Stuffed peppers bring back fond memories of my wedding road trip in October. When Will and I stayed with some of my college friends in Columbus, we made stuffed peppers for them. It was fun to take over their kitchen for a night rather than going out to eat. We hadn’t had stuffed peppers again since then until Will made them a couple weeks ago. They were so good! I tweaked the recipe a bit more until I thought it was “blog worthy” as Will likes to say. Lol. These spicy tempeh stuffed peppers are truly vegetarian comfort food at its best!
To keep these low-carb friendly for Will, I used cauliflower instead of rice which also increases the fiber. I also love that these are almost a one pan meal as the filling is all cooked together in a large skillet and then baked off inside the peppers. It makes enough filling to stuff 4-5 peppers (depending on their size) so we always have lots leftover for packing for lunch at work. We had slightly smaller bell peppers, so we were able to eat 2 stuffed halves as a serving.
Since I cook with canned chipotles often, I have found that their spice level tends to vary from can to can. Depending on your spice tolerance, you may want to start with just a tablespoon of chipotle and go up to 1/4 cup per your preference. Instead of spooning the sauce out of the can, I usually just puree the whole can of chipotle peppers and sauce together until smooth and use it in recipes.
Spicy Tempeh Stuffed Peppers
Ingredients
- For the Stuffing:1/2 head cauliflower ~10 oz. of cauliflower
- 2 tablespoons olive oil divided
- 8 oz. package tempeh crumbled
- 1/2 onion chopped (~1/3 cup chopped)
- 8 oz. package button mushrooms chopped
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1/4 cup salsa OR canned chipotle sauce use chipotle if you like spicy
- 1 15 oz. can tomato sauce
- Sea salt and ground black pepper to taste
- 3/4 cup shredded pepper jack cheese divided
- 4 bell peppers
- To serve: chopped fresh cilantro and sour cream
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Add the 1/2 head cauliflower to a food processor and pulse until cauliflower resembles rice. (It should make about 2 cups of riced cauliflower.) Set aside.
- Heat up 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in a large skillet. Add the tempeh and stir fry until golden, about 7-9 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.
- To the same skillet, add the other tablespoon of olive oil and chopped onion. Cook 3-5 minutes or until onion is translucent and beginning to brown. Stir in the chopped mushrooms. Cook until moisture from the mushrooms is cooked off, about 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook another 1 minute.
- Add the cauliflower, oregano, and cumin. Cook another 2-3 minutes, stirring frequently.
- Stir in the browned tempeh, chipotle sauce and tomato sauce. Bring to a gentle simmer and turn off the heat.
- Stir in 1/2 cup of the shredded cheese into the mix in the skillet. Stir until melted and evenly distributed in the filling.
- Cut bell peppers in halves lengthwise (from stem to bottom) and arrange on a baking sheet. Divide filling evenly between the halved peppers. Top with remaining 1/4 cup of shredded cheese.
- Bake for 35-40 minutes or until cheese is browned and peppers are tender when poked with a fork.
Notes
Nutrition
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Comments & Reviews
I had to substitute barley, peas, and lentil mix for the quinoa, and topped them with a blend of Italian cheeses, and they came out great– but I had far more filling than would fit into my peppers. I saved it for leftovers, which tided me over at least a couple of days.
I used not to like text mex food but this one I did together with my boyfriend, on different ends of the telephone, and it turned out wonderfully. Such a creative recipe and well-balanced taste! Just wanted to send our thanks to you 🙂
Made this for our main meal today, scaled for 2 servings. Pretty good!
Wanted just a little more on the spice/herb flavor — used a 10-oz can of tomato puree instead of half of a 15-oz of tomato sauce. Next time I plan to puree the chipotle pepper with sauce to use for upping the spiciness.
we liked it very much!
Put it all in a big wok, used frozen, pre riced cauliflower, pre made salsa with chipotle powder. Delish!
Only had 2 peppers. Broiled them first for charred skin and had a sort of casserole with too much filling, but yummy regardless!
May premake more to have on hand next time. Thanks for a new tempeh recipe!
This dish is incredible. I found it while Googling tempeh recipes and it showed up in the results. This was my first foray into tempeh and in this dish it’s delicious. The flavors all meld together nicely and I recommend using chipotle in adobo sauce if you can tolerate any heat. I’m not vegan, but I topped mine with Diaya cheeze so I could share with vegan friends and I omitted mixing any cheeze into the mix. I like that the recipe is easily halve-able, that the mixture can be made in advance, and that it is a predominantly “whole food” recipe.
Hi Denise,
Thanks so much for comment. I’m so glad you enjoyed the recipe! I recently went vegan so I was wondering if Daiya cheeze might work for this recipe – so happy to hear it does!
Replying to myself here…I can confirm that a cooked stuffed pepper can be individually frozen and it reheats nicely. Now, when I make a full batch, I can freeze them for weekday lunches.
Thanks for this recipe! It’s become a staple for us. We make it as written, using the blended-up chipotle pepper sauce you describe. Delicious!
So happy to hear you like it! 🙂
My whole family loved this recipe! I left out the chipotle sauce but the cumin still gives it a tiny kick. It makes enough to fill 5 big peppers. You’d never guess it was vegetarian, we will definently make this again!
do you happen to have the nutritional information for this recipe?
So Delicious! I was hesitant when I saw mushrooms in the recipe list because I’m not a big fan. But I chopped them up small and that worked for me! They provide a good flavor, and the texture works well with the crumbled tempeh and cauliflower…You could say its even kinda meaty. This dish has lots of flavor and its spicy, but not too spicy. I served it with scallions and an avocado. Thank you for a yummy protein-filled recipe!
Love it! Will make this again but will omit the cheese to make it vegan.
Just making this for the first time. Had a little taste and so far so yummy. I made it now for dinner in about 5 hours. Can’t wait. Love the alternate to rice. Do you happen to know the calories?
These are amazing, and currently only 1 of 2 tempeh recipes that my husband will eat. A total keeper! Thank you!
So glad you and your husband enjoyed them! 🙂
This as delicious! I made several changes, but at the heart was your version. Also, I made the filling a day ahead, and then simply had to cut, stuff & bake the peppers for dinner the next day. Trimmed down the prep time significantly when I had a busy evening. Bottom line though, the cauliflower rice trick worked like a charm! This was my first attempt at it, and I’m in love. Also got my boyfriend to eat cauliflower, without him knowing, and he loved it!
Love the idea of making the filling a day ahead to cut down on prep time during the week!