A homemade meatball mixture is stuffed into green bell peppers to make this tasty Meatball Stuffed Peppers recipe.
For more meat-filled recipe ideas, check out all our beef recipes.
Pete was cleaning off my car once, when we still lived in New York and it was snowing, when he got the idea that he wanted to make meatball stuffed peppers.
And then, hours later, we were eating his idea.
You can pretty much stuff peppers with anything that will fit inside a pepper (meats, veggies, and rice too). This time around, Pete stuffed them with a variation of his mom’s meatball recipe.
We’ve tweaked it over the years because I like an all-beef recipe rather than a blend, and that’s the recipe we settled on below.
If you have your own meatball recipe, you can use that but follow our instructions to stuff and cook the peppers.
If you have leftover bell peppers after making this recipe, you can use it in one of our other Easy Bell Pepper Recipes.
Meatball Stuffed Peppers Recipe
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Meatball Stuffed Peppers Ingredients:
You can get the full list of ingredients with measurements in the recipe card below.
- Bell peppers – We use green bell pepper because of the color contrast, but you could use orange or red.
- Salt – You need some to season the peppers and some for the meatball mixture.
- Pepper – Some is to season the peppers and the rest is for the meatball mixture.
- Ground beef – If you want, you can swap the ground beef for ground turkey or ground chicken. The taste will be different, though, so I suggest adding a tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce into the meat mixture. That helps ground poultry taste more like ground beef.
- Garlic – Fresh garlic has more flavor than jarred garlic.
- Eggs – These act as a binder in the meatball mixture.
- Grated Parmesan cheese – This adds salt to the meatball mixture.
- Italian seasoned bread crumbs – These act as a binder, plus absorb some of the liquid, making the meatballs really tender.
- Italian seasoning – This flavors the meatball mixture.
- Marinara sauce – Any brand, including homemade, works.
How To Make Meatball Stuffed Peppers:
Pre-heat the oven to 350 F.
Wash the peppers. Cut the tops of and spoon out the insides. Season with half the salt and pepper.
Put the ground beef, chopped garlic, eggs, Parmesan cheese, bread crumbs, Italian seasoning, and the remaining salt and pepper in a bowl.
Mix until the ingredients are combined. Using your hands is the best way to go.
Stuff your peppers with the meatball mixture. You can push down on the meatball mixture so it’s as packed in as possible, but you may need to cook them a little longer if the meat is too packed in.
Place three peppers in a 8- x 4-inch bread pan. Bake for 45 to 60 minutes until the meat is cooked to 160 F and the peppers are soft and wrinkly on the outside.
Take your peppers out of the oven and top with sauce and cheese.
Serve them with pasta, garlic bread, or a great side salad.
Meatball Stuffed Peppers: Frequently Asked Questions
Some people will boil green peppers before stuffing them in order to soften the pepper before cooking. But, if you cook the peppers long enough, they’ll soften up on their own and you can omit boiling the peppers first.
If you have any leftover meatball mixture, or you don’t need to stuff six peppers at once, you can simply turn that into meatballs.
Use a cookie scoop to measure out enough mix for a meatball. Roll it into a ball and place it on a cookie sheet. Bake it at 350 F for about 20 to 25 minutes.
Since these will be done before the Meatball Stuffed Peppers, you can serve them as an appetizer before the main course.
Store leftover stuffed peppers in an airtight container in the fridge for three to five days.
If you’ve made too many stuffed peppers, you can freeze the leftovers. After you’ve cooked the stuffed peppers and they’ve cooked, wrap them in foil and place them in a freezer safe bag. The stuffed peppers will last about three months in the fridge.
To reheat them, defrost the frozen stuffed peppers in the fridge overnight. Heat them for about 20 to 30 minutes at 350 F.
More Stuffed Pepper Recipes:
If you’re in the mood for stuffed peppers now, try our Rice & Sausage Stuffed Peppers too.
Meatball Stuffed Peppers
A homemade meatball mixture is stuffed into green bell peppers to make this tasty Meatball Stuffed Peppers recipe.
Ingredients
- 6 green peppers
- 1/2 teaspoon salt, plus 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper, plus 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 16 oz. ground beef
- 5 cloves garlic, chopped
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for garnish
- 1/2 cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs
- 2 tablespoons Italian seasoning
- 1/2 cup marinara sauce
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 350 F.
- Wash the peppers. Cut the tops of and spoon out the insides. Season with half the salt and pepper.
- Put the ground beef, chopped garlic, eggs, Parmesan cheese, bread crumbs, Italian seasoning, and the remaining salt and pepper in a bowl. Mix until the ingredients are combined.
- Stuff your peppers with the meatball mixture.
- Place three peppers in a 8- x 4-inch bread pan. Bake for 45 minutes until the meat is cooked to 160 F and the peppers are soft and wrinkly on the outside.
- Take your peppers out of the oven and top with sauce and cheese.
Notes
If you want to make less peppers, you can save any extra meatball mixture to make meatballs.
Nutrition Information
Yield
6Serving Size
1Amount Per Serving Calories 353Total Fat 18gSaturated Fat 7gTrans Fat 1gUnsaturated Fat 9gCholesterol 137mgSodium 828mgCarbohydrates 19gFiber 3gSugar 5gProtein 28g
Have you tried this Meatball Stuffed Peppers recipe yet? Let us know what you thought in the comments.