Our easy Instant Pot stuffed peppers recipe with ground beef and rice will be your favorite one pot meal. No blanching required to make these classic stuffed green peppers with spaghetti sauce and cheese on top.

Four easy Instant Pot stuffed peppers, filled with rice, cheese, and scallions, are served in a white bowl for a quick and good meal.

Have you steamed anything in your pressure cooker yet?? We hadn't yet until we made these. For years we labored over this meal our Grandmother used to make us as a child, now we can cook it in 10 minutes to tender as one of our favorite Instant Pot recipes.

We have been making these for years in our oven but then we made these. Fast forward a few years and we also made them as one of our easy Ninja Foodi recipes with the lid that is not attached. Plus to that is you can crisp the top when done with the one that is attached, a great option but any brand of pot will work.

With our original stuffed green peppers you have to take an extra step to blanch bell peppers first in boiling water. NO need to do this in your pressure cooker though! What a time saver right? If you have your own favorite filling by all means use that but this technique to cut down the cooking time dramatically.

Hollowed green, yellow, and orange bell peppers on a cutting board with a knife, ready for easy Instant Pot stuffed peppers.

Ingredient notes

Now when it comes to choosing the color and/or shapes of bell peppers at the store there is a rhyme and reason to which we do. Green will typically be the cheapest, the other colors are a bit sweeter. We don't care so much about that but we like females which have 4 bumps on the bottom. Allows them to sit flatter and not fall over. If you're slicing to make our Instant Pot stuffed bell pepper casserole that wouldn't matter.

We always add meat and have a lot of lean ground beef on hand so that is our go to however you could use Jimmy Dean spicy ground sausage if you preferred or a meat alternative. You'll need to precook it for best results.

Can you use frozen ground beef?

You could follow our Instant Pot Frozen Ground Beef steps first, break up, drain and combine with other ingredients too. A great trick when you have had a forgetful morning but want to save dinner.

As for the sauce we use a jar of spaghetti sauce! Makes things easier, you can use any type you like but we prefer chunky style, with meat or without.

It doesn't matter whether you love rice that is arborio ricewild, or jasmine you could use any of them. We prefer the first but honestly we use what we have at home, and what we have time for (white is fastest).

Can you use brown rice?

Yes, you have to make it ahead of time so if you don't want to cook Instant Pot white rice but rather a healthier brown or even wild varieties you can. It does take longer for the healthier ones to cook so start them early and as soon as done start on sauteing your meat and continue from there.

Four hollowed bell pepper halves—orange, yellow, red, and green—in a steamer basket, ready for easy Instant Pot stuffed peppers.

Do you have to cook the rice first?

Yes you will need cooked rice to make these, so start off with that because it will take the longest. Sometimes we use minute rice or make Ninja Foodi white rice first before we start sauteeing the meat and onions together.

Do you have to cook the meat first?

Yes, we have never done it otherwise and we don't think it would work well, plus you are able to drain the meat this way or else it would sit in the bottom and soak up into the meat. We do the same with our Air Fryer Stuffed Peppers so either way there is a bit of precooking beforehand but it's not bad at all. Well worth it in the end we tell you.

Stuffed Peppers Without Rice (Option)

You can skip the rice and carbs all together if you'd like, we don't. If you leave it out you will likely need to increase the amount of meat to fill each one (but won't be as yummy if you ask us without the fluffy texture).

Mozzarella cheese is optional but seriously it's an good addition. We have made these with a dairy free alternative from Daiya for our husband and it works but doesn't melt as well as the real thing. Optional: you could add 1/2 cup of diced tomatoes is optional if you like it chunky, add into meat mixture and/or add a spicy kick with dry Sriracha or red pepper flakes.

What can you use instead of a vegetable steamer?

If you don't have a handy dandy vegetable steamer you could set on a trivet but they may fall over which would be a bummer. We suggest you buy one because it makes it easy peasy to make this and other vegetables and has a nifty and safe way to pull it out when it's done too!

This is what we meant by the trick to lifting your steamer basket out safely and easily….this hook! This hook/rod comes inside the box with your steamer basket, and makes it SO much easier to lift, place on a plate, and serve…without needing an oven mitt. We are ALL about easy!

How Long to Cook Stuffed Peppers in Instant Pot

Ok so there is a bit of time it takes to cook the rice and brown the meat in the first step. Once you have that all combined and stuffed it takes 10 minutes under high pressure with about 10 minutes to come to pressure initially. With that said we would say it takes a total of 30 minutes or so.

My kids love these because everyone gets their own! Since the peppers are steamed inside your pressure cooker they lose their bitterness and are so soft. You can cut them with the side of a fork.

This is a great recipe for families we tell you! If your kids aren't so sure about the peppers at first give it time. Allow them to eat the insides first and eventually have them “try one bite”. It took a bit but now our girls love the whole thing!

Three colorful easy Instant Pot stuffed peppers filled with rice, cheese, and green onions, served in a white bowl.

Instant Pot Stuffed Peppers Recipe

By Instant Pot stuffed peppers with ground beef and rice will be your favorite one pot meal. NO need to blanch peppers which means it's fast! Prep: 15 minutes minsCook: 10 minutes minsTotal: 25 minutes minsServings: 8 Save Recipe Saved! Pin Recipe Comment Print Recipe

Equipment

Ingredients

8 large bell peppers, (if making 4 half the ingredients below for the filling)
1/2 lb ground beefor spicy ground sausage is even better
2 cup rice, measured from cooked, needs to be cooked and fluffed before adding into mixture
1 1/2 cup spaghetti sauce
1/3 cup onion, diced, optional
1/2 tsp garlic salt
1 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded

Instructions

Add a bit of olive oil. Turn your Instant Pot to saute, normal, and add your ground beef and onions.
Make your rice on the stove Instant Pot White Rice or in the microwave. While you are waiting for that to be done, cook until meat is no longer pink and onions soften.
Pour into your pot the spaghetti sauce and cooked rice, stir.
Turn Instant Pot off and remove pot. Empty contents into separate bowl and wash your pot.
Return pot into your Instant Pot and pour in 1 1/2 c. water.
Open your vegetable steamer basket and lower it into your Instant Pot.
Cut tops off your bell peppers and remove seeds inside.
Place 4 bell peppers into your steamer basket so they fit snuggly.
Put a bit of mozzarella cheese into the inside, bottom, of each bell pepper.
Spoon rice and ground beef mixture into peppers until each one is filled almost to the top.
Put another bit of mozzarella cheese on the top of each pepper on top of the rice mixture. Place tops of peppers back on (so they don't get condensation inside)
Close your lid and steam valve and set to manual, pressure, high, for 10 minutes.
When done do a quick release.
Use central ring hook to lift vegetable steamer out of your Instant Pot or pressure cooker.
Enjoy!