Name: Stuffed Pepper Casserole
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 30 min
Ingredients: 2 cups cooked rice; 1 pound ground Italian sausage (cooked); 3/4 cup yellow onion (diced); 2 teaspoons fennel; 2 teaspoons Italian Seasoning; 1/2 teaspoon table salt; 1/4 teaspoon black ground pepper; 2-3 bell peppers (chopped); 1/2 cup grated parmesan; 3/4 cup mozzarella cheese (shredded (or more as desired))

One our favorite quick and easy meals, Stuffed Pepper Casserole. You'll love the flavor combination of the sausage, bell peppers, and rice without the fuss of stuffing peppers. Make this on a busy weeknight for a meal your whole family can enjoy.

Stuffed pepper casserole in a casserole dish with a cheesy top.

Better than rice-a-roni, this unstuffed version of your favorite dish is the perfect weeknight meal during busy back to school season. It's also perfect for a winter meal, and it's gluten free! It's also known as undone stuffed peppers.

I stumbled upon the creation of this recipe when I was supposed to make stuffed peppers but a lot of my peppers had gone bad and I was trying to save as much as I could of each bell pepper. I found myself with a pile of chopped up peppers and thought to just mix all the ingredients together instead. It was a huge hit and we've never gone back!

Check out these other stuffed pepper dishes like our taco stuffed peppers and our Philly Cheesesteak stuffed peppers. Or try our Bang Bang Shrimp recipe for another easy meal. Look at more Weekday Casseroles Here, or this Ultimate Chicken Casserole. We've even added it to our last minute dinner ideas.

Jump to:

Ingredients
How to make Stuffed Pepper Casserole
Substitutions
Helpful Hints
Storing Stuffed Pepper Casserole
Top tip
Recipe

Ingredients

Follow the list of ingredients below for the best cooking experience. It's a great recipe to use up items in the refrigerator.

Cooked white rice- This is a great recipe to use leftover rice with.
Ground Italian sausage- I love the flavor that this meat adds but you can easily add a leaner meat like ground turkey, or make it vegetarian by adding black beans.
Chopped yellow onion- This adds a subtle yet great taste, you can also try using purple onions.
Fennel-Especially if you aren't using Italian Sausage, you are going to want to add this tasty seasoning to the dish.
Italian Seasoning- Pairs great with all the ingredients.
Bell peppers, chopped- Use your favorite color of bell peppers. I personally prefer the red, yellow, and orange peppers. I use a mixture of all of them, or whatever I have on hand.
Grated parmesan- A tasty cheese that pairs well with the Italian seasonings.
Mozzarella cheese, shredded- No casserole is complete without a cheesy topping. This casserole is no exception.

See recipe card for quantities.

How to make Stuffed Pepper Casserole

Learn how to make this quick and easy casserole using these step-by-step process photos and instructions.

A mixing bowl with rice and Italian Sausage.

In a large mixing bowl combine cooked Italian sausage and cooked white rice. Add sautéed diced yellow onion and mix together. Mix in the chopped bell peppers to the rice mixture.

Added sauteed yellow onion to the mixing bowl.

2. In the large mixing bowl add parmesan cheese, fennel, and Italian seasoning. Mix until ingredients are evenly distributed with the rice and bell peppers.

Mozzarella cheese topping the casserole mixture in a baking dish.

5. Pour casserole mixture into a 9x13 baking dish and top with shredded mozzarella cheese. Add more cheese as desired. Bake for 20 minutes at 350* F or until the cheese is starting to brown on the top.

Baked stuffed pepper casserole ready to be eaten.

6. Serve hot and enjoy this super simple Stuffed Pepper Casserole.

Hint: This recipe doesn't ask you to cook the bell peppers before assembling. This keeps them fresher and crispier when you cook the whole casserole together. We aren't fans of soggy peppers over here!

Substitutions

This dish is naturally gluten free but you can add some tasty additions to make it fit your diet needs even better.

Ground turkey- Use ground turkey instead of Italian sausage for a tasty alternative.
Ground Beef- Use ground beef instead of Italian sausage.
Tomatoes- Add diced tomatoes or canned diced tomatoes to the mixture.
Minute rice- In a pinch, because you cook the rice beforehand, minute rice works wonderfully with this recipe.
Cauliflower rice- At a 1:1 ratio, substitute cauliflower rice for the white rice for a vegetable heavy dish.
Quinoa- Looking for more protein? Use quinoa at a 1:1 ratio instead of rice.
Brown rice- We love brown rice! This recipe uses white rice, but brown rice can easily be used instead.
Cheddar- Have a thing for cheddar cheese? Use shredded cheddar cheese instead of mozzarella.
Spicy - add a couple of chopped jalapeño peppers to spice this dish up!

Helpful Hints

Make ahead of time to help with a busy weeknight schedule.
Use leftover ingredients to make it budget friendly like cooked white rice and bell peppers that are going bad.
This recipe goes quickly at our house so I always have to double it to keep everyone happy.
This meal makes great leftovers for either lunch or dinner the next day.

Storing Stuffed Pepper Casserole

Store leftover cooked casserole in an air tight container for 3-4 days in the refrigerator. This dish does not freeze well! The texture of the bell peppers will brake down.

Top tip

We love making this dish when we have leftover rice in the fridge. It's an easy way to use up vegetables, and rice you are trying to eat up! It also makes a great meal prep meal!