Instant Pot Stuffed Bell Peppers
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Making instant pot stuffed bell peppers can’t get any easier than this! No pre-cooking of peppers or sautéing onion is needed. Simply fill with them and cook under pressure. Easy comfort food ready in no time!
Guys, have you tried making stuffed peppers? If you haven’t I highly recommend doing so. Juicy sweet peppers, ground beef & rice filling & tomato sauce complement each other and create a delicious dinner!
By the way, if you are looking for more pressure cooker recipes, check these out:
- Instant Pot Stuffed Pepper Soup
- Instant Pot Fried Rice
- Instant Pot Sweet Potato Gratin
- Instant Pot Bolognese Sauce
- Instant Pot Chicken Lentil Soup
Ingredients
- Sweet bell peppers
- Small onion
- Ground beef
- Cooked rice
- Marjoram
- Salt and pepper
- Tinned tomatoes
- Breadcrumbs
- Garlic
How long does it take to cook stuffed peppers in a pressure cooker?
When using medium-sized peppers like I did the 8 minutes active cooking time is all it takes to make these instant pot stuffed peppers.
However, the time needed to cook these bell peppers may vary. If you are using very large peppers then you might need to add an extra minute or two to the overall cooking time – just to be sure they are cooked through.
Now I used similar sized peppers but from 2 different producers and I noticed a slight difference in the tenderness. So please don’t be afraid to add more time if needed to adjust it to your needs.
How to make stuffed peppers in instant pot pressure cooker
If you know how to make beef and rice stuffed peppers in the oven, then all you need to do is use your instant pot instead of the oven. I like making instant pot stuffed peppers because it saves me time, energy and the peppers turn out extremely juicy.
To fill the peppers all you need to do is cut off the tops of the peppers. Then remove the seeds and membranes. When you are done, make the filling by combining finely chopped onion, garlic, beef, rice, marjoram, salt, black pepper and half of the tinned tomatoes (without the liquid). I use hands to mix this but you can also use a wooden spoon or a normal soup spoon. Just make sure you combine everything properly.
When you are done, fill each pepper to the top.
Now get your Instant Pot pressure cooker, pour in ½ cup water + the remaining tomatoes with juice. Insert in the steam rack and place the peppers onto it. You will fit 4 medium-large peppers in which will serve 4 people.
Lock the lid, place the steam release to the SEALING position and press MANUAL. Adjust the time to 8 minutes and you are done! Before opening the pot let the pressure drop naturally. It only takes about 4 minutes in this case.
I suggest letting it cool down slightly before serving as they will be piping hot.
Useful tips
- To make these pressure cooker stuffed bell peppers use any type of rice you like.
- Marjoram can be substituted with oregano.
- You can also add some fresh parsley to the filling.
- I sometimes add ketchup to the tomatoes right before serving to make the sauce richer.
- Great for meal prep: Cooked stuffed bell peppers can be stored in the fridge for up to 4 days!
- Optional – Top these stuffed bell peppers with shredded cheese right before serving!
Check out more Easy Instant Pot Recipes on my blog. Chicken Stock, Tortellini Soup, Chicken Paprikash … they all can be made in your Instant Pot!
Watch the video!
Instant Pot Stuffed Bell Peppers
Ingredients
- 4 bell peppers , medium
- 1 onion , small
- ½ pound ground beef (220 grams)
- 2 cups cooked rice , packed (300 grams)
- 1½ tablespoon marjoram
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 2 garlic cloves
- 3 tablespoons breadcrumbs
- 1 can tomatoes (14 ounces/400 grams)
- ½ cup water
Instructions
- Rinse the peppers. Cut off the top parts and remove all the membranes and seeds.
- In a bowl, combine together finely chopped onion, ground beef, cooked rice, marjoram, salt, pepper, minced garlic, breadcrumbs and ½ can of tomatoes (without their juice). Mix well using your hand or spoon.
- Fill each pepper with the mixture.
- Add water and the remaining tomatoes (with juices) to the inner pot of the instant pot. Insert the steam rack and place the stuffed peppers onto it.
- Lock the lid. Turn the steam release to SEALING and press MANUAL. Adjust the time to 8 minutes. Let the pressure release naturally (about 4 minutes) before opening the lid.
- Let the peppers cool down slightly before serving.
Notes
- This recipe was made in a 6-quart/6-liter instant pot.
- The cooking time does not include time needed for the pot to come to the pressure and release its pressure.
- If using large peppers you might need to adjust the cooking time slightly to make sure they are tender and the meat is cooked through.
- Marjoram can be substituted with oregano.
- This recipe is enough to fill 4 medium peppers. If you use large peppers you will need more filling.
- Optional: top cooked stuffed peppers with shredded cheese. You can also add some ketchup to the tomatoes to make it thicker and richer.
- The meat to rice ratio can be adjusted to your liking.
Can this be made in a crockpot?
Hi Linda. Sorry, but I have not tested this recipe in a slow cooker so I have no idea.
Hi! I want to do 3 servings in my 3 quart. Would that affect the cooking time?
Hi DJ. Now I don’t have a 3 quart instant pot so can’t say for sure. However, I would leave the cooking time the same. Hope this helps.
Do you brown the hamburger before putting them in the pot?
No, there is no need.
Too much filling for 4 peppers. The flavor was good and peppers were tender, but I would split them and lay them across the rack next time. What do I do with the juices in the pot? It seems a waste to just put tomatoes in the pot instead of putting on top of peppers. I fried up the leftover filling to serve beside the filled peppers. Will make again with some modifications
Hi Gayle. Thanks for your feedback. I used large peppers so if you buy smaller ones you will more likely end up with some leftover filling. This you can just throw in or form a small ball. Also the tomatoes act as liquid and we just pour this over the peppers when serving them.
I just made this and it was delish! I used turkey meat and brown rice along with roasted tomatoes, but I only had 1 long half pepper that was frozen and one small a yellow pepper that was fresh. So I had a lot of extra rice mix so what I ended up doing was putting that and the peppers in a pot in the pot situation and cooked it that way with the sauce underneath in the inner pot. It turned out pretty good I tested after about 10 minutes of cooking 5 minutes of natural release and the temperature was perfect. Then I added the sauce to the top of them and some cheese decided to cook them for another couple of minutes I just cooked it until it beeps that it was on pressure and then released the pressure. Excellent recipe. Thank you so much for making stuffed peppers available to me to make it anytime! This one is definitely a keeper!
That’s so good to hear, Cassie! Thanks for finding time to leave such a detailed feedback. Our readers will definitely appreciate it!
I loved stuffed bell peppers and this recipe just made me love them more!!!
👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
Yay! :) Thanks for your feedback, Joe.
This recipe is my husbands favorite stuffed pepper recipe. I have made it several times. Each time, he says, hope there’s leftovers for lunch! Thank you!
You are welcome, Joanne! Thank you for your feedback.
Can you use cauliflower rice instead of regular rice? Trying to stay as low carb as possible. Thank you
Hi Carl. I haven’t tried it, but I think it should work. Will be trying it myself next time so thanks for the idea!
Great basic recipe. Added some fresh corn cut from the cob and some barbecue sauce over the cooked peppers. Delicious.
Thanks so much for your feedback, Marianne!
These peppers are amazing! We love stuffed peppers but they’re so hard to pull off when you work out of the house all day. Plus it’s 116 in Phoenix and no! No oven! I did swap out the rice for riced cauliflower and you can’t even tell the difference.
THANK YOU I’m making these tonight for the second week in a row.
I love your substitution – will be trying it myself next time! Thanks for the inspiration :)
You can always make the stuffing and stuff the pepper in advance and freeze it….That way you can come home throw a few peppers in the instant pot and go take a bath and clean up while it cooks..When you are done cleaning supper will already be cooked.
This recipe was fast and delicious! I used both marjoram and thyme about half of each totaling 1-1/2 TB as the recipe calls for and about 1 TB of Worcestershire. The one thing that I prefer is a thicker sauce this sauce was more soupy. The flavor was delicious and I would make it again and recommend it as well.
Thanks for your feedback, Ann G!
This is our favorite instant pot recipe to make at home! I’m currently visiting my mom and want to make it, but she only has a slow cooker. Do you have a suggestion for time conversion in slow cooker or oven?
Hi Jessica. It will take about 45-60 minutes in the oven (I would cook it at 350 Fahrenheit/180 Celsius), but I would recommend cooking the ground meat beforehand. Then, you don’t have to worry – all you want is the peppers to soften to your liking and the filling to be heated through. Hope this helps.
Hi from the South Oregon Coast (Bandon, OR). I have only cooked hard boiled eggs in my Instant Pot 3 qt Mini Duo. They came out great! I want to try Stuffed Bell Peppers and saw your recipe which I like a lot. Reading through your instructions, it would be helpful for me to know that you are using a 6 Qt Instant Pot at the start of your recipe rather than at the bottom. I am not ready to make adjustments yet. That will be the first thing to do with the recipe. Then I know all of the different Instant Pots ARE different! You say to press MANUAL which I don’t have on my machine, I have PRESSURE COOK. Would that be the same thing? What changes would I made to your recipe to fit te 3 Qt that I have? I am thinking not as many peppers and cut down on ingredients accordingly. How about water? Still 1/2 cup? As far as cooking would it still lbe 8 minutes? I can’t think of anything else. Maybe I will also be learning how to adjust a recipe! Any help you can provide will be HELPFUL!
Hi Susan. All my recipe testing for pressure cooker recipes is done in a 6-quart instant pot.I have never tried cooking in any other kind or size of a pressure cooker, so I do not know if different cookers work differently, for that reason I always state what I use for recipe testing. As for your 3-quart pressure cooker – I’ve read that some recipes might need longer cooking time as it has lower pressure. However, I am afraid I don’t know if this is tru or how many extra minutes you need to add. Perhaps add 2 extra and check it if it is cooked through. If not, you will have to add more time. The amount of water will stay the same though as you need liquid so that the pot can come to pressure. Hope this helps.
This recipe was so easy, fast and very tasty.
Thanks so much for your feedback, Kathy!
I made this special treat for my darling husband. But of course it helped me too. I had two peppers (one green and a larger red one) that needed to be used. I also had some rice in the freezer and some left over groung beef. I basically cut the recipe in half, except for the tomatoes. I put in half a can of the tomotoes, put the balance in the base. Weighed out the right amount of meat and rice. Added part of a large onion and half of the suggested spices. After stuffing the peppers, there was some filling left. I placed this in a ramikin and nestled it in with the peppers. Everything came out great. DH would have liked more tomatoe flavor in the pepper (spooned on some from the bottom) and a bit more salt and pepper, but those were his person tastes. I ate the filling from the ramkin and thought it was fine. Thanks for providing this simple meal.
Thanks so much for finding time to write such a detailed feedback, Cathi! Hope you try more recipes from my blog :).
These are good and easy to make. I think I need to cook them a little longer next time. But I will make them again.
Do you brown the hamburger first? Our burger isn’t very lean, so I am wondering if I could brown it and drain it first and then mix it up with everything and put in the peppers?
Amy, I don’t. I am not sure how fatty your ground meat is but I would probably try making it without browning first. However, if you want to reduce the fat for health reasons, then I would reducing the pressure cooking time at least by a minute. Hope this helps.
What do you do if your instant pot doesn’t have a Manual button on it? Do you just do Pressure Cook?
Hi Carol. Yes. It’s the same function. The old instant pots have MANUAL button while the newer versions have the PRESSURE COOK. Happy instant pot cooking!
Hi there, can i sub the tomatoes with anything or simply leave them out? my husband is allergic. Is it crucial for the liquid in it or is it simply for flavour?
Hi Maggie. Tomatoes are added for both reasons you mentioned – the liquid (in the pot) and the flavor (in the meat mixture). However, if you husband is allergic to them, you can omit them. You will lose some flavor but it’s worth giving a go. They will just taste a little different (I think my mom don’t use tomatoes in her stuffed pepper recipe). Add 1 cup of water to the pot instead of tomatoes. You don’t need to add anything to the meat mixture, but you will get less filling so perhaps add a bit more meat or rice. Hope this helps! Please let us know if you give it a go!
I simply subbed lentils for the ground body parts to veganize this recipe and my family loved it! Thanks for the instructions, I probably would have forgot to use the steamer basket!
Hi Emma, thanks for letting us and our readers know that this can be turned into a vegan meal. Lentils sound like a great substitution!