Your search for the best — and easiest —dinner casserole is over! This baked unstuffed bell pepper casserole with green bell peppers, rice and ground beef is a deconstructed twist on the more classic “stuffed pepper casserole”. It’s quick to prepare, a great freezer-friendly meal, and a filling dinner. Yields 4 servings.
The Best Unstuffed bell pepper casserole
You all know I’m a casserole kinda girl, so I love easy dinner casseroles — especially ones that can feed the whole family with minimal effort. This stuffed pepper casserole with rice checks all the boxes: simple, hearty, and totally comforting.
This green bell pepper casserole is based on my mom’s classic stuffed peppers. Growing up, one of her go-to meals was stuffed peppers with ground beef and rice. Now, whenever I visit my dad, he always asks for this bell pepper and ground beef casserole — it’s become a family tradition.
What isn’t there to love about this cheesy stuffed pepper casserole? Fresh peppers, seasoned ground beef, tomato sauce, rice — all smothered in melty mozzarella cheese. It’s the ultimate casserole dinner and an easy way to bring a taste of nostalgia to your table.
TIP: This is a great freezer meal! When our 3rd baby arrived, we had a few of these casseroles in our freezer ready to go!
Looking for more easy dinner casserole recipes? Try my Sausage Potato and Pepper Casserole and Potato hamburger casserole next!
Directions to Make unstuffed bell pepper casserole
Let’s make this bell pepper casserole bake together!
Brown your ground beef, along with 2 cloves of garlic and onion in a large frying pan until beef is browned.
Add the ground beef mixture into a baking dish. Both 11×8 baking dish and 9×9 size work well for this recipe.
Add chopped green peppers, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, beef broth, uncooked long grain rice, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper on top of the beef.
Want to add some sneaky vegetables? This is completely optional, but if you want to you can add 1/2 cup chopped spinach or kale too. This is a simple way to add some additional veggies to your family meals (I love being sneaky, hehehe)!
Mix to fully combine all the ingredients together.
Bake for 75 minutes, or until the rice is soft. Depending on the brand and variety of rice you use, sometimes you need 10-20 minutes more, so make sure to test the rice to make sure it’s soft and not still crunchy.
Remove from oven, sprinkle shredded mozzarella cheese on top and bake 10 more minutes or until the cheese is melted.
Serve and enjoy this bell pepper and hamburger casserole!
Can I make this in advance?
Here are 2 ways that you can prepare unstuffed bell pepper casserole in advance. I would not suggest preparing it completely as the rice will soak up the liquid and the texture will be a little weird.
- Bake it completely, allow to cool and then put in the refrigerator. Warm up the next day when ready to serve (either in oven or microwave).
- Prepare all the ingredients separately and store in the fridge. Don’t put the ingredients together into the dish until ready to bake it.
Can I freeze stuffed pepper casserole?
Yes you can freeze bell pepper casserole with rice! This makes such a great freezer meal! In fact, when our 3rd baby arrived, we had a couple of these casseroles ready to go in the freezer for us!
First bake the casserole as instructed, skipping the cheese on top. After it’s cooked, allow to cool and then wrap in aluminum foil and place in freezer.
When ready to eat, remove from the freezer and bake at 350 degrees F for about 60 minutes, covered with aluminum foil. You might need to add a few extra minutes after you check the middle. Remove the foil, add the shredded mozzarella cheese and bake 10 more minutes.
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Unstuffed Bell Pepper Casserole with Ground Beef
PrintIngredients
- 1 pound ground beef
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 small onion chopped
- 2 large green peppers chopped
- 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
- 8 oz can tomato sauce
- 1/2 cup beef broth
- 1/2 cup long grain rice uncooked
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- In a skillet, add ground beef, minced garlic and onion and cook until beef is browned, about 10 minutes.
- Transfer the beef mixture into a 11×8 baking dish.
- Add chopped green peppers, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, beef broth, uncooked long grain rice, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper on top of the beef. Mix to fully combine the ingredients.
- Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 75 minutes, or until rice is soft and no longer crunchy.
- Take out of the oven, sprinkle mozzarella cheese on top and bake 10 more minutes. Serve and enjoy!
Leah says
What temperature do you bake it at the first time to cook the rice?
Pamela Reed says
Hey Leah, the casserole bakes at 350 degrees F. Hope this helps!
Deborah W. says
What are the green leaves in your casserole shown in the pictures? There isn’t any kind of ‘green leaves, like spinach, etc.’ shown in the ingredients. Mine is in the oven now but it won’t look like your, or taste like it, if I don’t have all the ingredients.
Pamela Reed says
Sure, it’s included in the post: Want to add some sneaky vegetables? This is completely optional, but if you want to you can add 1/2 cup chopped spinach or kale too. This is a simple way to add some additional veggies into your family’s meal. We do this if we’re picking lots of kale in the garden. Hope this helps. 🙂
Helen B. says
Very easy recipe, cooked up to be perfect. I added red wine and I used Minute Rice. Thanks for q keeper.
Pamela Reed says
So happy to hear you liked it, thanks for stopping by Helen! 🙂
Hazel A Fetz says
I am especially interested in really easy crock pot recipies. Your stuff looks amaing! Can I make the unstuffed bell pepper cassarole in a crock pot? I bought a 4 quart rectangle type crock pot.
Blessings to you for sharing these! -Hazel
Gail Gish says
I have it in the oven right now!
Monica says
I made this with 1 cup of jasmine rice and I used cheddar cheese instead of mozzarella cheese. After cooking rice I mixed all the heated ingredients together and let cheese melt on top. I didn’t have to bake it in the oven.
Kristen says
What would the freezer instructions be? I want to make this for my dad to have. Thank you.
Pamela Reed says
Hey Kristen, please check out the section in the post called “Can I freeze stuffed pepper casserole?”. It provides full freezing instructions! 🙂
Brit says
Would I be able to cook the rice ahead of time before baking to cut down on cook time in the oven?
Pamela Reed says
Yup! Some people in the comments have done this or used instant rice to speed up the baking time. Hope this helps!
Brit says
Ok, thanks! Would I still use the same amount of broth and tomato sauce?