Unstuffed Peppers with Ground Beef

A skillet with ground beef, peppers, tomato sauce and herb garnishes!

This filling and nutritious Mediterranean skillet dinner with unstuffed peppers and ground beef makes for a great family dish. We love it especially in summer because you can skip the traditional baking that goes along the regular stuffed peppers dish.

Course Main Course

Cuisine Mediterranean

Keyword Mediterranean Unstuffed Peppers, Unstuffed peppers with ground beef

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 25

Cooling time 5

Total Time 40

Servings servings

Calories 627kcal

Author Sonila

Equipment

1 Deep skillet
1 Wooden spoon

Ingredients

2 tbsp olive oil
1 red onion
4 garlic cloves
1.25 lbs ground beef
3 cups chopped peppers use variety of colors
14 oz crushed tomatoes
2 tbsps tomato paste
1 tsp crushed red pepper
1 bunch Italian parsley chopped, divide 2-3 tbsps for garnish at the end
1 tbsp oregano
1.5 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
½ cup medium grain rice
1.5 cups water or beef stock

Instructions

Chop onion and mince garlic. Place skillet in medium heat on the stovetop. Add olive oil and once it is shimmering, add chopped onion and minced garlic. Saute until translucent.
Add ground beef and use a wooden spoon to separate it and brown while mixing it so onion doesn't burn as you are browning the beef.
Once beef is browned, add chopped peppers. You can roughly chop them. Continue cooking until peppers are soft, stir often so nothing sticks at the bottom.
Add crushed tomatoes and tomato paste. If you'd like the dish to be redder in color increase the quantity of tomato paste by an extra tablespoon. Mix well.
Add oregano, salt, pepper and chopped Italian parsley (reserve some parsley for garnish at the end). Stir to incorporate.
Add rice and beef stock. If the dish looks dry, increase the quantity of the stock a little bit. Adjust for taste and consistency. Lower heat to simmer and cover the deep skillet. Let cook for about 15 minutes. Turn heat off and let dish cool for a little bit. Garnish with fresh parsley and enjoy:).

Notes

This dish usually yields 6 servings for my family, but I have 2 kids so if you're planning to feed all grown ups, this is more like 4 adult servings.
If you use beef stock instead of water, you'll get a more pronounced flavor. However, water will work if you don't have any stock. It just helps to cook the rice!

Nutrition