Unstuffed Peppers Casserole – Easy One Pot Stovetop Recipe

Unstuffed Peppers Casserole brings all the cozy comfort of stuffed peppers to your stovetop in one easy pot. Get ready for a weeknight win!

Save time, energy, and even electricity/gas (money) by using this recipe instead of a slow and wasteful oven.

Recipe Overview – Unstuffed Peppers Casserole

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Allergies & Dietary Restriction-Friendly

As usual, all the recipes are allergy-friendly and Top 8/9 Allergy Free:
no dairy, no eggs, no wheat, no gluten, no nuts, no tree nuts, no shellfish, no seafood, no soy, no added salt, no added oil, no added sugars, and no coconut. (All recipes are also vegan unless that wasn’t obvious).
Using only minimally processed and healing foods, from scratch.

Why So Restrictive?

All of the recipes I design are made to be accessible to as many people as possible. Many people have food allergies (220 million worldwide) or dietary restrictions (17.1% of U.S. adults). And many more people (1.7 billion worldwide) are also currently suffering from non-communicable diseases like heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and many others, which are responsible for 74% of all deaths.

So these recipes are all made to heal, especially those who already need healing, and don’t add more than the minimum to get the most flavor. One of the most important rules of cooking is that it’s always easier to add an ingredient to a dish than to remove one that you’ve already added.

Add what you want, but the ingredients selected not only cause the least harm they also give the most benefits!

Why Dry Spices and Powdered Ingredients?

With accessibility comes cost and availability. I wanted to design the items so even low-income or people living in food deserts can still eat healthy healing meals so I’ve used the most affordable, common, and convenient ingredients I can find in my area, but feel free to use fresh, frozen, or whatever works for you—most scientific studies are done with powdered/dehydrated foods since they can fit in a pill; so any kind of veggie, fruit, or herb is better than nothing. Try the conversion for common dry/fresh ingredients tables if you’re using different from what’s written in the recipe.

Short Recipe Video – Unstuffed Peppers Casserole

The Menu for Unstuffed Peppers Casserole

Here are some of the most recent dinner recipes for pairing ideas:

• Unstuffed Peppers Casserole – Easy One Pot Stovetop Recipe
• Jalapeño Ched Cornbread: Your New Favorite Stovetop Cornbread For Dunking
• Easy Creamy Tomato Basil Soup: Boil & Blend for a Tasty, Satisfying Brunch
• Boil & Blend Taco Soup: Your New Go-To Tuesday Recipe!
• Low-GI Simmer & Serve Scalloped Potatoes on the Stovetop

How about a different dessert?

• Indulge in Dark Cherry Clafoutis: Quick and Easy One-Pot Dessert
• Sunbutter Raisin Cookie Drops – Simple & Tasty
• Savory Stovetop Cornbread: Comfort Food Made Simple!
• Cinnamon Apple-Raisin Rolls: Fast and Full of Festive Flavor
• Stovetop Banana Cream Hand Pies & Cookies with a Graham Crust

Detailed Directions for Unstuffed Peppers Casserole

Jump to Recipe Card

1. Slice your peppers into 6 broad face sections (or as many wide face slices as you can get) and remove the stems and seeds (I keep the pith/ribs because they are healthy and not worth the extra work.
2. Add your onions to a pot on high heat and dry sauté them until they caramelize and soften. Reserve them for later.
3. On high heat add your second/last layer to your pot first, skin side down, and cook them for about 2-5 minutes until they have some good color on the bottom (avoid full char as it’s not healthy/carcinogenic). Flip them onto the flesh side and cook them for a minute or two until they soften or get some color. Now do the same with your first layer. (If your pot has a lot of scored areas give it a quick rinse).
4. Mix your tomato sauce (if you’re using dry lentils or rice then add them into the sauce before pouring it all over top of the first layer of peppers, but you’ll have to cook it much longer). Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer and cook on low for about 10-15 minutes, or until the sauce thickens up a little bit
5. Once your sauce has thickened up a bit you can add your cooked lentils and rice, if you’re using them both, then gently fold them into the tomato sauce while avoiding disturbing the bottom layer of peppers. Cover the top with your second layer of peppers, using a spoon pressing them down into the sauce so they are just covered then replace the lid and simmer for 2-5 minutes while you mix the Notzzarella sauce.
6. Remove the lid and spoon on your Notzzarella sauce covering most areas, then cover with the lid to simmer/steam the Notzzarella sauce for 5 more minutes or until the Notzzarella sauce firms up a bit.
7. Turn off the heat and wait until simmering stops, then slice your Unstuffed Peppers Casserole into 4 (or more) pieces and use a wooden spoon or an offset spatula to serve slices of the Unstuffed Peppers Casserole. Garnish with parsley or fresh basil.
   
   

Why This Recipe for Unstuffed Peppers Casserole?

I love stuffed peppers! But there are a lot of drawbacks to making them so I used to rarely ever make them; until I developed this recipe that is!

Preparing and stuffing peppers often takes more time than you initially expected it to take, and cooking them takes a lot of time, heat, and precision to get the right color and texture. Sometimes the stuffing is still cold inside, and cooking it longer often only leads to burnt peppers and lukewarm stuffing.

Sure there are lots of “stuffed peppers casseroles,” out there, even a couple of WFPB ones. But, the recipes all miss out on my favorite aspect of stuffed peppers: the grilled pepper encases the stuffing giving you a texture that’s not the same when you slice or bite into small sautéed chopped or sliced peppers that are mixed throughout the stuffing—it’s more like you just added some sautéed peppers to your stuffed pepper stuffing.

By slicing dry and sautéing full pepper faces (only 6 pieces per pepper) and using only a bottom layer and a top layer of large-sliced peppers we get that same grilled texture and the same flavors and textures from the stuffing cooking inside of the peppers.

We also save more money and time because most recipes call for at least 45 minutes in a preheated oven just for the cooking time! That’s a lot of wasted energy, heat, and waiting time, just to get the right color and texture—mostly, just heating the kitchen, and the rest of your home, from all the heat waste.

This recipe uses only whole food, healthy vegan ingredients, and no added salt, oil, or sugar, without sacrificing flavor for health.

Have ideas for recipes or feedback? Let me know in the comments, or connect with me on Substack or Instagram!

Blending Without an Immersion Blender or Any Blender

Ideally you have oat and rice flour and ground spices. Otherwise, a spice grinder is best.

Alternatively, you can use the other blenders shown if you have no other options. Below is a quick immersion blender hack to turn it into a spice grinder.

A pestle and mortar will also work if you have them.

🌟The Full Unstuffed Peppers Recipe🌟

Unstuffed Peppers Easy Stovetop One Pot Casserole

Chef Rob

Replicate the taste and texture of stuffed peppers without all the effort or wasted heat/gas (money).

Print Recipe

Prep Time 5 minutes mins

Cook Time 30 minutes mins

Total Time 35 minutes mins

Course Casserole, Comfort Food, Dinner, Entrée, Leftovers, Lunch, Main Course

Cuisine American, Italian, Italian-American, Mediterranean, World

Servings 4 people

Calories 195 kcal

Equipment

• 1 Pot with a lid for simmering
• 1 Knife

Ingredients

  

UNSTUFFED PEPPERS CASSEROLE

• ½ cup onion chopped
• 2-4 ea mixed peppers enough to cover the bottom of your pot twice (so you have 2 layers of peppers
• ½ cup tomatoes diced
• ½ cup tomato paste
• 1 tbsp garlic granules
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp basil dry
• 1 tsp oregano dry and ground
• 1 tsp paprika regular sweet paprika, not smoked.
• 1 tsp parsley dry
• ¼ tsp thyme dry
• 1 tsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 cup water add another ½ cup water if there's not enough liquid
• ½ cup rice brown cooked
• ½ cups lentils cooked brown or green

NOTZZARELLA SAUCE

• ¼ cups oat flour
• 2 tbsp rice flour sticky brown rice flour, ideally
• 1 tbsp nutritional yeast optional and avoid fortified if you want a white color (I rarely add it)
• ¼ tsp onion powder
• ¼ tsp garlic granules
• ⅛ tsp celery seeds ground
• ½ tbsp sunflower seed butter I suggest tahini if you aren't allergic as it makes it more creamy
• 1.5 tbsp white vinegar
• ¼ cup water

Instructions

 

• Slice your peppers into 6 sections and remove the stems and seeds (I keep the pith/ribs because they are healthy and not worth the extra work).
  
• Add your onions to a pot on high heat and dry sauté them until they caramelize and soften. Reserve them for later.
  
• On high heat add your second/last layer to your pot first, skin side down, and cook them for about 2-5 minutes until they have some good color on the bottom (avoid full char as it's not healthy/carcinogenic). Flip them onto the flesh side and cook them for a minute or two until they soften or get some color. Now do the same with your first layer.
  
• Mix your tomato sauce. Bring the sauce to a boil then reduce the heat to a simmer and cook on low, uncovered, for about 10-15 minutes, or until the sauce thickens up a little bit.
  
• Once your sauce has thickened up a bit you can add your cooked lentils (and rice), then gently fold them into the tomato sauce while avoiding disturbing the bottom layer of peppers. Cover the top with your second layer of peppers, using a spoon pressing them down into the sauce so they are just covered then replace the lid and simmer for 2-5 minutes while you mix the Notzzarella sauce.
  
• Remove the lid and spoon on your Notzzarella sauce covering most areas, then cover with the lid to simmer/steam the Notzzarella sauce for 5 more minutes or until the Notzzarella sauce firms up a bit.
  
• Turn off the heat and wait until simmering stops, then slice your Unstuffed Peppers Casserole into 4 (or more) pieces and use a wooden spoon or an off-set spatula to serve slices of the Unstuffed Peppers Casserole. Garnish with parsley or fresh basil.
  

Keyword affordable vegan recipes

🧂If you absolutely must add salt or sugar then try to add them to taste, to the top of the food, so you use less, and add in small amounts and only after tasting before adding any more. The same goes for other “less healthy” additions, but the idea should be to try to limit and eventually remove adding them, over time, when you are ready. (Use a finer ground salt as it will taste saltier.)

After a few weeks of not eating a SAD diet, your tastebuds reset, and you’ll notice and be surprised by the natural sugars and sodium already in foods. Check out the great article and subscribe to Michael Corthell on Substack for more.

If you get value from my recipes and writings, then please consider buying me a coffee. Thank you!

💡Protips💡

Use Wide Pepper Slices

Cut broad faces of your peppers so you get large pieces to do your layers, without this they don’t roast and crisp up like stuffed peppers and instead have a texture/taste similar to regular sautéed peppers (not as rich and juicy as roasted stuffed peppers).

Substitutes

Red Onions: You can use any kind of onions. The red onions have more Anthocyanins and other antioxidants like Quercetin and I like the taste better—the sweetness can help cut through the sour taste of tomatoes to make your tomato sauce less sour and more sweet.

Spices: if you have only storebought Italian seasoning, you can use that instead of the dry oregano, basil, and tyme but you will not get the same flavor profile.

Fresh Basil/Oregan: if you have fresh basil and oregano then check out the Fresh Dried & Ground Ingredient Equivalents Made Easy page for conversions.

Tomatoes: if you have a nightshade allergy, you can sub out the tomatoes for beets and the tomato paste for pureed beets.

Leftovers

You can save this casserole in the fridge for up to a week. Freezing will alter the texture of the peppers, unfortunately.

No Spice/coffee Grinder?

If you have ground oats and ground brown rice flour and spices then you shouldn’t need a spice grinder. If you don’t have any of those then check out the immersion blender hack in the blending section.

Nutrition Facts Table – Unstuffed Peppers Recipe

The Science – Sources

Please tell me how it turned out! Did you: try it, like it, hate it, change it, or do something else unexpected? Help me improve by giving me feedback, thanks!

If I’ve made any mistakes, or something doesn’t make sense, or if you want more/less details, please let me know in the comments below or on substack.

Stay healthy and nourished! Happy cooking!🎁

Chef Robert Leigh

Unstuffed Peppers Casserole – Easy One Pot Stovetop Recipe