Stuffed Pepper Soup
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A super easy, fast, budget-friendly one pot dinner! So hearty and so cozy with ground beef, rice and bell peppers.
If you love stuffed peppers, you will love this as a soup. It takes minimal effort and can be made in 45 min start to finish (with most of the time simmering so all the wonderful flavors can meld together).
The ingredient list is also not very long, with the main ingredients as ground beef, onion, bell peppers, and white rice.
Is this soup freezer-friendly? I will say that after some recipe testing, this soup will not freeze well with the rice as the rice can become mushy once thawed and reheated. If you plan to freeze, I recommend freezing without the rice, adding it in prior to serving. It will make all the difference.
My only ask is to serve with crusty bread, a light salad, and a sprinkling of mozzarella cheese right on top.
Stuffed Pepper Soup
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon canola oil
- 1 pound lean ground beef
- 1 medium sweet onion, diced
- 1 red bell pepper, diced
- 1 green bell pepper, diced
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 ½ teaspoons Italian seasoning
- ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- 2 (14.5-ounce) cans diced tomatoes
- 1 (8-ounce) can tomato sauce
- 3 cups beef broth
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 2 cups cooked white rice
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
Instructions
- Heat canola oil in a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add ground beef and cook until browned, about 3-5 minutes, making sure to crumble the beef as it cooks; drain excess fat and set aside.
- Add onion and bell peppers. Cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 3-4 minutes.
- Stir in garlic, Italian seasoning and red pepper flakes until fragrant, about 1 minute.
- Stir in diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, beef broth and ground beef; season with salt and pepper, to taste. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer until flavors have blended, about 15-20 minutes.
- Stir in rice and parsley until heated through, about 1-2 minutes.
- Serve immediately.
Did you make this recipe?
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What a fun weekend dinner. I added shredded chicken because I had some, and it was hit. We gobbled up almost the whole pot in one sitting. Yum!
Wow, this is excellent! Hearty like a stew.
I used red and orange peppers, omitted the Kosher salt and used a 14 oz can of tomato sauce. Plenty of ways you could “make it your own”.
This will be even better day two! I will definitely make this again. Might be great over pasta.
Hearty and delicious one of my favorite soups.
I made this tonight. The kids and I loved it.
Just made it this evening and it was delicious! I’ve been on the search for a good recipe for this type of soup and I’m so excited that I finally found this one!
Delicious and easy to make
This recipe is definitely a keeper. If you love all the best parts of a stuffed bell pepper but not crazy about the ratio of stuffing to bell pepper…this is the recipe for you. 10/10 recommend
Awesome read. I just passed this onto a friend who was doing a little research on that. He just bought me lunch since I found it for him! So let me rephrase: Thanks for lunch!
Favorite new soup!!! So full of flavor. I thought it made a bunch but everyone loved it and devoured it.
Love this soup. I used fire roasted canned tomatoes to spice it up. Also added a bit of celery and instead of using rice I add acini di pepe pasta, 3/4 cup as we weren’t feeling rice.
i agree with carrie w- this is absolutely great as written, but also so flexible that now i rarely follow it to the exact hah! just today when i made it, we had 1.3 lbs of meatloaf mix instead of 1lb beef, one 28 oz can crushed tomatoes instead of two small diced, added a third bell pepper because i had it to use up, did a whole 4 cup carton of beef broth because i didnt want to put part of one in the fridge (and figured id already added more solids anyway so itd compensate) and forgot all about the tomato sauce until we were about to serve. and it was still awesome! really, its soup, so as long as you play with the flavors and ratios to your liking, youre gonna be happy.
sometimes i sub a can of tomatoes with chilies, or add a can of adobes, or add corn and some southwest spices. its a great soup whether you make it as is or use it as a base! and i do strongly agree, keep your rice separate and add it per bowl, or else youll wont have soup when you reheat it, youll have saucy rice. which is still very tasty, just isnt soupy.
Made it for out of town guest, was such a big hit. Loved so much making it tonight on a cold snowy day, can’t wait!
Tried this Stuffed Pepper Soup, excellent recipe! This has become a family favorite You will not regret it. Easy easy to make! Thanks
What a delicious and hearty soup!
Had to add extras ! Spicy Italian sausage insides cooked, large can of fire roasted tomatoes, kale and diced potatoes.
Fresh grated Parmesan topping.
We served with rice and flaky layer biscuits.
Very delicious. I read the comments before making it and tweaked it all a little . I feel like this will be my go to recipe now. Thanks so much.
Very good soup. I took the advice of others and added some tomato paste. Also used one can of fire roasted diced tomatoes and one of the regular diced tomatoes. Dash of garlic and onion powder and used 15oz of tomato sauce. The Parmesan cheese was just perfect. Thank you!
I really love how flexible this recipe is. It is great, as written, but it is super easy to customize it to the flavors you like in your own stuffed peppers. This recipe is one of my favorites if we have a bunch of leftover rice to use up. I generally loathe when people review a recipe and change a thousand things about it and then rave about how good it is with the changes so I will make it super clear, this recipe gets 5 stars as written, because I’ve made it that way. And I’ve also modified it over time as I’ve used up stuff in the pantry and fridge so here’s my experience with that…
I’ve found that we prefer to add the rice to each bowl as you serve it because it does suck up a LOT of the liquid as it sits. If you have leftovers (we typically do with a smaller family), by the time you eat it the next day, it comes out basically as really saucy broken down rice instead of soup with rice. Yeah – you have to store 2 containers in the fridge, but I think it is better for it!
I am making this as a slow cooker recipe today. I started late so it is 4 hours on high, but have had great success doing 8 hours on low as well. Do NOT add the rice into it until just before you serve (or add it to each bowl as you serve, as suggested above). The rice texture will be super mealy if you add it at the start, and you’ll have to add more liquid.
Also – I buy tomato sauce in a 15 oz can and this recipe calls for 8oz. Rather than waste half a can, I just dump the entire thing in and it is still fine. I made per recipe the first time and it was delicious, and since I had put the rice in all at oncre, it needed extra liquid the next day so I dumped the rest in anyway. Now I just start out that way!
Best advise is definitely add cooked rice to the bowls. I also add some uncooked in the pot (1/2 cup) for body to the soup. Add extra flavourings as needed, for us hot sauce and topping with cheese is great!
I used this recipe as a base. I had giant marconi sweet peppers, a hot banana pepper & tomato’s from my garden to use so I added 1/2 small can of tomato paste I reduced the broth amount & the rice, every thing else was added & prepared as described. It turned out great.
Great recipe! Added pinch of baking soda to tame the acidity of the tomatoes. I maybe would add more beef broth & less tomatoes or sauce next time. Also substituted #4 orzo (tiny) for rice.
This was awesome. I left out the red pepper but everything else followed the recipe. Will make again!
I made a double batch of this; it was easier since I had a 6 cup carton of beef broth. I made this without the red pepper flakes, salt and pepper. It’s awesome! I think it would be great without meat, also. Thanks for the recipe!
So delicious, healthy and super easy to make!
I’ve made this several times now. I add green chilies, chopped mushrooms, about a cup of peas and a lot more stock.
It was delicious!
so good! i chose yellow + orange bell peppers to add a level of sweetness to the acidity/robust flavor & added cumin & cayenne pepper for a little kick but other than that, i stuck to the recipe! 10/10 sooo good
Just made this and wish I doubled the recipe. I like to try new recipes every week and this will be in my note book as a keeper.
I don’t like peppers much, but during the summer I have a lot of peppers and tomatoes to cook with, so I made this for my extremely picky husband, because we grow or raise most of the ingredients. I used my roasted tomatoes in place of all the canned stuff.
I was “eh” about it the first night, but lunch as leftovers on croissants with Brie (and then buttered toast) it was amazing. And my husband absolutely loved it.
This was the best soup I’ve made in ages. My husband is not a fan of soup, but he loved it! I used brown rice for extra nutrients.
I want to say this, this was the best Damn stuffed Pepper Soup. Thank you for sharing with all of us.
Amazing
Is tomato sauce just ketchup ?
It is not Ketchup. It is closer to spaghetti sauce than ketchup. If I didn’t have tomato sauce, I might substitute tomato puree or tomato paste. Tomato juice might work as well.
I made this according to the recipe, I feel 2cups of rice is way too much, when I added the rice to the soup it absorbed all of the liquid. I had to add a half cup of water and another 2cups of stock! I was good. Will make it again using less rice!!
I am making this for dinner tonight and almost added 2 cups of uncooked rice, but realized that the recipe calls for 2 cups of already cooked rice!! Maybe that’s what you did? I haven’t finished cooking yet, so cannot speak to how it turns out for me.
I agree. There’s too much rice. I thought of that before I added it so I added it a little at a time. Another thought would be adding a little rice in the bowl then add the soup mixture. It was really good though.
We do use that much rice, but we add to each bowl as it is served. I don’t find that it is lacking in flavor, but it keeps the soup, soupy.
Excellent! Made exactly according to recipe. Wouldn’t change a thing. Everyone thought it was very tasty and and an easy meal. Thank you!
Are you able to can this soup?
Hi Carol, note this is not recommended by the FDA or other canning “experts.”
I have canned this multiple times in pint jars, processed in pressure canner for 75 minutes (near sea level). I don’t add rice when canning. I serve it over cooked rice when I open a jar.
Note I simmer this at a low boil for 10 minutes after opening jar and before eating (which would kill any undetected botulism). Everyone raves about this canned soup.
I also double the recipe when I’m going to can it.
Made this a day ahead for dinner last night. Very good and tasting like stuffed peppers. I did add one more pepper extra vegie’s. Another great winter soup from DD. Would not change anything.
Made this exactly as written for lunch today, and it was superb! My wife said it was even better than stuffed peppers. High praise indeed. We’ll be making this one lots. Thanks again, Chungah and team!
This was so good and easy and simple and everyone at my table actually ate dinner. Thank you!
I didn’t serve it with crusty bread or a light salad because tiny people were getting hangery. The mozzarella was good, but we also enjoyed sharp white cheddar.
This is absolutely delicious! Since I’m trying to watch my weight, I followed your recipe but substituted some healthier ingredients… ground turkey for the ground beef, chicken broth for the beef broth, and riced cauliflower for the rice. I was skeptical of the substitutions but it was wonderful. It was hard to stop eating it!
Just made this with ground chicken instead of beef. It’s so delicious! It will be in regular rotation at our house!
Delicious and my kiddos who are normally pretty picky loved it as well!
I made this yesterday and my husband and I loved it. I’m passing the recipe on to my daughter-in-law.
Can you use ground turkey
Yes! Even Ground Chicken!!!
Absolutely delicious, and definitely replicates the flavors of stuffed peppers.
My only adjustments were to add a little sugar to cut the acid and shredded Parmesan sprinkle rather than mozzarella.
I would add a can of black beans to this recipe as I put that in my stuffed peppers.