TL/DR – Southwestern Stuffed Peppers. Bell peppers stuffed with ground turkey, onions, garlic, pinto beans, salsa, cream cheese and potatoes, then topped with cheese. A delicious weeknight meal or a make-ahead meal for lunches. –
Originally this particular stuffed pepper recipe came from thoughts on what to do with leftover Roasted Potatoes. The issue with leftover roasted potatoes is that they lose their crisp. Yes, they can be re-heated under the broiler, but they can also have a second life! They work really well with the ground turkey, pinto beans and taco seasoning in this recipe.
That being said, if you don’t have leftover roasted potatoes, they can be omitted or replaced with a cup of rice from one of those 90 second rice packets. Start by halving and seeding bell peppers and coating them in a bit of oil, then sprinkling them with a bit of salt and pepper. The key to a stuffed pepper that isn’t too crispy is to pre-bake the peppers at 350 for about 20 minutes.
As the peppers pre-bake, brown ground turkey with onions and garlic. Hit it with some lime juice, then taco seasoning, green chiles, pinto beans, and leftover roasted potatoes if you have them, toss and remove the mixture from the heat.
Make a rudimentary sauce from your preferred jarred salsa and cream cheese, then stir that into the filling mixture. Stuff the peppers, top with cheese, and bake them for 20 more minutes.
Southwestern Stuffed Peppers
Bell peppers stuffed with a mixture of ground turkey, beans, chiles, potatoes and taco seasoning and topped with cheese. A delicious weeknight meal or great lunches!
Ingredients
- 3 red bell peppers, halved
- 2 T extra virgin olive oil, divided
- 1/2 t kosher salt, divided
- 1/4 t black pepper, divided
- 1 lb. ground turkey
- 1/2 a medium yellow onion, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 T lime juice
- 1 T taco seasoning
- 1 small can of green chiles
- 1 14.5 oz can of pinto beans, rinsed and drained well
- 1 1/2 c leftover roasted potatoes, if available, or 1 c plain 90 second rice
- 1 c jarred salsa, such as Pace Chunky Salsa
- 4 oz cream cheese
- 1 c shredded Mexican blend cheese
Directions
- Step 1 Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Step 2 Halve the bell peppers, coat them in 1 T olive oil and place them into a baking dish that will accommodate all of them. Sprinkle the peppers with 1/4 t salt and 1/8 t pepper. Bake them for 20 minutes, then remove.
- Step 3 As the pepper halves pre-bake, put the remaining oil in a large skillet and heat on high heat. Brown the ground turkey on all sides, breaking it up into small chunks with the spoon as they brown, about 4 minutes.
- Step 4 Add the remaining 1/4 t salt and 1/8 t pepper, onion and garlic and lower the heat to medium. Cook for about 2 minutes.
- Step 5 Deglaze the skillet with the lime juice, scraping up the brown bits as the juice cooks off. Then add the taco seasoning and green chiles and stir well.
- Step 6 Add the beans and potatoes and toss, then remove the mixture from the heat.
- Step 7 In a smaller bowl, mix together the cream cheese and the salsa, using a fork to break up the cream cheese to achieve a fairly homogenous mixture.
- Step 8 Toss the salsa and cream cheese mixture with the turkey mixture and incorporate it well.
- Step 9 Stuff each pepper with mounded heaps of the stuffing. Top each pepper with a small handful of the cheese, then return them to the oven and bake for 20 more minutes.
