Stuffed Peppers

Dinner

Sweet bell peppers roasted until their skins blister and their flesh goes soft and yielding, stuffed with herbed rice, tomatoes, and melted cheese. The peppers taste caramelized and almost jammy, whilst the filling is fragrant with Provençal herbs, thyme, oregano, maybe a bit of basil. It's the vegetarian version of a Provençal classic, comforting, sunny-flavored, and surprisingly filling.

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Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 50 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr 10 minutes mins

Servings 4

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Ingredients  

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• 4 bell peppers red, yellow, or both
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 200 gr rice
• 1 onion
• 3 cloves garlic
• 250 gr tomatoes
• 100 gr breadcrumbs
• 100 gr Gruyère or Parmesan
• 200 ml tomato sauce
• 2 egg
• 1 handful parsley
• 1 handful thyme
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• salt and black pepper

Equipment

• 1 baking dish
• 1 frying pan
• 1 knife
• 1 chopping board
• 1 mixing bowl
• 1 wooden spoon

Instructions

1. 1. Prepare the peppers

   Preheat your oven to 180°C (160°C fan). Cut the tops off the peppers, about 2cm down from the stem, and keep the tops. Scoop out all the seeds and white membrane from inside. If the peppers won't stand upright, slice a tiny bit off the bottom to give them a flat base, but don't cut through into the cavity. Rub the outside of each pepper with a bit of olive oil. Place them cut-side down on a baking tray and roast for 15 minutes, this softens them slightly and makes the final bake quicker. Set aside.
2. 2. Make the filling

   Heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the chopped onion and cook for 6-7 minutes until soft and sweet. Add the garlic and cook for another minute. Add the chopped tomatoes and cook for 5 minutes, letting them break down into a sauce. If using pine nuts, add them now and toast for 2 minutes. Season well with salt and pepper.
3. 3. Build the filling mixture

   Take the pan off the heat and tip everything into a large mixing bowl. Add the cooked rice, breadcrumbs, half the grated cheese, the eggs, and all the fresh herbs. Mix everything together really well, use your hands, it's easier. The mixture should be moist but not wet, and should hold together when you squeeze it. Taste it and adjust the seasoning, it needs to be quite well seasoned because the peppers will dilute the flavour.
4. 4. Stuff the peppers

   Pour the passata or tomato sauce into the bottom of your roasting dish, this keeps the peppers moist and stops them sticking. Stand the peppers upright in the oven dish. Spoon the rice filling into each pepper, packing it in firmly and mounding it slightly on top. Don't worry if it's heaped up, it'll settle as it cooks. Sprinkle the remaining grated cheese over the top of each pepper. Drizzle with a little olive oil. You can put the pepper tops back on at this point if you want, though many people leave them off.
5. 5. Bake

   Cover the dish loosely with foil and bake for 25 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for another 15-20 minutes until the peppers are really soft and slightly charred around the edges, and the filling is golden and set on top. The peppers should be tender enough that you can cut through them easily with a fork.
6. 6. Rest and serve

   Let them sit for 5 minutes before serving, they're molten hot straight from the oven and need a moment to settle. Serve each pepper with some of the tomato sauce from the bottom of the dish spooned around it.

Notes

• Cook your rice the day before if you can, cold rice works better in the filling because it’s less sticky and absorbs flavours better.
• Leftover cooked rice is perfect for this.
• Red and yellow peppers are sweeter than green when roasted. Orange works too. Avoid green, they stay bitter.
• For a vegan version, skip the eggs and cheese. Add 2 tablespoons of tomato purée and an extra handful of breadcrumbs to bind the filling. Top with nutritional yeast instead of cheese.
• If you like it more substantial, add cooked lentils to the rice mixture, about 100g.
• Fresh herbs make a real difference here. If using dried, halve the quantities.
• These keep in the fridge for 3 days. They’re actually good cold, proper picnic food.
• You can freeze the stuffed (but uncooked) peppers. Defrost completely before baking, and add 10 minutes to the cooking time.
• Toasted pine nuts add a lovely texture, but they’re not essential. Swap for chopped walnuts if you prefer!

About this recipe

These stuffed peppers are the vegetarian version of a Provençal classic. They’re part of a bigger tradition called petits farcis (little stuffed things) where anything round and vegetable gets stuffed with rice, herbs, breadcrumbs, and whatever else is around. Tomatoes, courgettes, onions, aubergines, summer vegetables that can hold a filling.

The tradition comes from Provence and Nice, where the growing season is long and vegetables are cheap and plentiful. It’s practical cooking, using what’s in the garden or market, stretching ingredients, feeding people well without spending much money.

The vegetarian version is just as traditional as the meat one. In Catholic France, there were plenty of meatless days throughout the year, Fridays, Lent, various saints’ days. Cooks needed vegetarian dishes that felt substantial, and stuffed vegetables filled that gap perfectly. Rice, breadcrumbs, cheese, and herbs make a filling that’s satisfying without being heavy.

The technique of roasting the peppers briefly before stuffing them is something not all recipes do, but it makes a difference. It softens them slightly so they don’t need as long in the final bake, and it intensifies their sweetness. French cooks are practical like that, little steps that make the final dish better without adding much work.

The rice filling absorbs the tomato sauce from the bottom of the dish as it bakes, which keeps everything moist and adds flavour. Some recipes skip the tomato sauce and just roast the peppers dry, but they can end up a bit tough and the filling can dry out. The sauce on the bottom is traditional in Provence!