These Keto Stuffed Peppers are made the classic way with ground beef, tomato, garlic, onion and spices topped with melty cheese. They’re perfect for the keto diet!
Quick prep and even quicker clean-up plus delicious to boot, these Keto Stuffed Peppers are made the traditional way so you know they’re good. We’ve got ground beef, tomato, garlic, onion and spices topped with melty cheese for one great meal!
You can make this recipe by the book, or let your imagination run wild if you so choose. (I make these Keto Philly Cheese Steak Stuffed Peppers all the time and even stuffed mushrooms!). Hollowed out bell peppers are a fantastic vehicle to stuff full of your favorite meats and veggies. Plus, they are a great way to add color to your diet in order to get a variety of phytonutrients. Stuffed peppers for the win!
Bell Pepper Facts
Because we are science nerds we wanted to give a little background into bell pepper so here we go…Whenever I think of foods rich in vitamin C, my mind always goes to oranges because that’s just what we’ve been taught contains the most. But did you know that bell peppers have more Vitamin C than oranges?
100 grams of green bell pepper contains 95.7 mg compared to 53.2 mg in 100 grams of oranges.
It seems pretty impressive, right? Well, green bell peppers are just the tip of the iceberg. Yellow and red varietals contain even more with 341 mg and 209 mg respectively. And it’s not just vitamin C either. A large red bell pepper contains over 5000 IU of vitamin A whereas a large yellow bell pepper only contains 372 IU.
I always feel my best when I try to incorporate a variety of colors into my diet, which I call “eating the rainbow”. These Keto Stuffed Peppers are great for that!
Bell peppers are a great way to accomplish this on keto (green is easy) because yellow and orange are sometimes troublesome to fit within your macros. Depending on the time of year and availability you can also find bell peppers in brown, white, lavender, and dark purple.
To read more about bell peppers and their variety of benefits, check out links below:
- Does a Bell Pepper Lose Vitamin C From Turning Yellow to Red? – Healthy Eating SFGate
- Which Bell Color Is The Healthiest? – Dove Med
- Eating The Rainbow: Why Eating a Variety of Fruits and Vegetables Is Important for Optimal Health – Food Revolution Network
Now, for some common questions:
How to make stuffed peppers:
- First, you’ll slice the tops off of your bell peppers and scoop out the seeds.
- Next, you’ll make your filling on the stovetop.
- After that, you’ll stuff the peppers with the filling and top with cheese.
- Transfer the peppers to the oven and bake until tender or until a fork easily pierces the side of the pepper.
What is in Keto Stuffed Peppers?
These have a meat mixture filling made with ground beef, olive oil, onions, garlic, diced tomatoes, Italian seasonings, and cauliflower rice. We also tucked in some cheese for good measure because cheese is so totally delicious. If you are dairy-free you can leave out the cheese.
Do I have to use a cast-iron skillet?
No, you can totally use a baking dish! Just be sure to choose one where all of the peppers touch so that they don’t tip over while baking.
Can I use ground chicken instead of beef?
Yes! Definitely. Feel free to swap any ground protein for the beef here. Turkey would also work great as would Italian sausage.
Can these be reheated?
Yes! These make a great meal-prep recipe. To reheat you’ll want to simply pop them in a 400° oven for about 10 minutes. The cheese will get nice and melty again, and let’s be honest. The cheese is the best part of any dish.
What is the nutritional information for these Keto Stuffed Peppers?
As always, you can find the full nutritional breakdown including the carb count (total carbs and net carbs) at the bottom of the recipe card and you can find the serving size/yield at the top of the recipe card. You should always double-check your specific ingredients because different brand’s ingredients may have different values.
For this recipe, each pepper is 10g net carbs.
Keto Stuffed Peppers
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- 2 tablespoons avocado oil
- 1 lb ground beef
- 1 medium onion chopped
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
- 1.5 cups cauliflower rice
- 6 bell peppers tops and cores removed
- 1 cup shredded Monterey jack cheese
- Freshly chopped parsley for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400° F.
- Heat the oil in a large 10.5” skillet over medium high heat. Add the beef and spices to the skillet and brown for 5-7 minutes before adding in the onion and garlic. Cook another 4-5 minutes until the onion starts to soften.
- Add in the tomato paste, diced tomatoes, and cauliflower rice. Cook 5 minutes, then divide the mixture between the peppers and top with cheese.
- Wipe out the skillet then place the filled peppers in the skillet, cover and bake for 30 minutes, uncover and bake another 10 until the cheese is bubbly.
- Top with parsley and serve.
Wonderful! Made them tonight. Will definitely make them again! Thanks for the recipe!
Thanks for the Recipe it was awesome 👌
Other than the cauliflower rice which I love this recipe seems pretty traditional .I have all the ingredients except the tomato paste Since I’m not doing Keto I’ll probably just substitute ketchup.I’m sure that will be OK .I’ll post some pictures when I get it done .
Made these for dinner a few weeks ago. Loved. loved. loved. them! =)
Is 1 pepper equal to 1 serving?
Yes
I made these for dinner tonight, Amazing!!!
So yummy even w Cauliflower rice.
Fantastic!! These were great! My husband (who is picky and not on keto) loved them too! Thank you for the great recipe!
Will these stay good in the fridge for five days? I’d like to take one everyday for lunch this week but not sure if I should freeze them instead. Thanks
Hi Lucinda! Yes, they should be fine in the refrigerator for 5 days as long as they are stored in an airtight container and reheated properly.
Excellent, made them tonight, so easy!
Delicious and easy to prepare!
Hi the recipe looks delicious. However I presume you did not mean 114.5 oz of diced tomatoes. I followed my intuition and merely added 14.5- 28 oz of diced tomatoes. Thank you for creating these wonderful recipes for us. God bless.
Hi Louise, definitely not – the recipe calls for one 14.5 ounce can, I can see where it would be easy to read through real fast and read it as 114.5 ounces. So glad you didn’t use 114.5 ounces lol!
These were amazing and so easy!!!! I added a little Heinz sugar free ketchup on top before the cheese!!!
They were good but lacked something. I will make them again but will change it up a bit. Perhaps a little more paste and more seasonings such as Italian seasoning. Or use Rao marinara sauce instead tomatoes and paste.
Do I have to use avocado oil?
Nope, any oil you have on hand will be fine.
Can you use frozen cooked cauliflower rice?
Yes! We typically use Trader Joe’s frozen cauliflower rice and just thaw it out beforehand.
Can I use the diced tomatoes with green chiles? Or would that throw off the flavor completely?
I think that would be totally fine!
Carb manager says 10 Net carbs each, That seems high.
You can always adjust a bit, use less onion, use a different blend of cheese for less carbs, and lower the amount of cauliflower. Carb manager let’s you insert your own recipe and mine are only around 7 net carbs based on the spices/ingredients I used.
Made these tonight for Dinner and the flavor is outstanding and me and the wife loved them. This is def going in my recipe book. Thankyou
I think I’ll leave out the tomatoes, that’s where a big hunk of the carbs come from. 10 carbs is a lot for one item in the day on Keto.
Very Easy to make and great tasting.
Can these be frozen? I had too much ground beef so adjusted the recipe for that and ended up with 8 peppers . They are delicious but don’t want to eat them every day!
Hi Nina, we’ve had a few readers say that they have frozen them but we have not given it a try yet. In theory, they should be perfectly fine and you can reheat in a skillet or the oven.
These are easy and tasty, thank you!
These are absolutely amazing! I’ve never left a review for anything before, but I had to give these five stars. I’ve made many stuffed pepper recipes before, but this recipe far surpasses them all. Awesome recipe!
Do you mean “cover” with the pepper tops.?
Hi Mimi, no this means to cover with foil. Apologies that that wasn’t clear, hope this helps!
I was really pleasantly surprised. Very flavorful and filling. Adding it to the menu plan. Thanks!
Glad to hear it, Josh, thanks!
I thought these were delicious. Made them at first uncovered (in error and they were okay (missed the 10 uncovered) Remade them today and they are delicious! I actually think the cauliflower rice is better than regular rice… I am thinking if you keep the original instructions I believe they would be tasty with spices of your choosing and ANY type of cheese that you like or have on hand!
Great recipe! Thank you!
We just made these tonight after a full day of biking they were amazing expecting a 7 on 10 but there actually a 9.9 on 10 awesome thank you so much for the recipe I try to post a pic… I did add 1 cup of cheese and to Sun dried tomatoes this to make it my own
These were delicious out of the oven as well as the next day!
I just made this recipe and it is great. It’s definitely a keeper and it’s pretty easy to make with ingredients I have on hand. I put a layer of cheese in the middle of the pepper, too. And since I grow parsley I added several tbsp of fresh parsley to the meat mixture.
When browning the beef, I usually drain the fat, but this recipe doesn’t say to do that. What do you do with the excess fat liquid, just leave it in? Making now, hopefully you’ll be able to direct me on how to proceed. Thanks!
Hi Christina, the fat is left in the pan.
Thanks! Making these again tonight for my lunches this week. These are so delicious and I don’t feel guilty about eating them!
I made this with minced dried onion, and took the tops of the green peppers and cooked it with the beef, added a little cayenne and chili powder, and replaced the Monterrey Jack with Fresh Mozzarella it’s so good.
This was great!!!!
I didn’t add the diced tomatoes…trying to keep the carbs low….instead I added about 1/2 cup of chicken stock to help blend everything. And my peppers were big and I only had three so I cut them in half and filled each one….fantastic!
Can you use shrimp in this recipe?
You could!
I followed the recipe exactly and it was so yummy! Everyone loved this. We will definitely be making this again soon! Thanks u so much
I love this recipe! I made it with ground turkey, added more paprika, cumin and chipotle pepper to give it a little zing!!!
Great recipe. Easy to follow. Took about a half an hour total to make and turned out exactly as pictured. They tasted delicious and made the house smell wonderful. Thanks!
Yum! Those look amazing!
Wondering if the cauliflower rice needs to be steamed prior to adding to the peppers. Can it just be pulsed in a food processor and tossed in EVOO, s&p? Or is steaming necessary? Thanks
No steaming necessary!
No steaming necessary!
I love these, have been making them for about 5 years. Sometimes I leave the riced cauliflower out completely. My adult kids love them so when they get hungry for them I always make them.
They are also good with cut up mushrooms in it too!
We made it and it was awesome. However we did use spicy diced tomatoes.
I’m getting ready to make these for the 3rd time in a month! That means they are good. Actually, I only cook for myself so last time I stuffed 2 peppers, placed remaining stuffing in a small casserole dish, and cooked it along with the peppers. Freezes perfectly and later very good with steamed broccoli, etc. Thanks for something so taste satisfying.
Great recipe. I added sour cream to the filling before I stuffed the peppers to make it even more delicious. Also recommend steaming the peppers in microwave for few minutes to soften them up before stuffing and putting in oven.