These Quinoa Lasagna Stuffed Peppers are a fun spin on lasagna made with ground beef and ricotta for a healthy make-ahead dinner idea.
Ingredients and substitutions
- Olive oil – any neutral oil can work such as avocado oil, vegetable oil or canola oil.
- Yellow onion – white onions are a great substitute here.
- Garlic – freshly minced garlic is best. In a pinch, jarred minced garlic or garlic powder will work.
- Mushrooms – cremini, shiitake and portobello mushrooms all work well, but you can use any mushroom of your choice.
- Ground beef – swap out for ground turkey, ground chicken or a ground vegan meat substitute.
- Passata – canned strained or crushed tomatoes can be used, as well as pureed tomatoes or marinara sauce.
- Salt & pepper – to taste.
- Quinoa – flavoured or plain quinoa can both be used. Teff is also a great substitute. You can use rice or barley, but it will change the texture of this dish.
- Kale – swap out for another leafy green like spinach, Swiss chard or bok choy.
- Bell peppers – use any colour bell pepper of your choice.
- Ricotta cheese – cottage cheese or goat cheese both offer a similar taste to ricotta.
- Mozzarella cheese – packaged shredded or fresh shredded mozzarella both work or you can try using provolone.
- Fresh basil – fresh oregano, thyme or an Italian herb and spice blend would all be yummy.
How to make this recipe
- Make the ground beef filling.
- Cook the quinoa.
- Bake the peppers.
- Stuff the peppers with ricotta, ground beef filling and quinoa.
- Cover in foil and bake.
- Add on the mozzarella and bake until melted.
- Garnish with basil and serve!
Components you can prep ahead
Want to cut down on prep time? There are a few different components of this recipe that you can prep ahead.
- Pre-cut the peppers and store them in the fridge until you’re ready to bake and stuff them.
- Make the filling ahead of time and keep it in the freezer for up to 3 months or the fridge for up to 3 days.
- Ingredient prep by chopping up anything that needs to be diced, sliced or minced. Store the ingredients in the fridge in airtight containers until you’re ready to use them.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes! If you don’t pre-cook your peppers before stuffing them, they’ll still be super crunchy and crispy. For my recipe, you’ll need to cook the peppers for 15 minutes before adding in the stuffing and cooking them for another 15-20 minutes. This will ensure that they’re perfectly tender without being soggy.
I’d recommend covering the peppers in tinfoil while baking to ensure they don’t dry out. After baking for 15 minutes, add on the mozzarella cheese and bake uncovered for another 5 minutes.
If you find that your stuffed peppers are soggy, you may have over-cooked them. Make sure you’re only cooking them for 15 minutes before stuffing and another 15 minutes after stuffing. Feel free to adjust the cooking time based on your oven.
Storing and reheating
Once these stuffed peppers have completely cooled, you can store them in airtight containers in the fridge for up to 3 days. When you’re ready to enjoy, reheat the peppers in the oven at 350° Fahrenheit for 15 to 20 minutes or until hot. To keep them tasting fresh, I'd recommend sprinkling some fresh mozzarella and chopped basil over top once they're done baking.
Freezing this recipe
Although the texture might not be the same, you can definitely freeze these lasagna stuffed peppers. After the peppers have cooled completely, freeze them in airtight glass containers for up to 3 months. To reheat, let the peppers defrost in the fridge overnight then bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes at 350° Fahrenheit.
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More lasagna recipes
- Super Easy Mini Vegetable Lasagna Cups
- Low Carb Lasagna Stuffed Peppers
- The Best Lasagna Recipe on the Internet
Meal prep tools for this recipe
- Grab some glass meal prep bowls if you plan on turning this recipe into leftovers.
- I get all my grass-fed ground beef from Butcher Box, conveniently delivered to me frozen.
- Freeze this recipe in glass microwave-safe bowls up to 3 months.
Quinoa Lasagna Stuffed Peppers
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 package mushrooms, chopped
- 1 lb ground beef
- 2 796mL jars passata (strained tomatoes-can also use canned crushed tomatoes)
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 1 cup cooked quinoa
- 2 cups chopped fresh kale (or spinach)
- 4 bell peppers (any colour)
- 1 tub ricotta cheese
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
- 2 tbsp chopped fresh basil
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375° F. In a large frying pan, heat olive oil over med-high heat. Add onions and garlic, sauteeing for 30 seconds until fragrant. Add ground beef. Cook, breaking up with a spoon. Add mushrooms and cook another 2 min. Add both jars of passata to ground beef mixture, along with salt and pepper. Simmer for 15 minutes.
- Meanwhile cook quinoa according to package directions and prepare peppers by slicing length-wise in half and removing core/seeds. Drizzle with a tiny bit of olive oil and bake, covered in foil, in a large oven safe dish for 15 minutes.
- Add cooked quinoa to ground beef and tomato mixture, along with kale. Stir well and remove from heat.
- Remove peppers from the oven and when cool, add 2-3 tbsp of ricotta to each pepper, just enough to coat the bottom of each. This should use up the whole tub.
- Add quinoa-ground beef mixture to each pepper – continue until mixture is used up. Peppers will be heaping full of stuffing. Bake, covered with foil, in oven for another 15 minutes.
- Remove from oven, top with grated mozzarella, and bake uncovered another 5 minutes or until cheese is melted. Remove from oven, sprinkled with fresh chopped basil and serve!
Comments & Reviews
Lori says
This recipe looks great BUT I dislike recipes that say a tub of ricotta or a package of mushrooms. How big of a tub or package?
Karyn says
I made these tonight and they were absolutely delicious! I’m not a fan of kale, so I used spinach and it worked perfectly. I’ve made a few of your recipes and they never disappoint, thank you!
Taylor Stinson says
Thank you so much for the kind words Karyn 🙂 So glad you enjoyed them!!
Crystal says
Hello! This recipe looks delicious! I’m going to be trying it hopefully tomorrow!
I just wanted to clarify that the recipe indeed calls for 8 bell peppers (so 16 halves).
Thank you!!
Taylor Stinson says
Oh no! Bit of a typo there – it’s 4 bell peppers and 8 halves. Thanks so much for catching this Crystal! I have updated the recipe to reflect the change 🙂
Crystal says
Thanks! Making them as we speak!
Taylor Stinson says
Yay!!! 🙂