Romanian Stuffed Peppers(With Instant Pot Instructions)

The stuffed peppers (Ardei Umpluti) recipe is a favorite in many parts of the world. The peppers are 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.

Note: This article will show you how to make stuffed peppers on the stove or in an Instant Pot step by step. You can skip the article and jump to the recipe, but you will miss valuable information about making these peppers successfully.

Jump to:

• Why You'll Enjoy This Recipe
• What kinds of peppers are good for this recipe?
• How to make
• How to serve
• Instant Pot Instructions
• More Romanian recipes to love
• More recipes to love
• 💬 Comments

Why You'll Enjoy This Recipe

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 use either sweet red bell peppers(any color works fine) or Cubanelle if it is available. I like red bell peppers because they are sweeter than dark green ones and less acidic.

The original recipe is made with a type of pepper that resembles the Cubanelle Italian pepper. These peppers are sweet, light green, and longer in size than the regular bell pepper we know in the US.

These are the Romanian peppers we use most of the time in our cooking.

You can also find them in Hungarian cuisine, where they are very popular.

These beauties 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.

Here is a picture of the Cubanelle peppers.

I tried to take pictures on different occasions to see what the stuffed peppers looked like when using other peppers.

How to make

Step 1. Gather the ingredients.

For this recipe, you will need:

• Peppers
• Ground meat- could be pork, beef, or a combination of both
• Rice- regular rice or brown rice- please do not use instant rice, it is not good for this recipe
• Onions
• Tomato sauce
• Dill, Parsley- fresh or dried
• Salt, pepper, and thyme

Step 2. Prepare the peppers:

Cut the top of the peppers, remove the seeds, and set them aside.

Step 3- Make the filling.

Grab a bowl and place in it the ground meat of your choice, chopped onion, rice, and spices, and add a little bit of water to help you obtain a paste mixture.

Finally,  fill the peppers with the meat mixture.

The stuffed peppers already look delicious.

Step 4- 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 take the flavors of the rest of the ingredients and end up tasting delicious.

Tip: I took them out of the oven and flipped them on the other side, then placed them back in the oven without a cover. I wanted them to get a nice golden brown color and the sauce to reduce.

I took a picture on a different occasion when I used the Cubanelle peppers, much smaller than the bell peppers you previously saw.

Here is another time when I also used the leftover meat to make a few stuffed grape leaves and cook them together with the peppers.

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!

Enjoy, and drop a note to tell me if you made the recipe and what you thought.

Recently, I finally stopped resisting and bought an Instant Pot. I made this recipe in my new kitchen gadget, so I am sharing with you the way I made them:

Instant Pot Instructions

1. Follow the same steps for filling up the peppers.
2. Place them in the Instant Pot.
3. Mix: 1 cup of water with ¼ cup of tomato sauce, 1 teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon ground pepper, ½ teaspoon marjoram or thyme.
4. Pour this sauce over the peppers.
5. Close the lid, turn the release vent to Sealing, and press Pressure Cooking for 20 minutes on High.
6. The pot will take about 10-15 minutes for the pressure to build up, which is not included in the 20 minutes of cooking.
7. After the peppers are cooked, turn the valve to Quick Release and release the pressure. (it might take about 2 minutes)

Preparation: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 37 minutes( 15 minutes for the pressure to build up+ 20 minutes Cooking+ 2 minutes Quick Release)

If you have an Instant Pot, I encourage you to try the recipe, especially if you are in a hurry but still want to eat a good meal.

Enjoy!

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