Ricotta and Black Bean Stuffed Peppers
Stuffed peppers are such a classic vegetarian dish, and these creamy ricotta stuffed peppers are my all-time favourite version!
I wanted the stuffing mixture to require no pre-cooking whatsoever – so these stuffed peppers really couldn’t be simpler to make. Just mix up the filling ingredients, stuff them in the peppers, and bake. Simple, quick, easy!
When you dig into these peppers, you’re met with a seriously creamy mixture with spring onions, black beans, and my all-time favourite spice. Feel free to switch up the filling ingredients if you’d like to – see below for some ideas.
🥗 Ingredients and Substitutions
Here’s what you’ll need to make this recipe. See the printable recipe card below for detailed ingredient quantities.
- peppers. I used regular bell peppers, but long pointed peppers would also work well. Any colour will be fine, but I find green peppers are the least tasty, so I prefer to use red, yellow or orange peppers.
- black beans (canned)
- ricotta cheese. If you can’t get ricotta, you could try cream cheese or mascarpone cheese instead.
- spring onions. I use spring onions rather than regular onions because it means the stuffing mixture doesn’t need any pre-cooking. Spring onions have a more mellow flavour, which doesn’t need cooking beforehand.
- tomato sauce. Any kind of tomato sauce will work (not ketchup though!). I used passata (sieved tomatoes), but a tomato-based pizza or pasta sauce will work well too. My slow cooker tomato sauce is also ideal.
- grated cheddar cheese
- smoked paprika (one of my favourite spices of all time)
- garlic powder. Using garlic powder instead of fresh garlic again removes any need to pre-cook the filling for the stuffed peppers.
You can easily change up these ingredients to suit your preferences if you like, but make sure you choose ingredients that don’t need any pre-cooking, otherwise you’ll be adding extra steps to the recipe. A few examples of ingredients you could include:
- Fresh or dried herbs (e.g. parsley, basil, cilantro)
- Different spices – the smoked paprika I used could easily be swapped for ground cumin, chilli powder, or any other spice you love.
- Different canned beans, e.g. kidney beans or chickpeas
- Canned sweetcorn
- Other vegetables that don’t need pre-cooking, e.g. finely chopped tomatoes, mushrooms, or frozen peas
- Sliced olives or sun-dried tomatoes
Becca’s Top Tip
If you choose to add some extra vegetables to your stuffed peppers, don’t add too many. They will release liquid as they cook, and could make your stuffed peppers a bit soggy.
🔢 How Many People Does the Recipe Serve?
These stuffed peppers can be served as an appetiser, or as a more hearty meal. The number of portions you’ll get depends on how you’re serving it.
I’d recommend allowing:
- 1 pepper half per person as an appetiser
- 1 pepper half per person if served alongside several hearty side dishes
- 2 pepper halves per person if served alongside something light (or if you have a bigger appetite!)
🍚 How to Serve Creamy Stuffed Peppers
I served my black bean stuffed peppers with some white rice. It mixed so beautifully with the tomato sauce that I cooked the peppers on, and with the creamy ricotta filling.
A few other ideas for side dishes to go with stuffed peppers:
- any other simple carb, e.g. pasta or crispy potatoes
- a simple green salad
- pitta bread and hummus
- more roasted vegetables (or perhaps roasted veggie fattoush!)
- couscous
📹 Recipe Video
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🖨️ Printable Instructions
Creamy Ricotta and Black Bean Stuffed Peppers
If you’ve cooked this recipe, don’t forget to leave a star rating!
Print Pin CommentIngredients
- 250 g (~ 9 oz) ricotta cheese
- 400 g tin black beans, drained (240g, or ~ 1 1/4 cups, when drained)
- 3 spring onions, sliced
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 250 ml (~ 1 cup) passata or tomato sauce
- 2 bell peppers (I used yellow and red)
- 75 g (~ 3/4 cup) grated cheddar cheese
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 190°C (Gas Mark 5 / 375°F). In a mixing bowl, combine the ricotta, drained black beans, chopped spring onions, garlic powder, smoked paprika, and salt and pepper. Mix well to combine.
- Spread the tomato sauce around the bottom of a baking dish – mine measured approximately 8 x 8 inches.
- Cut the peppers in half, and remove the seeds in the middle. I like to leave the stalks on mine when making stuffed peppers, because I think it looks pretty, and it helps to keep the filling in. Don’t eat them though! Divide the black bean stuffing across the four pieces of pepper.
- Place the stuffed peppers in the baking dish on top of the sauce. You can lean them against each other to keep them straight, if needed. If you have any of the ricotta filling left over, you can dollop it around the peppers. Top with grated cheese.
- Bake for around 30 minutes, or until the peppers are just soft and the cheese is crisped up to your liking. Serve one or two pieces per person.
Video
Nutrition
Nutritional information is approximate, and will depend on your exact ingredients. Please calculate your own nutritional values if you require accuracy for health reasons.
💭 Recipe FAQs
Absolutely. Since there’s no pre-cooking involved, you can easily combine all the cold ingredients beforehand, and instead of baking straight away, store in the fridge for a day or so, until you’re ready to bake.
I would recommend transferring any leftover pieces of stuffed pepper into an air-tight tub (after they have cooled), and storing in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Leftover stuffed peppers will be best reheated in the microwave.
very good and VERY easy. I ate them all even though I don’t usually like stuffed peppers
Haha why did you make stuffed peppers if you don’t usually like them?! Glad I could convert you anyway :D
Can Cottage be used instead of Ricotta?
I guess so! They have a very different texture, and cottage cheese is more tangy too, so the end result wouldn’t be quite the same – but I guess it would still work. I think ricotta would be better though, if you can get it.
Very tasty. Substituted regular onion because didn’t have green onion. Made with green and red peppers. Great for leftovers!!!
Glad you enjoyed them Margaret, thanks for your comment! :)
Delicious! Adding it to my “reasons not to feel bad about constantly eating black beans” list.
looking good, love anything ricotta even though i’m not crazy about cheese in general. But I do like jack, mozzarella & ricotta (& of coarse cream) cheese.
I love how easy you made it to print your recipes!
Have no fear, Happy Valley Chow is here and I updated my reader :) Looks like a fantastic recipe, great job :)
Happy Blogging!
Happy Valley Chow
Yum! Any new ways to use ricotta are always welcome! My hubby is a vegetarian and I’m a ‘partial meat eater” (maybe 3-4 times a week). So most of the time I look for things like this- complete proteins to satisfy both of us. Perfect!