These taco stuffed bell peppers are an easy-to-make Mexican-style recipe that everyone will love. Ground beef, salsa, sour cream, and melted cheese come together in a perfect healthy serving that tastes delicious! This recipe is high protein, low-carb, keto-friendly, and gluten-free!
Why You Will Love These Taco Stuffed Peppers
Easy! A quick and easy stuffed bell pepper recipe with your favorite taco ingredients is the way to go! Just make your stuffing mixture and spoon it into precooked peppers.
Make Ahead. Another perfect make-ahead stuffed pepper recipe. Make them ahead and let them sit in the fridge, ready for baking a few days later. Super convenient!
Not your classic stuffed bell pepper recipe! This Mexican-inspired version is an excellent alternative to classic peppers filled with rice, tomatoes, beef, and onion! (p.s. This recipe was inspired by my lasagna and cheeseburger keto stuffed pepper recipes!)
Healthy. These stuffed peppers are a healthy recipe that you'll feel good about eating.
- Gluten free, low carb, keto stuffed peppers - with no added sugar.
- Net carbs 5.9 g | fat 15.5 g | protein 12.4 g
- This recipe can be adjusted to your dietary needs.
- Lower the fat by using fat free or low fat alternatives (ground meat, sour cream, etc.)
Keto Stuffed Bell Peppers Ingredients
Here are the ingredients you will need to make taco stuffed bell peppers:
- Bell Peppers - Any color is fine - green, red, orange, or yellow peppers are all delicious.
- Ground Beef - I used 80/20 blend (20% fat content) but you can use lower fat ground beef if you prefer.
- Taco Seasoning Mix - Of course, this is my favorite! 🙂 It's easy to make and much healthier. You can also use 1 store-bought packet for each pound of ground beef.
- Sour Cream - Use full fat if you are following keto, if not low fat or nonfat is fine too.
- Salsa - If you are following keto check the carb content and make sure they haven't slipped in any sugar.
- Shredded Cheddar Cheese - Fresh grated is best. Use mild, medium, or sharp.
For exact ingredient quantities, please see the recipe card below!
Keto Stuffed Peppers Variations
Here are a few ways you can vary or make substitutions to this recipe:
- Make it spicy and use a hot taco seasoning mix or add in cayenne pepper or red pepper flakes.
- Thawed frozen corn or canned can be added, as well as drained black beans or kidney beans.
- ½ to 1 cup of cooked rice can be added.
- Use ground chicken or turkey in place of ground beef.
- Add onions and saute with the ground beef. Chopped jalapenos can be added at the same time.
- Lower the fat content and use fat-free sour cream, less cheese, and a lower fat ground beef.
How to Make Mexican Stuffed Peppers
Prep
- Preheat oven to 350° F. Assemble ingredients. Wash the bell peppers. Slice peppers lengthwise in half through the middle and remove the seeds.
Cook The Peppers
- Place the sliced bell peppers in a microwave-safe dish with ¼ cup water. Cover and microwave 5 or 6 minutes or until just until peppers are soft.
- Note: Due to reader feedback the microwave cooking time has been reduced to 5 or 6 minutes, but please check doneness after 3 or 4 minutes. With varying sizes of peppers and microwave wattage, cooking times could vary. Peppers will be slightly "shriveled." It's okay because you will stuff them with cooked ingredients, reducing oven cooking time. 🙂
Cook The Meat
- In the meantime, brown the ground beef in a large skillet over medium heat until cooked through. Add the taco seasoning and water and cook according to instructions.
Make Taco Filling
- In the same pan that you cooked the taco meat, mix in sour cream, salsa, and 1 cup of cheddar cheese.
Stuff
- Spray a 13 x 9 baking dish with nonstick spray. Place cooked peppers inside the dish and generously stuff the bell peppers with the beef taco meat. Top with remaining cheddar cheese.
Bake
- Bake the stuffed peppers at 350 ° F for 20-30 minutes, or until they are heated through and the cheese is melted.
How To Serve Low Carb Stuffed Peppers
Top with your favorite taco toppings such as salsa, sour cream, guacamole, hot sauce, shredded lettuce, diced tomatoes, and sliced olives.
Meal idea! Serve with a side salad topped with avocado dressing. If you are not following a low-carb keto diet then this Mexican Street Corn Salad or refried beans make a wonderful side dish.
How To Store Taco Stuffed Peppers
Let the stuffed peppers cool completely then transfer to an airtight container. Store in the refrigerator for up to 3 days or freeze up to 3 months.
How to reheat stuffed peppers
Reheat individual stuffed peppers in the microwave. Place each pepper on a microwave safe plate or bowl. Cover and heat on 50% power at 30 seconds intervals, until heated through.
Can you freeze stuffed peppers?
Yes, stuffed peppers can be frozen! Place the peppers in an air-tight freezer safe container. Freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator.
Top Tips for this Low Carb Stuffed Pepper Recipe
- Make ahead by pre-cooking and assembling everything. Bake when you are ready.
- The ground beef mixture can be made ahead of time and the peppers can be pre-cooked.
- Adjust any seasoning to your taste preferences.
Be sure to save this pin to Pinterest for later! 🙂
Keto Stuffed Peppers FAQs
We like to top with our favorite taco toppings (shredded lettuce, olives, onions), homemade guacamole, salsa, and sour cream. Really, this taco stuffed bell pepper recipe is a meal in one, though.
You can reheat your peppers in the oven by covering them with foil and baking at 350° F until warm inside. An alternative is warming in the microwave oven.
To reduce the baking time, you can boil peppers before stuffing them or steam in the microwave for 5 to 6 minutes. Make sure to slice your peppers in half and take the seeds out, per the recipe instructions.
Steaming in the microwave because it is quicker and hands-off, which makes my life easier.
You can freeze stuffed peppers. Freeze them individually for the perfect make-ahead lunch or single-serving dinner!
My preferred method is to make the recipe first - stuffing and baking the peppers, then freezing them in airtight containers. Thaw and bake until heated through at 350° F.
Stuffed peppers can be kept in the fridge for 3 to 4 days.
Peppers can be frozen for up to 6 months, but I prefer to use stuffed peppers within 3 to 4 months.
This Mexican stuffed pepper recipe takes anywhere from 20 to 30 minutes to bake, but the bell peppers are steamed in advance to give them a head start. Do this while preparing the filling.
Can I ask you a favor?
If you tried this recipe, let me know! I'd love for you to come back and give the recipe a 5 star rating and leave a review in the comments! 🙂 Let's stay connected, so please follow me on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest! Subscribe to my newsletter to get healthy fresh recipe ideas every week!
📖 The recipe.
Mexican Stuffed Peppers (Low Carb)
Ingredients
- 4 medium green peppers seeded and halved
- 1½ pounds ground beef browned
- 1 recipe or packet taco seasoning mix
- ¾ cup water
- 1½ cup cheddar cheese
- 1 cup sour cream
- ½ cup salsa
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Wash peppers, then slice lengthwise in half through the middle and remove seeds. Place in a casserole dish with ¼ cups water. Cover and microwave 5 to 6 minutes, or until peppers are just getting soft. Check periodically for doneness.
- In the meantime, brown the ground beef in a large skillet over medium heat until cooked through. Add the taco seasoning and water and cook according to recipe or packet instructions.
- After the beef mixture is cooked, mix in sour cream, salsa, and 1 cup of cheddar cheese.
- Spray a 13 x 9 baking dish with nonstick spray. Place cooked peppers inside the dish and generously stuff with meat and cheese mixture. Top with remaining cheese.
- Bake peppers at 350 ° F for 20-30 minutes, or until peppers are heated through and cheese is melted. Serve with your favorite taco ingredients and a side of salsa. Enjoy!
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Taco stuffed bell peppers are so tasty with cheesy Mexican taco filling. Taco stuffed bell pepper recipe is filled with ground beef, gooey melted cheese, salsa, and sour cream. Keto stuffed peppers make an easy weeknight dinner and the perfect make-ahead recipe. Sure to become a family favorite as everyone loves tacos! Perfect an easy keto recipe for Taco Tuesday! #mexican #taco #stuffedpeppers #keto #lowcarb #ketogenic #seekinggoodeats #ketogenic
T. Luna
I really enjoyed this recipe. I didn't have any sour cream but I did have greek yogurt and that seemed to work out just fine. Perfect for my dinner for work, thank you.
seekinggoodeats
Thank you for the review! I'm so happy you love the taco stuffed peppers!
Denise
My family loves this recipe! Instead of microwaving peppers, I place them in a pan on the stove and bring to a boil for 5 minutes! I also add cooked rice and a can or bag of steam-able corn for a complete meal! I also use an 8 oz can of tomato sauce and a little salsa in this mix!
seekinggoodeats
Yes, for sure, that works too. Love your ideas! 🙂 Delicious thank you
Michelle
Hi,
Hi there,
Can a brick of cream cheese be substituted for the sour cream?
Kori
I think you could but it will be a different texture and flavor than the sour cream. Maybe use half a brick? The sour cream adds a bit of tang to the dish so maybe you could add a small squeeze of lime or lemon too?
Kori
It will be extra creamy and cheesy! 🙂
Amy
Made these using poblano peppers! YUM!!!
Kori
Thank you!! 🙂 So glad you loved them. I am going to make this with poblanos the next time I make them. Great idea!
Mae Carlso
I am a women who is just starting the keto diet. What can I serve with this to keep stay on the keto plan?
Kori
This is really a meal on its own. If you want to add more healthy fat serve with sour cream, more cheese, or diced avocados.
Alison
This is a fantastic and easy keto recipe. I make it often. I boil the peppers for 5 minutes on the stove instead of microwaving, and I sauté some diced onion with the ground beef but otherwise follow everything as is (well, I also just pour in whatever amount of salsa feels right Lol). It’s great with some avocado and sour cream on top. It also reheats really well for leftovers!
Kori
Thank you!! Super happy you loved the stuffed peppers. There is an infinite way to customize so they are just right for you! Love your idea with the onion, and of course salsa. 🙂
Wendy S Defranco
Delicious! Will definitely make again. I shared to Facebook and everyone wanted the recipe.
Kori
Thank you for trying out the taco stuffed peppers and sharing! I'm so glad you loved the recipe! 🙂 It's one of my favorites. Don't know if you saw, but I also have a cheeseburger stuffed peppers, and a lasagna stuffed pepper recipes. They both are good and a great way to use up peppers coming out of the garden 🙂 Oh, and you can freeze them
Penny Barry
My husband and I loved these peppers. I had 3 peppers, yellow. Microwaved peppers for 5 minutes and made the filling as stated. DELICIOUS! We love tacos and this is lower in carb and leftovers are even more delicious. Thank you for a great recipe.
Kori
Thank you, I'm so happy you enjoyed the peppers! 🙂
laura
I added half an onion. Absolutely delicious!
Kori
Thank you so much - so glad you enjoyed the peppers!
Debi
Do we know the calories for one serving?
Kori
Hello, 219 calories!
Cassandra Devinney
OMGGGGG!!!! This recipe was so so so delicious!!! I didnt put my stuff peppers in the microwave tho I put them on the stove with quite a bit of water and let them simmer until soft but alps slightly tender (no shrivel) and they came out just right!!!
Edith Puchy
I usually add rice to my stuff peppers.
Can you add rice and would it change the flavor any?
Kori
You could add rice, yes! I would add cooked rice to the meat mixture in the pan, maybe 1 1/2 cups of cooked rice? From there you can adjust the seasoning and consistency by taste testing before stuffing the peppers. The rice will absorb some of the liquids with the mixture so you could either leave it as is and see how it turns out after baking. After baking, you can top with sour cream and salsa if they need more moisture. OR, before stuffing the peppers you could add a little extra salsa into the meat mixture, or a little extra water when you make the taco meat. Hope that makes sense! It's hard for me to explain what I'd do when I usually stand around in the kitchen and start dumping stuff in until it looks and tastes right! LOL 🙂 Let me know how it turns out! -Kori
Gary Albright
Rice is a no no! for bariatric folks
Kori
That's the beauty of this recipe you can customize to whatever your needs are! I really hope you enjoy these peppers - let me know! 🙂
Cathy
Can I cook peppers whole instead of halved
Kori
Do you mean to stuff them whole? You could certainly do this, yes! 🙂 If you are asking about whether to cook them whole and then cut in half, I don't recommend it.
Lorri Snyder
These were so good! My family gave it a 10 out of 10
Kori
Yay, thank you! A 10 our of 10 🙂 That's great! I'm so happy you loved the peppers.
Melinda
I was scouring the comments to see if someone else didn't use the microwave! Thank you for sharing this, I try not to use the microwave if I don't have to.
seekinggoodeats
hello! You don't have to. You can cook the peppers on the stove or you can just bake the peppers longer until they pepper are soft enough for your liking
Rhonda Scott
This is my second time making these. My husband is doing low carbs as he’s diabetic. He loved them. Thanks for great recipe. 😊
seekinggoodeats
Oh yay!! Thank you for trying the recipe out and I'm super happy you both loved the peppers! 🙂 If you like peppers like I do...here are 2 other stuffed pepper recipes you might like - Lasagna Stuffed Peppers and Cheeseburger Stuffed Peppers! 🙂