Cuban Picadillo Stuffed Peppers Recipe

An easy stuffed peppers recipe filled with Cuban picadillo mixed with white rice and baked until tender. A great idea for leftovers!

Ok, hear me out… I make picadillo almost every week. Spoken like a true Cuban girl!

And I don’t know about you but I always have picadillo and rice leftover in the fridge. I figured out a way to repurpose those picadillo and rice leftovers by making this stuffed peppers recipe. Super easy-to-make and DELICIOUS!

Here’s how to make them.

Ingredients You’ll Need

• Leftover cooked Cuban picadillo. You can use ground beef picadillo or ground turkey picadillo.
  • The ingredients for picadillo are onions, green peppers, garlic, ground beef/turkey, tomato sauce, ground cumin, oregano, green olives, and raisins. For the full picadillo recipe, click here!
• Leftover white rice. You can use cooked white rice, cooked brown rice, cooked quinoa, and riced cauliflower.
• Bell peppers. I used 3 bell peppers sliced lengthwise which makes 6 stuffed peppers however you can use as many bell peppers as you need to repurpose the leftovers or if you’re serving more people. This recipe makes 6 servings (6 bell peppers).

How To Make This Cuban Picadillo Stuffed Peppers Recipe

• Mix both the leftover picadillo and rice. Preheat oven to 350ºF. In a bowl, mix together the cooked picadillo with the cooked rice (quinoa or riced cauliflower) until well combined.
• Stuff the peppers. Divide the mixture evenly into each bell pepper then transfer them into a 13×9 baking dish. Any leftover picadillo and rice can be used for another meal during the week.
• Add 1/2 cup of water to the baking dish then cover with aluminum foil. The water will help build steam to soften the peppers and will help them taste better too! Don’t skimp on that step.
• Bake and serve! Bake the stuffed peppers for 40-45 until the peppers are tender.

It’s that easy!

What do you eat with stuffed peppers?

I usually enjoy them with a salad (something simple – romaine lettuce, red onions, cherry tomatoes), sweet potato fries, baked potatoes, or other roasted veggies. They are also super flavorful on their own.

Can I freeze stuffed peppers?

After baking the stuffed peppers, I’d wait until they were cooled completely before freezing. Once they are cooled, you can either transfer them to a freezer-safe airtight container or wrap each stuffed pepper individually in plastic wrap. They should last about 3 months. Once you’re ready to cook, allow them to thaw and bake them at 350ºF for about 30 minutes until they are fully cooked.