This is my version of a dish my parents have been making for as long as I can recall. They always serve it with a big Greek salad on the side as well as kalamata olives and some cut up feta cheese. So good! They bake them in the oven which I really like, but when I made these a week or two ago in the oven with black rice in the stuffing, I of course didn’t account for how long they would take to cook, I am not always the best at that type of longer term dinner planning. I didn’t get them into the oven until nearly 7:30pm, OOPS! We definitely didn’t eat dinner until 9:30pm that night, which I am not necessarily a fan of.
After that dinner, we got even more peppers and tomatoes the following Saturday in our CSA from Porter Farms, including more of the beautiful purple bell peppers, which are just beautiful. I thought I would try making these again since they are such a great use for the veggies, but this time in the Crock Pot, so they can just cook away all day and be hot and ready for us when we were ready for them. It turned out perfect, the peppers and tomatoes were nicely roasted and tender, but not too soft, the stuffing had a delicious taste and the wild rice had a sweet and nutty bite to it.
The thing I like a little bit better about making these in the oven versus the Crock Pot is if you take the foil off for a little bit, you can get a little crispiness to some of the stuffing, but other than that, the Crock Pot version is just as delicious. If you are making this in the oven and you have a bit more room, I also enjoying filling zucchini and eggplant with this stuffing.
Sadly these are so much more beautiful when they go into the Crock Pot versus when they come out, but I promise what the veggies lack in color, they make up for in taste.
[print_this]Crock-Pot Stuffed Tomatoes and Peppers – Gluten-free + Dairy-free
Serves 4
- 1 lb raw local pasture-raised ground beef
- 1/2 cup uncooked wild rice (you can also use brown or white rice, black rice is also quite delicious)
- 1 28-ounce can of organic diced tomatoes
- 1 small onion, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 stalks celery, diced
- 1/4 cup fresh herbs, chopped – I used basil and oregano
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1/4 – 1/3 cup water
- 6-9 tomatoes and peppers (I only had room for 7 veggies total in my crockpot but I could have filled 1 or 2 more with stuffing)
In a large bowl, mix all of the stuffing ingredients together (except for the water and the peppers). You can really get your hands in there if you wanna make sure it is well mixed.
Cut off the tops of the tomatoes and peppers and set aside. Take out the seeds and ribs on the peppers. For the tomatoes, scoop out some of the inside flesh you can add it to the stuffing or put it aside for use in something else. Wash and clean out the peppers and tomatoes, give them a quick dry.
Stuff each pepper and tomato with a good amount of the ground beef and wild rice mixture
Nestle the peppers and tomatoes into your crock and put the l tops back on. Pour in water around the bases of the peppers and tomatoes, you want just enough to cover the bottom of the crock pot.
Cook on low for about 6-8 hours.
Depending on how tightly you have them packed in there, you’ll need to be a little careful when removing the veggies from your Crock Pot, you don’t want them to bust open and ruin your pretty presentation (like my tomato decided to do). They are definitely tender, the tomatoes especially. Salt and pepper to taste, if need be when serving.
Oven Option – Preheat the oven to 400º F. Prepare the peppers and tomatoes the exact same way. Add them to a glass baking pan, with just a drizzle of water at their bases. Cover with foil and bake for approximately 2 hours until the rice is fully cooked. [/print_this]
21 Responses
Wow my goodness those photos are mouth-watering. All of the colors are so beautiful. I love stuffed peppers, I have never thought to make them in the crock-pot though. Brilliant.
Thanks Janet! I am so happy they turned out so wonderfully, it was definitely an experiment.
Awesome!! I needed a dinner idea for tonight that would use up some of my garden tomatoes! Thanks, the pictures are making me drool!
Thanks Portia – hope you enjoyed these if you made them!
oh my gosh that looks like comfort food 101! so delicious!
Thanks Caralyn! I am all about the comfort foods once September hits!
Is the rice precooked? I’ve made something similar before but I always brown the meat and cook the rice first. I love the crock pot idea and coming home to dinner already made.
Great question, thanks for asking I should have noted that. I will go an update the recipe now. Actually it is uncooked rice and raw ground beef. It’s sooo easy to just quick throw together and plop in the crock pot, dinner made in like 10 minutes, I love it! Thanks for reading!
What a great way to use all those beautiful fresh peppers from your CSA Box. I got some in my box this week and they were so sweet and crunchy.
Thanks Jeanette! We’ve got peppers for days over here so I have been getting really creative with them 🙂 Like yours, they are so sweet and crunchy that I have been eating some raw with hummus and it has been perfect!
I love how simple this dish is. What an easy and perfect weeknight meal!
Thanks so much Sarah!
mmm. I seem to be craving fall comfort food early this year, so this is calling my name 🙂
I have been too, which is crazy considering it is still in the mid-80s here! Pretty soon it will be cold for months on end though, so I am certainly not going to rush it too much!
So glad I found this stuffed pepper recipe! I have big, green peppers up to my eyeballs and I remembered seeing this recipe a few weeks ago on Facebook. I love this blog…I will be visiting often as my daughter and I are attempting “gluten-free” living. We just feel so much better and don’t have that “bloated puffiness” white flour products leave us with. Rock on, Beth!!
Hi Leith! I am so glad you found me and I hope you like the stuffed peppers if you make them. I agree I have never ever felt better, it’s amazing what a HUGE role food plays in our overall well being. I don’t think people give it enough credit!
[…] fridge, cook them in the Crock-Pot (or oven of course), and you have an excellent meal! (based on a this recipe from Tasty […]
I finally made these since our garden is finally producing peppers, the rice didn’t really cook at all though. I used brown rice, would that make a difference? My crock pot might not be working great, I checked after about 7 hours on low, the meat was cooked but the rice was not at all. So I transferred to the oven and even after 3 hours it wasn’t really cooked? I did put the extra filling in the pan but I did add the water too, so I thought that would be enough. Was it the extra filling, the rice in the peppers didn’t cook well either, even less than the extra. So I’m not really sure what do do, but if I ever made these again I will be precooking the rice.
[…] Crock Pot Stuffed Tomatoes and Peppers (Gluten Free) – Tasty Yummies […]
Just took these out of the croc-pot and they’re DIVINE. I substituted the rice for quinoa and added some red chilli flakes for an extra kick.
SO GOOD. Definitely recommend this recipe.
I’d like to substitute Quinoa for the rice. How much uncooked Quinoa would you recommend?