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.

Pin recipe Print

Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 50 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr 10 minutes mins

Servings 4

Ingredients 

1x2x3x?

• 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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, and they sit within one of the most charming traditions in French cooking: petits farcis, which translates simply as “little stuffed things.” Anything round and vegetable gets filled with rice, herbs, breadcrumbs, and whatever else is around. Tomatoes, courgettes, onions, aubergines. In Provence and Nice, the growing season is long and the markets overflow with summer vegetables. Stuffing them was practical, delicious, and so French.

The tradition behind this stuffed peppers recipe

This stuffed bell peppers recipe comes from a region where vegetables have always been the star of the table. Provence has never needed meat to cook well. The olive oil, the French herbs, the tomatoes, the peppers, the long slow heat of a southern French summer, all of it produces vegetables so good that stuffing them and roasting them slowly feels like the most natural thing in the world.

The vegetarian version is just as traditional as the meat one. In Catholic France, meatless days were woven into the calendar throughout the year. Fridays, Lent, saints’ days. French cooks needed dishes that felt genuinely satisfying without meat, and filled peppers answered that perfectly. Rice, breadcrumbs, cheese, and herbs make a filling with enough substance to anchor a meal, without being heavy.

This isn’t a modern adaptation or a compromise. It’s the original version.

Why sweet bell peppers work so well

Stuffed bell peppers hold their shape through a long bake better than almost any other vegetable. The walls are thick enough to protect the filling, the cavity is generous enough to hold a proper amount of rice, and the natural sweetness of the pepper intensifies as it roasts. By the time this stuffed bell pepper recipe comes out of the oven, the peppers are tender, slightly caramelised at the edges, and completely transformed from what went in.

Colour matters too. Red and yellow peppers are sweeter than green, which can carry a slight bitterness. For this recipe, red or yellow give you the best result, both visually and in flavour.

The technique that makes a difference

Roasting the peppers briefly before stuffing them is a step some recipes skip, but it makes a real difference. It softens them slightly so they don’t need as long in the final bake, and it intensifies their natural sweetness before the filling even goes in. French cooks are practical like that. Small steps that improve the final dish without adding much work.

The tomato sauce on the bottom of the dish is traditional in Provence and not optional. As the stuffed peppers bake, the rice filling absorbs the sauce from below, keeping everything moist and adding a slow-cooked depth of flavour. Skip it and the filling can dry out and the peppers can turn tough. Keep it and the whole dish comes together beautifully.

The right dish for roasting

For this stuffed peppers recipe, you need a baking dish that holds the peppers snugly upright, distributes heat evenly, and can go from oven to table without a second thought. I use the Le Creuset baking dish for this. The stoneware retains heat brilliantly, which means the tomato sauce on the bottom simmers gently throughout the bake rather than drying out. The size is perfect for four filled peppers sitting comfortably side by side. And it’s attractive enough to serve from directly at the table, which is the Provençal way, no transferring, just the dish in the middle and everyone helping themselves.

How to serve these

In Provence, stuffed bell peppers are served warm rather than hot, which allows the filling to settle and the flavours to develop fully. A simple green salad alongside, dressed with good olive oil and a little red wine vinegar. Some crusty bread to mop up the tomato sauce from the bottom of the dish. A glass of chilled rosé from the region if you want to do it properly.

This is Provençal summer cooking at its best. Unfussy, generous, and completely satisfying.