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 casserole ideas!
This green bell pepper recipe is based on my mom’s stuffed peppers. Growing up one of my mother’s favorite meals to make was stuffed peppers. Whenever I go back to visit my Dad I always ask him to think of a meal or two he wants me to make and he always requests this bell pepper and ground beef casserole!
What isn’t there to love about stuffed peppers? Fresh peppers, ground beef, tomato sauce, rice – all smothered in melted mozzarella cheese? Yes, please, gimme a plate!
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 Quesadilla casserole with ground beef, Taco spaghetti casserole with ground beef, Cheesy Taco Casserole with Ground Beef and Potato hamburger casserole too!
Ingredients for deconstructed bell pepper casserole
Your search is over if you’re looking for a easy dinner casserole idea! You probably already have all the ingredients in your kitchen!
- ground beef
- minced garlic
- chopped onion
- green peppers (when we’re picking green peppers in the garden this is our favorite green bell pepper recipe!)
- diced tomatoes (want to make homemade diced tomatoes?)
- tomato sauce
- beef broth
- white rice
- Worcestershire sauce
- salt & pepper
- mozzarella cheese
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.
Pin for later:
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!
Kimberly says
This is a new favorite! We added spinach and green chilies and served it with sour cream and tortilla chips. Thank you
Debbie says
Delicious! My husband keeps asking me to make this every week, and I do. We love it.
Pam Pfeffer says
This was fantastic. I will be making this soon.
MARTHA R. HINTON says
we loved it, I got 5 grab-it bowls. 3 for later, will be frozen. Martha
MARTHA R. HINTON says
I like this recipe, I got 5 individual serving [corning grab-it bowls.] My man said: “it smells good!} I am glad I can add turkey next time. Baking 2 in oven for supper tonight. Martha
Nikki says
This was easy to make and so so delicious! I used diced tomatoes with chilis just to add some spice and WOW! So good!
Ruthie S says
So tasty
Mary says
I just made this recipe again, made it last week to use up our green peppers from our garden. This is delicious and so easy to make.
Michelle says
I can’t wait to try
Kelli says
I’m using cauliflower rice instead of regular, how long should I cook this?
Pamela says
Hey Kelli, if using cauliflower rice I would bake for 30 minutes, add the cheese and then cook for 5 more minutes.
Jen says
This is a easy, delicious and very inexpensive meal to make! My 6 yr old usually won’t eat the pepper, just the stuff inside…she LOVED this recipe!! We definitely will be making this again and passing the recipe along! Thanks 😊
Marta Hoffman says
We have made this recipe many times. It is so good and well-rounded. Not many dishes taste this good as leftovers!!
Pamela says
Hey Marta, glad to hear you like this! The leftovers are so good, right?!
Jill B says
This was amazing and such an inexpensive dinner to make. I didn’t have white rice so I used 1/2 cup of Knorrs taco rice. My 17 month old LOVED it.
Kris M says
This is a good recipe! Can I make this in a slow cooker? If so, how long would I cook it? Thank you.
Cat says
Oh my gosh we love this recipe. I also added red and yellow peppers. To die for
Jamie says
Really enjoyed it! We didn’t have spinach on hand, but added mushrooms. Used brown rice. Will make again.
Pamela says
Glad you liked this casserole, thanks for commenting! Love the addition of mushrooms in it!
Julie Davis says
This recipe checks all of the boxes for me: easy to do; very tasty; and, uses veggies from my garden. I did substitute ground turkey, chicken broth, Swiss Chard and fresh herbs from my garden because that’s what I had but this recipe is so versatile that it all works. Had intended to freeze leftover portions but it was gone! Thanks for another keeper recipe!
June says
I’ve made this dish so many times (with brown rice). I’m not a fan of the traditional stuffed pepper dish (too much pepper at once), but this casserole hits in all the right places and is the best taste ratio of all the ingredients in each bite. I usually sub the diced tomatoes for crushed for personal texture preferences. Always delicious, chock full of veggies, and super easy to make. Thank you!
Paul says
Great recipe! Loved it! Made it with vegi ground, was awesome! Made an extra one for my daughter and son in law! They both loved it also.
Thanks so much for this recipe, it’s a favorite comfort food for cold rainy days
Pamela says
Thanks for commenting Paul, I love that you made this veggie friendly! Thanks for stopping by!
Faye Boesing says
Can you use minute rice or balsamic
G Schroeder says
It’s an easy, delicious recipe. Everyone over served it to love it and asks for the recipe. There are two things I’ve changed: I added 2 tsp of Italian seasoning and used yellow, red and green peppers.
Miss Adelle says
to G. Shroeder–love your changes, I put some other greens in mine too. I have a huge garden with loads of greens, having to give away…I added arugula, Swiss chard, spinach, and kale, (used more than recipe calls for…I used 1 lb ground beef and 1/2 pound sausage, three peppers (red, green, and yellow) added a bit more here and there…this recipe is highly adaptable to changes. I used an Italian blend of cheeses. Thank you for the recipe.
Pati M says
The flavor is great & I added more Dinah & corn, plus a little more cheese. Delish! I did use brown rice & that added 30 more min of cook time so be aware of that.
We are trying not to spend $$ on delivery food or those meal kit places so we are finding recipes online. This was a nice twist on stuffed peppers.
Thanks!
Connie says
Bring it to all our neighborhood dinners. Everyone wants my recipe!