Vegan Italian Stuffed Peppers use a homemade, yet simple, marinara sauce and are stuffed with zucchini, brown rice, walnuts, olives, and broccolini.
Happy Meatless Monday! Today I bring you one of my favorite things in the world, Italian Stuffed Peppers — veganized! Vegan Italian Stuffed Peppers are an accessible, delicious dish that can be on your table in about an hour, and that includes making your own sauce!
I have to admit: it’s pretty difficult to veganize Italian stuffed peppers. The two main components, beef/sausage and cheese, are what you really think of first when you think of these. I used to make them like this all the time, because that’s how my family made them. Then I started using ground turkey instead of beef. And now, for the past 2-3 years, I’ve been successfully making some delicious vegetarian stuffed peppers.
But I really wanted to try a vegan version for this Meatless Monday. The first thing I thought of: no cheese. No cheese was going to be hard. Real hard. I love the super cheesy tops that get just a little browned in the oven. And a sprinkling of Parmesan is a must.
Okay, stop! Don’t lose all hope. You can do this. So, this is what I did — and I think it’s really delicious, bright, and healthy.
How to Make Vegan Stuffed Peppers
The sauce for these vegan stuffed peppers is made from scratch — but worry not — it’s one of the easiest sauces you can make. It’s full of flavor from using high-quality canned fire-roasted tomatoes (and, bonus: convenient) and adding your typical Italian staples such as garlic, oregano, and bay leaf.
The sauce is crazy good. It thickens and reduces and gets all saucy while you prepare everything you need for your peppers. So we’ll start the sauce first. Then, we puree 3/4 of it until it gets super thick and creamy, but leave the other quarter of it just a little chunky.
Then, the peppers. First, they get a little sauna in the oven with a healthy brush of olive oil before even being stuffed to soften them and bring out their sweetness. Then, they get stuffed with brown rice and TONS. of. veggies! Kale, broccolini, zucchini, shallot, celery, oh my!
And tons of veggies definitely ain’t a bad thing, especially when they’re super fresh, cooked with olive oil and garlic, and enhanced with tons of bright herbs.
Brown rice goes in the mix too, of course. And some toasted walnuts for lovely texture and meatiness, and olives for a nice salty bite.
Stuffed Pepper Substitutions
If you want to make these vegetarian and not vegan, sprinkle on that cheese!
Keeping it vegan? You could certainly add in a vegan meat substitute, too, or top it with vegan cheese. But this dish keeps things simple and really lets the fresh produce shine.
These vegan Italian Stuffed Peppers are proof that enjoying plant-based meals can be delicious, accessible, and fairly easy, too.
I hope you enjoy these Vegan Italian Stuffed Peppers! What are your favorite ways to stuff peppers? Let me know in the comments below!
Muir Glen Organic Fire Roasted Tomatoes | California Olive Ranch Extra Virgin Olive Oil | Lundberg Brown Short Grain Rice | Staub Ceramics White 13×9″ Baking Dish
This post contains affiliate links, but are always products I love & highly recommend!
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Vegan Italian Stuffed Peppers
- Prep Time: 45 mins
- Cook Time: 25 mins
- Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
- Category: vegan, Italian
Description
Italian stuffed peppers get a vegan twist. These peppers use a homemade, yet simple, marinara sauce and are stuffed with zucchini, brown rice, walnuts, olives, and broccolini.
Ingredients
For the Sauce
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 28-oz cans of fire-roasted diced tomatoes
- 1/4 teaspoon chili flakes
- 1 teaspoon salt
- heavy pinch black pepper
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
For the Peppers
- 6 peppers, cut in half from top to bottom, and seeded (to make 12 halves)
- 2 cups cooked brown rice
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 large shallot, diced
- 2 stalks celery, diced
- 1 1/2 cups finely chopped broccolini
- 3 medium zucchini, diced
- half a bunch kale, stems removed and finely chopped
- 1/2 cup toasted walnuts, finely chopped
- 1/2 cup finely chopped black olives
- 1 generous handful each chopped parsley and basil, plus more for garnish
Instructions
For the Sauce:
- Start the sauce. Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a medium sauce pot. Once hot, add the garlic and saute until softened and fragrant. Add the canned tomatoes, chili flakes, salt, pepper, bay leaf, and oregano. Bring to a simmer and simmer for about 40-45 minutes, until thickened.
- You can make your stuffing and prepare your peppers during this time. See below.
- Once the sauce is done, discard bay leaf and puree about 3/4 of the sauce in a blender until creamy. Return to pot and mix with remaining chunky sauce.
For the Peppers:
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Cook brown rice and set aside 2 cups (from about 3/4-1 cup dry).*
- Prepare peppers. Cut peppers in half from top to bottom. Seed peppers and brush with olive oil and salt and pepper. Lay peppers cut side down on a foiled or greased baking sheet and cook in the oven for 15 minutes. Remove and cool.
- Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a deep saute pan. Once hot, add the garlic, shallot, and celery, and season with sea salt and pepper. Cook until softened, but not browned, about 5 minutes. Next, add the broccolini and cook until crisp-tender, about 3-5 minutes. Add in zucchini and kale and cook 5 minutes more, until the zucchini is tender and the kale is wilted.
- Lastly, add in the walnuts and olives and heat through. Adjust mixture for seasoning by adding more salt if necessary and set aside.
Assemble the Peppers:
- Once the sauce is done, spread an even layer on the bottom of a large baking dish.
- Place the peppers cut side up.
- In a large bowl, mix the vegetable mixture with the brown rice, 1/2 of the sauce, and a large handful each of chopped parsley and basil.
- Stuff the peppers well with the mixture.
- Cover the peppers in additional sauce, reserving some sauce for serving.
- Cover the baking dish with foil and bake the peppers for 20-25 minutes, until bubbly and tender.
- Serve with additional sauce and a generous sprinkling of fresh herbs and a touch of sea salt.
Notes
*As a time saver, use organic frozen brown rice from Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods. Cook according to directions and measure out 2 cups.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 serving (2 pepper halves)
- Calories: 308
- Sugar: 10.3g
- Sodium: 948mg
- Fat: 17.2g
- Saturated Fat: 1.9g
- Carbohydrates: 33g
- Fiber: 5.3g
- Protein: 8.2g
- Cholesterol: 0mg
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ON MY WAY TO JUST CONSUMING MORE FRUITS AND VEGGIES AND OMG I MADE THIS TONIGHT IT WAS AS IF IT HAD MEAT SOOOO FILLING AND SOOOOO DELICIOUS – THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS RECIPE DEF ONE OF MY FAVS 💖💖💖
★★★★★
You’re welcome, Isa! Thank you for the review!
Recipe looks awesome, and your time and effort is appreciate…but can ANY of these pages just put up a recipe w/out doing a 20 minute dissertation on the subject matter?
Maybe do the story AFTER the recipe, for those that want to learn the history and motivation of the stuffed pepper….or whatever….
Thank you for posting this, and for your efforts 🙂
appreciated….before someone hops on the typo. 🙂
★★★★★
Loved this recipe. I am following a plant-based diet and this is a keeper as a favorite.
★★★★★
Did anyone else have tons of mixture left at the end? I will admit that I used organic bell peppers which means they were quite small (I used 7 in total) but still – I could only fit half the mixture into the peppers (and the pan was packed with them) and that is after omitting the broccolini and using only 2 zucchini instead of 3. I also had nowhere near enough tomato sauce. Tasted good, but I don’t think I will make this again.
★★★
This recipe took a very long time. 3.5 hours from start to finish. It was totally worth it! I used broccoli instead of broccolini because I couldn’t find any. I also left out the parsley and the basil. I couldn’t really taste the shallots and probably will use more next time. My husband liked it as well and he is a meat eater. I added some shredded mozzarella and shredded Parmesan as well.
★★★★★
I made this dish tonight, and it was very good; my vegan son thought it delicious. However,
it was very time-consuming. I did it in steps, i.e. cooked the rice in the am, cut up the peppers and all other veggies at lunchtime, and felt that I got a good jump on things for dinnertime. All told, I spent 2-1/2 hours prep, before the dish hit the oven. I’m an experienced cook, and know good food takes time and effort. But It would have to be a very special occasion for my son for me to make it again!
★★★★
This is wonderful article. These look delicious and stunning! Such a perfect weeknight dinner! Thanks for sharing your information.
Ridiculously over complex, this isn’t a holiday fish or for hosting. It simply is not an elegant enough dish, and of course this is stuffed peppers as a whole. It’s a casual family dish, all of this is an odd match up of savory and bitter and nutty, over collocates steps. I imagine Gordon Ramsay watching it made and all of the things he might say. Sometimes simple and flavor are enough for the talking. There is so much going on here!
I’m glad to see this comment, made this a month ago and felt it was a lot.
Sorry you didn’t care for this recipe, Nicholas!
Delish!!! I used quinoa instead of brown rice but followed the recipe. It is just so good. I love the sauce and it’s so easy to make. Thank you for this recipe.
★★★★★
Just wonderful. I only changed a liitle because i didn’t have all the ingredients.
I made these today. They are delicious . I didn’t change a thing. The stuffing for the pepper is so good, it could be a meal by itself
Thank you so much for this recipe
OMG!!! My carnivore absolutely loved these! “Don’t change anything!” he said. “Excellent” he said. “It’s a miracle!” I said. Lots and lots of work, and my kitchen was a mess (but I can do that boiling water…) So very worth it. These are SO good!
★★★★★
Wahoo! Thanks for sharing, Roberta! So happy you enjoyed! 🙂
Hi, I found this a good recipe even though the preamble talks about meat. Even the meat-eaters I know have never put animals in their stuffed peppers. I didn’t have time to make the delicious-sounding sauce (next time!) so used lemon, dijon, white balsamic dressing. And I didnt prebake capsicum.. But thank you, I will make to the recipe when not in a rush🙂
★★★★
Thank you for the thoughtful review! Glad you enjoyed it!
What a great recipe. My vegan daughter loved this and her carnivorous boyfriend did as well. So satisfying and delicious – this will be one of my go-to recipes from now on. A big hit with my whole family.
★★★★★
Thank you for the thoughtful review, Judy! So glad you and your family enjoyed these vegan stuffed peppers!
Perfection!!
★★★★★
This was lovely. I used really good canned Italian San Marzano tomatoes and an extra dollop of top notch Greek olive oil and, IMO, both those items made a significant contribution to the sauce. My veggie combo included broccoli, celery, and kale. Thought the walnuts and olives were brilliant. Added chickpeas because they’re yummy. Next time might use white kidney beans or Great Northern beans. Also freezes well if you do so by freezing sauce and stuffed peppers separately but when reheating, do it in the oven, not the microwave to help deal with the extra liquid from freezing. Saved this to my Pinterest Mains recipe board and will tap into it frequently. Thanks for the recipe.
★★★★★
Thank you for the thoughtful review! 🙂
Very Good. The only thing I substituted was the tin of tomatoes; I used tomato and olive passata + large chopped fresh tomatoes. Overall an excellent dish.
★★★★★
Thank you for taking the time to leave a review! So happy you enjoyed this recipe. 🙂
Delicious! Took us a while to prepare all of the ingredients, but the result was fabulous., our family and my co-workers, who aren’t vegan, loved it. And yes, you can add parmesan cheese – vegan parm!! 🙂
★★★★★
There are vegan meats and vegan cheeses though so it really isn’t too difficult to substitute!
★★★★★
Excellent
★★★★★
About to put these in the oven! Soo delicious. Had to substitute a few ingredients…used spinach instead of kale and had no zucchini so used mushrooms Will add feta as non vegan. Can’t wait to have these for dinner. Thank you for a fab recipe…oh yeah, also used red onion instead of shallet…need to go shopping!!
★★★★★
I made this last night and we loved it. I didn’t have everything in the recipe so I substituted the following; mushrooms for zucchini, broccoli for broccolini, and I only had frozen kale in the freezer but it didn’t matter, it all tasted great. I will enjoy playing around with this recipe. Great way to use left over veggies. I aslo stuffed a bunch of tomatoes I had. Can’t wait to eat the leftovers. Thank you it was delish!
★★★★★
Hi, Nicole! I’m so glad to hear you enjoyed this recipe. It’s one of my favorites as well. Thank you for taking the time to leave a review and for sharing. Stuffed into tomatoes sounds amazing! I am trying that next. 😉
I can’t wait to try this, can’t leave out the cheese though one of my favorite foods. 🙄 The meat is the part I have an issue with anyway thanx for sharing.
Such an EXCELLENT recipe! I’ve made these stuffed peppers so many times. My non vegan son loves them, which makes me SO HAPPY as it’s filled with such good healthy yumminess, many ticks on Dr Greger’s Daily Dozen list. Thank you for creating this wonderful and easy recipe!!! Vegan Deliciousness 🌱
★★★★★
I made this tonight and it was not good at all, the stuffing was ok the rest tasted bad, there was not enough tomato sauce, sorry looks great on pic but mine didn’t taste good. probably my cooking ability
This was sooooooo good! Kids loved it, the left overs are even better than then first night!! Even made for a non-vegan family and they loved it! This is going to be a regular meal at our house! Thank you!!! p.S. I garnish with Kalamata olives and used kalamata olives in the recipe.
★★★★★
Yay, Jamie! So glad you and your family loved it! Kalamata olives sound delicious, too! These are also a big hit with my non-vegan family and friends (and picky husband). Cheers!
Wow these stuffed peppers look amazing! Can’t wait to try this!
★★★★★
Stuffed peppers are so versatile, and I often wonder why people put so much meat in them. That makes me love your vegan ones even more! These look great!
★★★★★
Stuffed peppers are one of our favourite meals and these ones look amazing. I love that you put walnuts in the filling! Definitely a must try, thanks for sharing, Tiffany!
★★★★★
All the heart eyes over these peppers! Seriously, perfection right here! 🙂
When I first saw these I thought….”No way! Okay I will give you vegetarian stuffed peppers, but surely you can’t make them without the cheese???? ”
Then there is was, in your post. How to get flavour into your peppers without adding cheese! Excellent.
We are not vegans (or vegetarians) but I do like to have a #meatlessMonday, to keep introducing my meat loving boys to vegetables and also it does have a great affect on the shopping bill 😀
Will be giving these a try…off to see if I can buy fire-roasted tomatoes!!
★★★★★
Made it for dinner. I thought it was delicious although my kids did not like it. Granted, they don’t like bell peppers 😉
I think next time I’m going to use capers instead of olives since I don’t like olives. Even so, with the olives, it was amazing.
Made these tonight. We recently began veganism and I’ve been trying lots of things. They were great! My only complaint is how time consuming they were — I definitely would not call this a weeknight dinner. Otherwise, I enjoyed the flavor. Thanks!
★★★★
These peppers were Really good! My husband and I are on the Daniel fast so I have been searching for a variety of recipes and came across this one. My husband loved them and immediately asked when we are going to have them again. I will surely be making them again, even after the fast is over. We liked them much more than the traditional meat ones! I will never go back to them!
★★★★★
Awesome, Rachel! I am so glad you liked these. It’s funny because my husband actually prefers these to meat peppers too, which I never thought would happen haha! Thank you for stopping by to leave this review and Happy Weekend!
These are great 🙂 I love stuffed peppers, and these look like they have a ton of great flavor and texture!
★★★★★
These look delicious and stunning! Pinning this to make later!
★★★★★
Stuffed peppers sounds awesome !!
I’ve tried stuffed peppers before … but i feel your recipe is more amazing so i have to try it
Thanks for such a lovely recipe.
★★★★★
These look wonderful, perfect for weeknight dinners!
★★★★★
I would most definitely eat these! They sound delicious and I love stuffed peppers!
★★★★★