Stuffed peppers are a favorite in many parts of the world. The dish is easy to make and delicious. Perfect for lunch or a fantastic family dinner, stuffed peppers can be served by themselves or next to mashed potatoes or other vegetables.
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Best Romanian Stuffed Peppers
I grew up with this recipe that comes from Romania. The recipe is very popular, and I often make it, especially in the summer when peppers are in full season.
The peppers are filled with ground meat, like pork, beef, or a mixture of both. I prefer the recipe with ground pork or a mix of pork and beef because the pork adds flavor and a little bit of fat to the peppers.
In my opinion, just like the stuffed cabbage rolls or meatballs, the peppers taste better with pork because of the amount of fat in the meat. If you are a vegetarian, you can definitely still make them only with rice and herbs, but you can also add chopped mushrooms for a protein bonus.
What kinds of peppers are good for this recipe
I typically use sweet red bell peppers (though any color is fine) or Cubanelle peppers when available. I prefer red bell peppers because they're sweeter and less acidic than the dark green ones. The original recipe calls for a pepper similar to the Italian Cubanelle—these are sweet, light green, and longer than the typical US bell peppers. These peppers are commonly used in Romanian and Hungarian cuisines.
They are filled with ground pork, beef, or a mixture of them, rice, and herbs, and swim in a delicious tomato sauce. The dish is baked in the oven, so your house will smell fantastic too. You can definitely make them on the stove, but in my humble opinion, baked ones are much better.
Ingredients
- Ground meat: could be pork, beef, or a combination of both. Also, ground chicken or turkey works as well.
- Rice: regular rice or brown rice (Please do not use instant rice, it is not suitable for this recipe)
- Onions: regular yellow onion works fine.
- Dill, Parsley- fresh or dried
- Salt, pepper, and thyme
How To Make Stuffed Peppers(Romanian Style)
Step 1. Prepare the peppers: Cut the top of the peppers, remove the seeds, and set them aside.
Step 2. Make the filling. Grab a bowl and place the ground meat of your choice, chopped onion, rice, and spices in it. Mix until you get a smooth texture.
Finally, fill the peppers with the meat mixture. As I had more space in the pan and some leftover meat mixture, I also added a few stuffed grape leaves. You can always do this with random veggies you have around.(tomatoes, zuchinni or kohlrabi)
Step 3: Assemble the peppers and cook. Accommodate the peppers in a baking dish and make a sauce of tomato paste, water, salt, and pepper. Pour that sauce over the peppers.
Cover the pot with a lid, but you can use aluminum foil instead. Place the peppers in the oven and let them cook for about an hour.
When you cook them like that, the peppers absorb the flavors of the rest of the ingredients and taste delicious.
Tip: I took them out of the oven, flipped them on the other side, and placed them back in the oven without a cover. I wanted them to get a nice golden brown color and the sauce to reduce.
They are ready when a fork goes easily through the pepper's skin and when the meat and rice are cooked inside. Serve them warm with sour cream on top.
How to serve
The traditional Romanian stuffed peppers are served with a dollop of sour cream on top. Sour cream is used in many Romanian dishes, soups, stuffed cabbage rolls, stuffed grape leaves, etc.
You can also serve some mashed potatoes with this scrumptious dish. My paternal grandmother, who lived in Transylvania, served them like that. The tomato sauce was also sweet, a traditional way to cook this recipe in that part of the country.
You can skip the sour cream, but trust me, you have to try the peppers with it! So much better!
If you noticed, we also don't add cheese to the top of the peppers. We like them simply, as we really believe that less is better!
Store the leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. You can also freeze them uncooked or cooked for a later meal for up to 6 months.
Enjoy!
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📖 Recipe
Romanian Stuffed Peppers (Ardei Umpluti)
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground pork beef or a mixture of both
- 6 medium red bell peppers
- 1 large onion diced
- ½ cup rice
- 1 bunch of fresh dill chopped
- 1 bunch of fresh parsley chopped
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
For The Sauce:
- 3 tablespoons tomato paste
- 2 cups water or enough to cover ¾ of the peppers
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon dried thyme
- sour cream to serve
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F/180C.
- In a large bowl, mix the ground meat, rice, onion, dill, parsley, salt and pepper.
- Wash the peppers and cut a hole around the stem removing the seeds and the core.
- Fill up the peppers with the ground meat mixture and put them in a baking dish.
- Mix the rest of the water, tomato paste, salt, pepper, and spices and pour it over the peppers.
- Cover the baking dish with a lid or aluminum foil and put the pan in the oven to simmer.
- After an hour, take the pan out of the oven and flip the peppers on their other side. Place the pan back in the oven but without a cover.
- Let the peppers bake for another 15-20 minutes, or until they are golden brown on top and the sauce has reduced slightly. Taste for salt and pepper again.
- The peppers are ready when the fork goes easily through the pepper's skin and when the meat and rice are cooked inside.
- Serve them hot with sour cream on top.
Notes
- Follow the steps on filling up the peppers.
- Place them in the Instant Pot.
- Mix together: 1 cup of water with ¼ cup of tomato sauce, 1 teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon ground pepper, ½ teaspoon marjoram or thyme.
- Pour this sauce over the peppers.
- Close the lid, turn release vent to Sealing and press Pressure Cooking for 20 minutes on High.
- The pot will take about 10-15 minutes for the pressure to build up, which is not included in the 20 minutes cooking.
- After peppers are cooked, turn the valve to Quick Release and release the pressure.(it might take about 2 minutes)
Tony says
I make my sauce with 2 15 ounce cans of tomato sauce & 1 can of cream of mushroom soup of cream of celery. It has great flavor.
Connie says
Do you cook the rice before adding it?
The Bossy Kitchen says
I always use uncooked rice. There is no point in cooking the rice before as it gets cooked together with the meat. It also saves time.