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.
Kristen says
This recipe is so great! Making it 2 weeks in a row since discovering it. Thank you
Nadine @ Loving It Vegan says
So happy to hear Kristen! Thanks so much for you great review!
grace says
this is always my go to stuffed pepper recipe. SO yummy. Some times I change up the beans and some times I add cilantro to the cashew cream mix. Either way..it’s delicious.. thank you
Nadine @ Loving It Vegan says
Thank you so much for sharing and for your great review Grace!
Meg says
Great recipe! The cheesy cashew sauce is so good and pretty simple to make. This recipe also makes a LOT of food so it’s great for meal prepping, or if you want leftovers (the peppers keep well in the fridge). I’ve made this several times for non-vegan family and friends and have only ever gotten glowing reviews.
Nadine @ Loving It Vegan says
Yay! Thanks so much for sharing and thanks for your great review Meg!
Christopher says
I loved these. I did find that I had enough filling left over that would’ve filled a few more peppers and I only used a 200g can of corn. Was delicious though and I’ve recommended to several friends. The ‘cheese’ sauce was a revelation.
Nadine @ Loving It Vegan says
So happy to hear you enjoyed the recipe Christopher! Thank you so much for your review!