Vegan stuffed peppers stuffed with black beans, corn, rice and a cheesy cashew sauce. The best way to eat bell peppers!
These vegan stuffed peppers are seriously delicious. They’re gourmet enough for a fancy dinner party and easy enough for a regular weeknight meal. So they’re pretty much the best thing ever.
This recipe makes 6 delicious stuffed peppers. They are very filling and satisfying and they store beautifully in the fridge, so they’re great for meal planning too.
And if you like stuffed peppers then you’ll probably also love our vegan stuffed shells and vegan stuffed mushrooms so check those out too.
How To Make Vegan Stuffed Peppers
You will find full instructions and measurements in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. This is a summary of the process to go along with the process photos.
Start with making the cheesy cashew sauce. It’s a simple mix of raw cashews, vegetable stock, crushed garlic, nutritional yeast, salt, onion powder, garlic powder, cumin and sliced jalapeños added to the blender and blended until smooth. Set aside.
TOP TIP: You don’t need to soak your cashews for this if you have a powerful blender like a Vitamix. If you have a blender that you think might struggle with this though, then add your cashews to a bowl and pour boiling water from the kettle over the top and let them soak for 15 minutes. This will soften them and make them easy to blend.
Next up is your black beans and corn. But just before you start making it, get your peppers ready by chopping off the tops of the peppers and coring the peppers.
Set aside the cored peppers, but chop up the tops of the peppers instead of throwing them out, so that you can use them with the black beans, corn and rice.
TOP TIP: We used red and yellow peppers in this recipe but you can really use any color pepper. Red, yellow and orange peppers are usually sweeter than green peppers, which are less sweet. So just go with your preference or use a mix of colors for a really colorful meal.
Black Beans And Corn:
Start by adding chopped onion, crushed garlic, cayenne pepper and cumin along with some olive oil to a frying pan and sauté the onions until softened.
Add in your black beans, corn and the chopped pepper tops that you have from coring your peppers and sauté until the peppers are soft but firm.
Add cooked basmati rice and chopped cilantro and mix in.
Pour in the cheesy cashew sauce and mix it in. Now your filling is ready!
Preheat the oven to 400°F and place your cored peppers into a 9×13 baking dish and drizzle them with olive oil. Then stuff the peppers with your filling.
Place them into the oven to bake, uncovered, for 35 minutes. They will get deliciously browned on top.
- Your vegan stuffed peppers are ready to serve.
Serving Suggestions
Serve with chopped avocado and chopped cilantro for a deliciously gourmet meal.
And if you want something to serve on the side, then some vegan garlic bread or a vegan chickpea salad or vegan Greek salad would not go amiss.
Storing and Freezing
Keep leftovers stored in a covered container in the fridge for 3-4 days. You can either reheat them in the oven until heated through, or the microwave.
You can also freeze them. Let them cool completely before freezing and then freeze individually or together. Let them thaw overnight in the fridge and then reheat in the oven or microwave until heated through.
More Vegan Dinner Recipes
Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below!
Vegan Stuffed Peppers
Ingredients
Cheesy Cashew Sauce:
- 1 cup Raw Cashews (150g)
- ¾ cup Vegetable Stock (180ml)
- 1 teaspoon Crushed Garlic
- 2 Tablespoons Nutritional Yeast
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- ¼ teaspoon Onion Powder
- ¼ teaspoon Garlic Powder
- ¼ teaspoon Cumin
- 1 Tablespoon Sliced Jalapeños
Peppers:
- 3 Medium Red Bell Peppers topped and cored*
- 3 Medium Yellow Bell Peppers topped and cored*
- Olive Oil for drizzling
Black Bean/Corn/Rice Filling:
- 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
- 1 Medium Onion White, Yellow or Brown, Chopped
- 1 Tablespoon Crushed Garlic
- ¼ teaspoon Cayenne Pepper
- ½ teaspoon Cumin
- 15 ounce Can Black Beans Drained
- 15 ounce Can Corn Drained
- Chopped Bell Pepper Tops chop up the tops of the six bell peppers you cut off, and add them in here
- 3 cups Cooked Basmati Rice* (480g)
- ¼ cup Cilantro Chopped
- Sea Salt and Black Pepper To Taste
Serving:
- 1 Medium Avocado Peeled and Chopped
- Fresh Cilantro Chopped
Instructions
- Add the raw cashews, vegetable stock, crushed garlic, nutritional yeast, salt, onion powder, garlic powder, cumin and sliced jalapeños to the blender and blend until smooth. Set aside.
- Prepare the peppers by chopping off the tops and coring them. Set aside the cored peppers but chop up the tops of the peppers to use in the black beans, corn and rice filling.
- Add the olive oil, onion, crushed garlic, cayenne pepper and cumin to a frying pan and sauté until the onions are softened.
- Add in the black beans and corn and the chopped pepper tops that you have from topping and coring your peppers and sauté until the peppers are soft but firm.
- Add the cooked basmati rice and chopped cilantro and mix it in.
- Pour the cheesy cashew sauce over the top of the black beans, corn and rice and mix it in. Now your filling is ready!
- Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C) and place your cored peppers into a 9×13 baking dish and drizzle them with olive oil.
- Stuff the peppers with the filling and place them into the oven to bake, uncovered, for 35 minutes until browned on top.
- Serve with chopped avocado and cilantro.
Video
Notes
- Cashews: You don’t need to soak the cashews first unless you know your blender will have a hard time with it. If you think your blender will struggle then add the cashews to a bowl and pour over hot water from the kettle and let them soak for 15 minutes. This will soften them enough to make blending easy.
- Peppers: You can use different color peppers as you please. Bell peppers are also called sweet peppers and capsicums.
- Basmati rice: This recipe uses 3 cups of cooked basmati rice. This is approximately 1 cup of dried uncooked rice and when cooked it will make around 3 cups.
- Storing: Store leftovers in the fridge for 3-4 days. They are also freezer friendly.
I improvised slightly with the filling ingredients based on what I had on hand but followed the technique as written. The peppers turned out great! That’s the beauty of this recipe, it is very adaptable. I tossed in some pepper jack cheese (yes, I know that is not vegan) instead of making the cashew sauce but will definitely make this again with the sauce. It was easy to downsize the number of servings. I used roughly 1.5 cups combined beans/vegetables and 1 cup prepared rice. That yielded plenty of stuffing for 2 largish peppers. Because I didn’t make the cashew sauce, I added a clove of minced garlic and 1/2 tsp cumin to the vegetable saute. Topped with pepitas, more cilantro and a squeeze of fresh lime juice, Yum!
Awesome! Thanks for sharing and the great review Pat!
How big a cup do you use for the rice? I’m in the UK so not used to using volumes like that. Cheers.
Hi Jane, in grams it would be 480g.
This was really good. The whole family loved it. Definitely a keeper. Thanks.
Wonderful! Thanks so much Isabella!
Looks super deliciously veganiously thank you! Will make it. 😉
Absolutely love this recipe. SO yummy. Even my non plant based daughter loved these.
Awesome! Thanks so much Grace!
These are so hearty and delicious! I was wondering if next time I could sub the rice with quinoa instead?
Hi Claudia, yes I think quinoa would work great too! 🙂
This recipe is amazing! I had enough filling that I was able to fill 4 large peppers. SO good! thank you for making this. I will definitely make again.
Awesome! Thanks so much Grace!
I made these last week they are SO good! Even my non plant daughter loved them and not only ate 1 half but another half.
Thanks for your recipe. I will definitely be making these again.
Oh, btw, I didn’t have rice so I subbed cooked lentils in place of the rice. I also added a full bunch of fresh cilantro the mixture
Very delish!
Wonderful! Thanks so much for sharing Grace!
Absolutely love this recipe! The jalapeños in the “cheese” sauce makes such a difference it’s unbelievable!
This recipe is amazing! Putting jalapeños in the cashew cheese is a game changer and my whole family loved it! Made more filling than needed so you can make extra if you had spare peppers to use. Next time I would cook the peppers for a little longer to get them really soft. I will be saving this recipe to make again and again!!
Thanks so much Sol!
This was really great!
Thanks Wendy!
So dang good! I loved it. Made it as is. I did buy an extra pepper because I thought I might have extra filling have a bunch of filling and that was perfect. Actually, I added some of the jalapeno juice to the mix to give it an extra zing mostly because I like things with a little kick. Definitely a keeper! Can’t wait to make it again. Thanks so much!!
Awesome Kiki! Thanks for the amazing review!
Made this today for the first time and will definitely be doing it again as absolutely delicious. I soaked the cashews in the vegetable stock and used it all in the recipe. Can’t wait to have more for lunch tomorrow ???? Thanks!
These stuffed peppers are to die for! I love, love, loved them. Still enjoying since there are only two of us – YAY!.
My husband said, with his mouth full of his first bite, “we will definitely be having these again!”
Awesome! And that is my favorite thing too, since there are also only two of us, this can stretch to a few meals! Thanks for the great review Tracy!