Lightened Up Enchilada Stuffed Peppers

Marvelous Munch
by Marvelous Munch
4 people
1 hr

One of our first and favorite recipes on Marvelous Munch is our Healthy Chicken Parmesan Stuffed Peppers. Those stuffed peppers inspired us to make another kind, these Lightened Up Enchilada Stuffed Peppers. Enchiladas get a bad rep for being unhealthy and it’s difficult to make them healthy while still absolutely delicious. These peppers do just that, swap out the tortillas and swap in the peppers to take out a ton of the carbs. Yes, there is still cheese but a lot less than traditional enchiladas.




In an effort to continue to keep this dish light, we chose to not add any rice in the stuffed pepper filling. The filling instead is stuffed with ground beef, onions, garlic, black beans, and enchilada sauce. If you don’t mind the extra, add quinoa, it helps to absorb some of the enchilada sauce while the peppers are baking. If carbs are out the window, yellow rice is ABSOLUTELY AMAZING mixed with rest of the filling for these Lightened Up Enchilada Stuffed Peppers. 


I know that everyone isn’t big on making their own sauces from scratch and that is totally fine. But, you can make these Lightened Up Enchilada Stuffed Peppers with a store bough red enchilada sauce as well. We do encourage you to add some additional seasoning to the sauce since many of them are very watery. But if you are open to making a sauce, this is a pretty simple sauce to make. And this is WELL worth it. The sauce really makes this dish. Sometimes the thing I don’t like about store bought sauce is that it just tastes like a bunch of seasoning that sits in the back of your throat. Ours we wanted to make sure had a level of creaminess to it. 


Try our other breakfast stuffed peppers, Quiched Stuffed Peppers or even out Chorizo Stuffed Sweet Peppers!

From our kitchen to yours, cheers!




Lightened Up Enchilada Stuffed Peppers
Recipe details
  • 4  people
  • Prep time: 15 Minutes Cook time: 45 Minutes Total time: 1 hr
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Ingredients

  • 4 pepper red, yellow, or organge
  • 1 lb ground beef
  • ¼ cup yellow onion chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic minced
  • ½ cup cheddar cheese shredded
Enchilada Sauce
  • 2 tbsp flour
  • ½ tsp garlic powder
  • ½ tsp onion powder
  • ½ tsp cayanne pepper
  • ½ tsp cumin
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ½ tsp chili powder
  • ½ cup beef broth
  • 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
  • 8 oz tomato sauce
Instructions

Preheat oven to 450°
In a saute pan over medium heat add ground beef, garlic, and onion
Stir until cooked and drain all the grease from the meat
In a sauce pan or pot over medium heat add beef broth and all dry ingredients, stir well
Next add the tomato sauce and rice wine vinegar, continue to stir until all dry ingredients are mixed well in the sauce and bring to a simmer. If the sauce seems too thick add more beef broth until you get your desired consistency
Let simmer 10 minutes and remove from heat
Mix about 75% of the sauce with the ground beef. If you want to add beans or corn you can add them in this step
Cut tops off of the peppers and remove any of the seeds and veins, rinse with water and place in an oven safe pan
Mix ¼ cup of the cheddar cheese into the ground beef mixture and then fill each of the peppers to the top
Sprinkly the additional ¼ cup of cheddar cheese on top of the peppers over the ground beef mixture to cover them
Bake for 30 minutes
Remove from oven and serve with additional enchilada sauce on top!
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Comments
  • Linda Linda on Sep 20, 2020

    Could you do these with poblano peppers? Not a fan of bell pepper

    • Marvelous Munch Marvelous Munch on Sep 21, 2020

      Absolutely, you'd probably want a few extra peppers because there isn't much room inside the pablanos. I might even cut down the center and bake them stuffing side up to make it easier!

  • Joann Wyant Joann Wyant on Sep 25, 2020

    This does look good. I love stuffed peppers. I was wandering where do I find the recipe for the Homemade Enchilada Sauce? Thanks for any help you can give me. Have a wonderful and blessed weekend.

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