Healthy Stuffed Pepper Soup
This Healthy Stuffed Pepper Soup is the perfect easy dinner to curl up with at the end of the day. Delicious, hearty, and full of vegetables! Done in under 30 minutes and gluten free + dairy-free. The perfect healthy dinner recipe for weeknights!
It’s here, TNNers.
I woke up this morning to crisp air that I could see my breath in. And when I went to walk my daughter to school, we both wrapped our thick, cozy sweatshirts extra tight around our bodies. Yep. It is 💯 fall and absolutely soup season.
I love a good veggie-loaded soup. They are easy to make, hearty, simple to load with all kinds of good-for-you ingredients and make the best leftovers (cook once, eat twice!). It occurred to me after making my Mexican-Style Corn Quinoa Stuffed Peppers that we needed a Healthy Stuffed Pepper Soup on the pages of The Natural Nurturer.
And this soup is perfection! It literally tastes just like you are eating a stuffed pepper, but in easy + cozy soup form. It is simple to make, family friendly (my pepper-iffy daughter gave it ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️), hearty and loaded with veggies.
This recipe is….
Gluten free, dairy-free, veggie-loaded and done in under 30 minutes!
Why this Stuffed Pepper Soup is healthy
- I swapped out the rice typically found in stuffed peppers and replaced it with quinoa and riced cauliflower for a boost of protein and veggies. You can absolutely use white rice or cooked brown if you prefer, though.
- Ground turkey or chicken lightens this soup up without skipping on flavor! You can totally use whatever ground meat you prefer, though!
- It has oodles of vegetables in it. Bell peppers (of course), tomato, rice cauliflower. And I have ideas for other veggies you could add to the mix below in the Suggested Adaptations section.
Want to find out the BEST way to cut bell peppers? Head over to my How To Cut a Bell Pepper…to minimize waste! post!
Storage and reheating tips
Storage: If you are making this healthy stuffed pepper soup as part of meal prep or you simply have leftovers, allow it to cool completely before transferring it to air-tight containers. I love portioning soup into mason jars so that they are easy to store in the fridge and grab for quick meals.
This soup should be good in the fridge for 3-4 days.
Reheating: I also love that I can pop an uncovered mason jar of this healthy stuffed pepper soup in the microwave to quickly reheat. But I also love how easily it reheats on the stove top. A quick note: As the soup sits, the quinoa will absorb more liquid. So when you go to reheat this soup, stir in the additional half cup of water or broth (or more) as needed. Also be sure to taste and re-season the soup after adding more liquid.
Suggested Adaptations
- Make it vegetarian but replacing the ground meat with 1 1/2 cups of dry red lentils and using vegetable broth.
- Make it Paleo and Whole30 by replacing the quinoa with rice cauliflower or omitting entirely.
- Replace the quinoa with uncooked white rice. If you want to use brown rice, you can cook that ahead of time and add it at the same time you add the cauliflower rice.
- Add more veggies. Diced carrots or a handful or two of spinach would be a delicious way to add even more vegetables to this healthy stuffed pepper soup. Or, add more riced cauliflower.
- Finely chop the bell peppers with the “S” blade in your food processor. This is great for helping veggie-iffy eaters (adult or child) be more open to this healthy stuffed pepper soup by minimizing the chunks of veggie.
Other veggie-loaded soup recipes you will adore
- Slow Cooker+ Instant Pot Butternut Squash Soup
- Veggie-Loaded Instant Pot Tomato Soup
- Chicken & Veggie Pot Pie Soup
- Veggie-Loaded Lasagna Soup
- Instant Pot Black Bean & Butternut Squash Soup
- Creamy Mushroom Vegetable Rice Soup (dairy-free)
Loving this veggie-loaded soup recipe and now you’re hungry for more?
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Healthy Stuffed Pepper Soup
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 1/2 cup chopped yellow onion
- 3 medium bell peppers, finely chopped, not green
- 1 pound ground turkey or chicken, you can also use beef or bison if you prefer
- 3 cloves garlic
- 2 14.5 ounce cans fire roasted tomatoes
- 1 cup tomato sauce
- 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
- 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
- 1 1/2 cups broth
- 1 cups quinoa, can sub white rice
- 1 1/2 cups riced cauliflower, fresh or frozen
Instructions
- In a large pot or dutch oven, heat the 1 tablespoon oil over medium heat. Once hot, crumble your ground meat into the pot and cook until just starting to brown, about 4-5 minutes. Carefully scoop out the meat and set aside.
- In the now empty pot, add the remaining tablespoon of oil. Add the onions and peppers to the pot and sauté for 2 minutes or until the onions start to turn translucent and the peppers are slightly tender.
- Add garlic and cook for 1 more minute.
- Add the meat back into the pot and then add remaining ingredients EXCEPT riced cauliflower. Stir to combine.
- Bring the soup to a simmer. Once simmering, reduce heat to medium-low heat and cook COVERED for 15 minutes.
- After the 15 minutes is up, add the riced cauliflower to the pot and stir into the soup. Cook for an additional 3 minutes.
- Once done enjoy warm. Top with a little shredded cheese or finely chopped parsley, if desired.
This was delicious!!!!! Even my husband liked it!! I sent him to the store for the cans of fire roasted tomatoes but he couldn’t find fire roasted so we just used plain. I probably used slightly more of certain things like the seasonings and I added chili powder. Used ground turkey, white rice and riced cauliflower. Sooo good, especially as leftovers!! We put it in a bowl and tried it with organic shredded cheese and ate it with tortilla chips!
Oh yummmmm! Good call. I need to try that with our next batch!
We made this over the weekend and it was delicious! We added crushed red pepper to the adult bowls and the kids ate it as is. It was so good! We added extra broth the next day when reheating. Definitely recommend!
I’m so glad you enjoyed as much as we do, Jessica!
Hey Taesha this looks incredible! Just like all your recipes! Should I assume the quinoa (or rice) is cooked before adding?
Thanks
Sherry
The quinoa or white rice cooks in the soup! If you use brown rice, you’ll need to cook that before adding since that takes a lot longer to cook than the rest of the ingredients.
We made this today . I made it with venison. It was very filling and tasty. Thanks for anther great recipe .
Oh yum! I haven’t had venison in ages! I can’t wait to try it in this one!
If I don’t have riced cauliflower, can I use regular cauliflower florets cut up? How should I adjust the recipe if I do?Â
Sure! I would say chop them pretty small so that the texture works with the rest of the soup. If you have a food processor, you can pop the florets in there with the “S” blade and make your own cauliflower rice! But if florets are your option, I would say about 2 cups of small florets should do.