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Deconstructed Stuffed Peppers

by Dana Bean, RD
Published: Updated:

Only 1 dish and 25 minutes later, this Deconstructed Stuffed Peppers recipe is a crowd pleaser and will be your new favorite dinner recipe!

Deconstructed Stuffed Peppers

A quick and delicious mix of rice, bell pepper, ground turkey, tomatoes, black beans, and melty cheese!
Prep Time5 minutes
Cook Time20 minutes
Course: dinner
Keyword: Less than 30 minute, quick dinners, skillet meal

Ingredients

  • 1 Tbsp oil
  • 1 Tbsp minced garlic
  • salt + pepper to taste
  • 1 yellow onion, diced
  • 1 lb ground turkey
  • 3 bell peppers, diced a mix of red, yellow, and orange is recommended
  • 3.5 cups cooked rice
  • 14.5 oz canned diced tomatoes, drained
  • 8 oz can tomato sauce
  • 1 cup cheese, shredded
  • 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
  • handful of fresh tomatoes if desired

Instructions

  • Heat skillet to medium and add oil. Add minced garlic, salt, pepper, and onion and cook for a few minutes until onion starts to look translucent
  • Add ground turkey and sauté until thoroughly cooked. Add bell peppers and cook for a few more minutes until softened.
  • Add cooked rice, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, black beans and stir. Add cheese and cover until melted. Top with fresh tomatoes if desired

Notes

  1. Make sure to have the cooked rice prepped before making this recipe! When that step is done it comes together pretty quickly. 

Ad Disclosure: This post includes affiliate links that I can earn from if used. I don’t link to anything I wouldn’t use myself!

What more could I ask for in a quick dinner? As long as the rice is prepped ahead of time, this meal comes together pretty quickly. If you want a shortcut for the rice, I recommend doing microwave rice packets or minute rice.

deconstructed stuffed peppers

A typical stuffed pepper will keep the bell pepper in tact except removing the seeds and stem. They will then be stuffed and baked. Regular stuffed peppers are great, but this deconstructed (or “unstuffed”) version is easier and less messy to eat! You also don’t have to worry about uneven cooking times between the peppers and “insides” since it’s all being cooked in the skillet.

This is an awesome recipe for meal prep! It’s a 1 container sort of meal (though you can always add more sides). Also, it keeps well refrigerated. Remember, meal prepping can be a totally helpful method in intuitive eating to keep our hunger regulated and reduce decision fatigue!

onion, red bell pepper, orange bell pepper, and yellow bell pepper chopped

This Deconstructed Stuffed Peppers recipe has a lot of variety packed into the skillet. Let’s take a look!

Carb Sources: rice, beans

Protein Sources: turkey, beans, cheese

Fat Sources: oil, cheese

Fiber Sources: bell peppers, tomatoes, beans

We need all of these! Don’t believe diet cultures lies that we would need to cut any of these groups out of what we eat. You can definitely still pair this with another side or 2 if you’d like, but it’s not necessary with this meal (as long as you still get enough to eat).

deconstructed stuffed peppers up close photo

I’m glad you asked! I know it can get overwhelming to be excited about a recipe, then have to scroll through a seemingly never-ending life story before finally finding the recipe. I started to notice it becoming a difficulty for some of my nutrition counseling clients. So that’s why I’ve created No Guilt Nutrition Recipes â€“ a place where finding the actual recipe isn’t so difficult or cumbersome. Usually the recipe is hidden in a blog post or you have to pay a subscription to see the recipe quickly, but here you’ll find it first on the page!

No Guilt Nutrition recipes are definitely not the only thing you can eat if you are eating intuitively (really, you can eat anything that you want/feels good to your body!), but I noticed there are way too many diet culture entrenched recipes out there. These recipes give you delicious food without potentially triggering numbers or diet talk. They also provide a gentle nutrition approach by encouraging balance in your meals without having strict requirements for what that may look like.

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