This hearty and healthy stuffed pepper soup is made with ground beef and bell peppers in a savory broth with diced tomatoes, rice, and the best blend of Italian seasonings. It’s easy to make on the Stove Top or the Crock Pot!
Stuffed Pepper Soup
I am in love with this hearty, delicious, and healthy stuffed pepper soup. It is so satisfying and encompasses all of the elements of a complete meal in a single soup pot!
This recipe uses a combination of beef and chicken broth for depth of flavor. Tomato sauce and diced tomatoes with green chilies add a nice tomato base, and we offset the acidity of those tomatoes with a hint of brown sugar. (It adds the perfect touch!)
Simple flavor enhancers include a touch of hot sauce, mustard powder, and Worcestershire sauce– none of which you can taste outright. The seasoning blend is just perfect, and I love sprinkling in freshly shredded cheese at the end for a savory finish!
How to Make It
See recipe card below this post for ingredient quantities and full instructions.
Cook the ground beef and onions in a large soup pot. Drain grease and season with salt and pepper. Add garlic and peppers and sauté for 3 minutes.
Add the seasonings, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce, and brown sugar. Stir to combine, then add the beef/chicken broth.
Bring to a gentle boil, then reduce to a simmer. Cover partially and let it simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Meanwhile, cook the rice in chicken broth in a separate pot and add it to serving bowls.
Remove the soup from the heat and stir in the shredded cheese, (if using). Ladle the soup on top of the rice and serve!
Crock Pot Method
- Cook the ground beef and onions and drain grease. Transfer to the slow cooker along with remaining ingredients except for the rice and shredded cheese.
- Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours. Flip to warm and stir in the cheese, if using.
- Cook rice separately as outlined in the stove top method and add directly to serving bowls. Ladle the soup on top and serve.
- Store any leftover rice and soup in separate containers and refrigerate or freeze.
Can You Cook the Rice in the Stuffed Pepper Soup?
- I highly recommend that you cook the rice on the side in some chicken broth. As soon as the rice is added to the soup itself, it starts to absorb the broth. The longer it sits in the soup, the more broth the rice absorbs, which makes it overly soft and leaves you with little leftover broth.
Pro Tips
- You can’t taste the hot sauce, Worcestershire sauce, or mustard powder in this recipe. They are used as flavor enhancers and add umami. I use Frank’s Hot Sauce for this recipe, but any variety is fine!
- Ground Turkey can be used instead of ground beef.
- 2 1/4 cups of leftover rice can be used for this recipe as well.
- Shred the cheese from a block to ensure it melts well and tastes the best.
Storage
- Store in an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 3 months.
- Be sure to freeze the rice in a separate container from the soup. The soup and the rice both freeze well.
Tools For This Recipe
(Amazon affiliate links)- Check out all of my kitchen essentials here.
- 4.5 quart Dutch oven– This is a great size for this recipe.
- Food Storage Containers– These are what I use, they fit exactly 1 cup and are leak proof, microwave safe, stackable, and BPA free.
- Measuring Spoons– I have these magnetic ones which stay nice and organized in my utensil drawer.
- Pinch Bowls– for measuring out seasonings ahead of time.
Try These Next
- Chicken Tortellini Soup
- Italian Wedding Soup
- Zuppa Toscana Soup
- Tomato Tortellini Soup
- Split Pea Soup
- Sausage Potato Soup
Get My Free Meal Plan
I’ve got a Free Meal Plan with 7 of my super popular recipes (complete with grocery list)! Sign up for my email list and I’ll send it over now along with weekly dinner recipes!
And follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest!
Tried This Recipe?
Leave a review, I love hearing your feedback! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
![A bowl of Stuffed Pepper Soup with seasoned ground beef, peppers, tomatoes, and rice.](jpg/stuffed-pepper-soup-f6-200x200.jpg)
Stuffed Pepper Soup
Ingredients
Seasonings
- 1 teaspoon EACH: dried basil, oregano, parsley, mustard powder
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- 1 pinch red pepper flakes
Soup
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 ¼ lb. ground beef, 90% lean
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- Salt/Pepper, to taste
- 1 large red bell pepper, diced
- 1 large green bell pepper, diced
- 10 oz. diced tomatoes with green chilies, undrained
- 16 oz. tomato sauce
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 teaspoon hot sauce
- 1-2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 3 cups beef broth
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 1 cup Shredded cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese, (optional)
Rice
- 1 ½ cups chicken broth
- 3/4 cups white long grain rice, uncooked., (Or 2 ¼ cups cooked rice.)
Instructions
- Note: The rice is cooked separately in this recipe to ensure that it doesn’t soak up too much broth in the soup. This allows leftover soup and rice to be stored separately as well, as the rice continues to soak up broth during storage. This soup freezes very well, the rice can also be frozen in a separate storage container.
Prepare the Soup:
- Heat the olive oil in a 4 ½ quart soup pot over medium-high heat. Add the ground beef and cook and crumble it for 3 minutes. Add the onions and cook for 5 more minutes, or until the beef is brown and cooked through. Drain grease. Reduce heat to medium and add garlic and season with salt/pepper, toss to coat.
- Add the diced bell peppers and let them soften for 3 minutes.
- Add the seasonings, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce, and brown sugar. Stir to combine, then add the beef broth and chicken broth.
- Bring to a gentle boil, then reduce to a simmer. Cover partially and let it simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Cook the Rice:
- Add 1 ½ cups chicken broth to a small saucepan and bring it to a boil. Add the rice and submerge it in the liquid. Bring back to a boil. Cover tightly and reduce to a gentle simmer, cook for 15 minutes. Turn heat off. Let the rice sit in the pot, covered, for 10 full minutes. Any rice stuck to the bottom will release during this time. This will yield 2 ¼ cups of flavorful rice. Note: Other varieties of rice can be used and will require different amounts of liquid and simmering time. (Refer to package for instructions.)
Serve:
- Remove the soup from the heat and stir in the shredded cheese, (if using).
- Spoon the rice into serving bowls and ladle soup on top. If you don’t anticipate leftovers, you can add the rice right to the soup pot. Serve!
Notes
- Cook the ground beef and onions and drain grease. Transfer to the slow cooker along with remaining ingredients except for the rice and shredded cheese.
- Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours. Flip to warm and stir in the cheese, if using.
- Cook rice separately as outlined in the stove top method and add directly to serving bowls. Ladle the soup on top and serve.
- Store any leftover rice and soup in separate containers and refrigerate or freeze.
Pro Tips
- You can’t taste the hot sauce, Worcestershire sauce, or mustard powder in this recipe. They are used as flavor enhancers and add umami. I use Frank's Hot Sauce for this recipe, but any variety is fine!
- Ground Turkey can be used instead of ground beef.
- 2 1/4 cups of leftover rice can be used for this recipe as well.
- Shred the cheese from a block to ensure it melts well and tastes the best.
- The nutritional information includes the 1 cup of optional cheese.
Storage
- Store in an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 3 months.
- Be sure to freeze the rice in a separate container from the soup. The soup and the rice both freeze well.
Nutritional information is an estimate and is per serving. There are 6 servings in this recipe.
Nutrition
This was delicious. Had 1 lb ground beef and added 1/4 lb ground sausage. Will be making this soup all fall/winter. Would also be a great meal to use for a meal delivery/ meal train.
I’m so happy that you loved the soup Megan! This has been my husband’s all-time favorite soup for years! I agree, it would be fantastic for a meal train. Thank you so much for taking the time to leave a review, I really appreciate it! -Stephanie
Very good! Messed up and had no diced tomatoes or tomato sauce so added an extra cup of broth and a can of tomato soup. Still so delicious. A recipe I’ll make lots over the winter!
I’m so happy you enjoyed it Michelle! Definitely a cozy one for the winter, I’m looking forward to cozy season! Thanks so much for the great comments and review!💖
I just got this made and it is awesome! I only had 3/4 lb of hamburger so I used 1/2 lb of hot Italian sausage as well, it makes it wonderful! I did not put in the red pepper flakes but it is not so spicy that I can’t put them in if I decide to.
I’ve tried a lot of different recipes for stuffed pepper soup, yours beats them all!
Thank you!
That makes me so happy Kelly! I’m glad you enjoyed it with the hot Italian sausage😋. Thanks so much for taking the time to leave a comment!💗
The recipe calls for 2 cups of chicken broth. And you use one and a half cups for the rice. Do you just add the beef broth and a half a cup of chicken broth to the soup itself?
Hi Kelly! There is a soup header and a rice header in the ingredients list. Under soup, it has 3 cups of beef broth and 2 cups of chicken broth. Under rice, it has 1.5 cups of chicken broth. In total, the recipe has 3.5 cups of chicken broth and 3 cups of beef broth.
Best stuffed pepper recipe I’ve ever tried. I’m 62 years old and I’ve made a lot of them!
Well done Stephanie! 👍🏻
That makes me so happy, thanks so much Kelly!💗💗💗
Made this today. Absolutely delicious! Another home run Stephanie!
Wahooo! That makes me so happy Phyllis, thanks so much for your support!💖
When I crave soup, this is my go to recipe. I make a few little tweaks to punch up the heat level (our preference for spicy- I add a large diced jalapeño with the bell peppers and add some hot pepper powder I make from my garden) but the soup is exceptionally good as written!
I’m so happy you enjoyed the soup Larenda! My husband would love the diced Jalapenos, yummm! Thanks so much for taking the time to leave a review!❤️
I made this tonight as a low carb option. Basically, I used 1.5lbs of 80/20 ground beef, a 10 oz can of Ro-tel tomatoes w/cilantro & lime, nixed the brown sugar and integrated two 9oz packages of Trader Joe’s Riced Hearts of Palm instead of rice at the end. No need to cook separately. I also cut the herb amounts in half only because I felt that the listed amount would be a touch too much. Everything else in the original recipe was included. Turned out to be amazing! Just like having Stuffed Bell Peppers. Thank you so much for publishing the original!
You’re very welcome Rich, I’m so happy you enjoyed it! Thanks so much for taking the time to comment!😀
This was so good! I absolutely do not like stuffed peppers, but this soup has all the flavor and none of the weird textures. I made exactly as written and served the rice in the side. Perfection! I also took some to work for a luncheon and people were raving. Thank you for such a delicious recipe!
I’m so happy you enjoyed the soup Tina! My husband said the same thing, he doesn’t like stuffed peppers but loves this soup! Thanks so much for the great review!💖
This was absolutely delicious! I added some mushrooms for extra veggies. I can’t wait to try more recipes!
I am soooo happy that you loved it Chay, I love that you added mushrooms, YUM! Thank you so much for taking the time to leave this review, I can’t wait for you to try more recipes either! 🙂