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.
This took me quite some time to make but was worth it. Utterly delicious. Best stuffed peppers I’ve ever eaten.
I used a 3/4 cashews and a 1/4 sunflower seeds with fresh garlic for the sauce.
Thank you. ????
Ooops, I meant 1 cup consisting of 3/4 cashews and 1/4 sunflowers seeds for the sauce. 😉
So happy to hear that! Thanks for the awesome review!
I haven’t tried this recipe yet, but am intrigued. Unfortunately, I am allergic to cashews. Do you think substituting almonds for the sauce would work? I’m assuming cashews have a distinct flavor that appeals to vegan recipes, whereas almonds may be on the more bland side. If so, what do you recommend I add for a little zing?
Hi Ben, it might work to use slivered almonds, though I haven’t tried it. It’s not so much the taste that would be different but the texture, slivered almonds create a more coarse, ricotta-style texture. But flavor should be good!
This recipe is delicious (my non-vegan friends asked for the recipe), but it is also easy to freeze and reheat – and I have made the cashew sauce on its own as a dip. All around, one of my all-time favorites. Thank you!
Awesome! Thanks so much Hannah!
Have made this several times now and the whole family love them. Do you think the cheese sauce would work on top of the simple lasagne instead of the cheese slices – not a fan of most of the cheese slices I have tried and they don’t seem to grill/bake well
Hi Kay, sure you can use this cheese sauce on the top of the lasagna, or you can just make more white sauce and put some more white sauce on the top. It actually bakes up like cheese, you can see it on top of our vegan pasta bake.
Hello, absolutely love this recipe as does everyone I’ve cooked it for! I do have one question: how long can you keep the filling frozen for?
Awesome! Glad you enjoyed the recipe! You can freeze it for up to 3 months.
Made these today. So delicious! I definitely ate every last drop of the cashew sauce from the sides of the blender. Yummmm! I only had black rice in the house, so I used that. Turned out great. Thank you for posting this recipe!
Awesome! Thanks Heidi!
My husband loved this and so did I. It was so delicious and satisfying. Since it is just the two of us, I cut the recipe in half. There was a good bit of extra filling, perhaps enough to fill another pepper. Something I will definately fit into my rotation.
So glad it was delicious! Thanks for sharing Gail!
How delicious, very rich and creamy really satisfying way to eat peppers.Thanks
Agreed, this is definitely my favorite way to eat peppers, thanks for posting Hazel! 🙂
Beautiful. I replaced the basmati with an ancient grain fusion (white and black quinoa and brown and red rice) and I used Parmesan cheese instead of the yeast. I halved the recipe but managed to fill 4 peppers. 1 was enough for me though 🙂
Awesome! Thanks for sharing Sue! 🙂
I couldn’t actually believe how delicious these were. The creamy sauce is a triumph and I’ll definitely be using it in other recipes. The stuffed peppers work as a satisfyingly filling main or a scene-stealing side. Can’t wait to make these again!
Yay! Thanks so much! 🙂
Making this again today, after having made it earlier in December. We love it! Have leftover cashew sauce from another recipe and it still tastes good.. Is it ok to use it? How long does it keep in refrigerator?
Hi Lola, a cashew sauce can last up to a week (depending on what’s in it) and if it still tastes good/looks good then I’m sure it’s good to go. So glad you like the recipe! 🙂
The first time I made this recipe I had a complete moron moment, threw 3 cups of rice in my boiling water and added the cooked result to the mix. Yep that’s like 9 cups of rice. Literally the minute after I threw it in I thought oh dears… this can’t be right… ohhhh… 3 cups of COOKED rice.
For a filling for peppers it was average – too much rice lol – but it was actually quite tasty as a side dish and definately didn’t go to waste. It also froze quite well and made a quick, tasty low calorie lunch with a decent dose of protein. Second time around and 3 cups of COOKED rice produced really yummy stuffed peppers.
As a footnote, I don’t have a blender or food processor at the moment so am crushing nuts with a rolling pin. I’m sure it is creamier with well blended nuts but it’s still good with well crushed ones. Don’t be daunted if you are lacking appliances. Inspiration is the mother of invention lol
Hahaha, that’s so funny, but so glad it didn’t go to waste and still worked as a side! So glad you made it again though and got the full effect. 🙂 And that’s amazing that you managed to do it without a blender or food processor, now that is resourceful! Thanks so much for sharing and the awesome review. 🙂
I also did the same thing. That needs to be more clear. I’m sure we aren’t the only two who have done this. It is now quite bland and dry. It looks ridiculous in my oven dish with 9 cups of rice. I am too embarrassed to take a picture of it. I will have to try it again another time. I kept rereading the recipe and every time I kept saying yep 3 cups.
If it were me to save confusion I would add another step to the recipe, saying cook the rice and leave to one side. But put 1 cups rice or 1 1/2 rice (however much it should be)
Hi Emily, I have added a note to the recipe to hopefully make that more clear.
Made them recently and they were great – the leftovers were super tasty the next day when served cold for lunch.
So happy to hear that! Thanks for the awesome review. 🙂
These are utterly delicious. I made sure to cook them long enough to make the bell peppers soft and the stuffing a bit crispy on top. I used red and yellow bells, just as written.
So happy to hear Rob, thanks for the great review. 🙂
So different, delicious and hearty!
Thanks Anna! 🙂