to cook even thickets chicken breasts.
Hi there
I used quinoa and let it cook for 20 min as I have a 6 quartz. The pepper fell apart when I removed it… what could I have done wrong?
Thank you
Camila
Remove carefully. I never had this issue. Peppers are paper thin after cooking for sure.
I’ve done a LOT of cooking lately…so glad to have these recipes.
For the keto version to fit my way of eating I use riced cauliflower instead of rice. The taste is amazing. My husband loves the rice version those…so easy to do both.
Thank you for this recipe.
★★★★★
Riced cauliflower is a fantastic substitution Karen!
New Instant pot, will use you a lot. Thanks
★★★★★
What can I substitute for the rice? Barley? If so how much? Thank you love you recipes so delicious
You can replace rice with uncooked quinoa, then cook for 15 mins in 8 quart and 20 mins in 6 quart.
I made these rongiht as I have so many peppers left (they were on sale) to use up and I had rice left from a chicken and rice dish I made the night before. I threw some chopped spinach into the brown rice and turkey burger mix and I halved the recipe to use in my 6qt. I mashed up a 1/4 of an avocado with some plain greek yogurt and added a splash of lime juice to use as a topping, added a mixed greens salad and Wha-La! An easy and incredibly delicious dinner! Thank You for making my family think I’m a great cook!! I’ll definitely be adding this to our dinner rotation! 🙂
★★★★★
Isn’t that the best when the whole family loves what we cook?! So glad this recipe will be part of your dinner rotation Christy!
These were the best stuffed peppers I’ve ever made. It was the first time to try quinoa and my husband was okay with it.
I stumbled onto your website somehow yesterday and then spent many happy hours browsing your recipes. I am thrilled with your Instant Pot recipes, your low carb recipes, and especially for the recipe for thawing meat in the Instant Pot! After spending so much time browsing I needed to quickly thaw the ground turkey for the stuffed peppers.
Your house and studio are awesome! Your family’s story is encouraging to all. Thank you for sharing and a special thank you for providing this wonderful web site!
★★★★★
Thank you so much for your kind words and well wishes, Deanne!!! So happy you enjoyed and hubby approved the quinoa. He will come around haha.
Can you freeze these?
Unfortunately not. Watery mess.
Made this tonight. It was amazing. Didn’t see the part about using cooked rice, so I let it naturally release for 20 minutes. There’s none left. I did cut the recipe in half and used a 6qt. Will make again with my own tweaks.
★★★★★
Fantastic! Glad you enjoyed the recipe!
These are amazing! I love stuffed peppers and I couldn’t believe how great these were. I also made a meatloaf inspired by the filling on these peppers and it is my new go-to recipe.
★★★★★
Yay. I made a lot of meatloaf this week too. Glad you enjoyed these.
These recipes look great. For he stuffed peppers…in your directions it says Before: add triver+ 1Cup water. I’m guessing triver is a typo. What am I supposed to add?
Yes, trivet.
Loved this! So easy and delicious. Next time I would actually add a bit more salt. I don’t love a ton of salt, but I think a bit more would bring out the flavors. I halved the recipe for my 6 qt and put 4 in the pot and froze one for later 🙂 Thanks for the recipe!!
★★★★★
You are very welcome! Sure. Sometimes I add more salt to a meal, depends on a day and my taste buds that day.:) Glad you enjoyed!
Please understand that I modified this recipe as follows to suit our tastes.
First, I used ground beef (85%) ,instead of turkey. I did not dice and include the pepper tops. I used Uncle Ben’s Ten Minute Brown Rice as well. Further, I used Italian spiced tomato sauce and mixed half of the can in with the stuffing. I also left out the red pepper flakes. As I have a 6 quart pot I made six peppers. Could probably have gotten eight in there tho. I did not change any of the ingredient amounts or proportions.
Cooked the dish for 35 minutes. Came out great, maybe a bit dry, but I will up the amount of tomato sauce and tweak the spices a bit next time.
All in all a good and satisfying dish.
★★★★★
I think because you didn’t use pepper tops the stuffed peppers were a bit dry. But main reason think you cooked them way too long. It’s a pressure cooker so it cooks food faster. Try 15 mins as I did and see. They will be cooked otherwise I wouldn’t be serving raw peppers to my family. Im not crazy. I’m sure they will be less dry.:)
Only reason I cooked them that long was the rice. I wanted to be sure it would be cooked. Will surely cut the time on the next try.
★★★★★
Ooooh, you made them with the rice and not quinoa…My bad, missed that. Maybe 20 mins will be enough since it’s 10 minute rice. Try and see.:)
Deee-licious! My husband and 14 year old daughter had TWO each! This is saying a lot because my husband doesn’t usually like stuffed peppers I had 1.5.
I served this with yogurt that I made in the Instant Pot 🙂
Good tip from your Chicken and Rice recipe to vent the Instant Pot outside. I’m sure the neighbors are wondering why there is steam coming off my deck so frequently recently!
I’m going to try making the Beef Stew next…
That’s awesome! Not to mention your entire neighbourhood smells amazing.:) I always have 2 of those peppers too. Glad it was a hit!!!
Any suggestions for an alternative to the tomato sauce? Can I just use water or broth? Thanks!
Yes, for sure. 1-2 cups would do it and give nice juices to pour over.
OK, I might have just raved to all my friends about these instant pot stuffed peppers for 2 full days LOL. Yum!
★★★★★