What is stuffed with quinoa, black beans, enchilada sauce, cheese, and spices, and topped with pretty much EVERY topping you could ever dream of, including but not limited to sour cream, avocado, hot sauce, and cilantro?
Oh *casually shrugs* it’s these Freezer Meal Stuffed Peppers, that’s what.
Every time I make these, I am amazed that it works. Like, REALLY works well. What you start with is a 10-minute, vegetarian, one-bowl, no-cutting-board recipe, and what you end up with is little individually frozen stuffed peppers that are ready for you anytime you need them.
How To Make Freezer Meal Stuffed Peppers
Since this version doesn’t have meat, these babies come together incredibly quickly. You’re going to mix the filling, hollow out the peppers, and fill em up. I usually just stick these in a bag to freeze them and they become these perfectly little individually frozen stuffed peppers that are super easy to grab one at a time for exactly how many you want to bake.
And… that’s it.
You freeze them, and then when you’re ready, you take them out of the freezer and bake them. It almost feels like I should have more to say about that, but that’s the beauty of this low maintenance recipe.
I normally melt a little cheese over the tops at the end of the bake time, and sprinkle them with cilantro, and douse them in hot sauce and guacamole… but I’m sure you can handle those decisions for yourself.
Freezer Meal Stuffed Peppers
- Total Time: 1 hour 25 minutes
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
Description
These Freezer Meal Quinoa Stuffed Peppers are the BEST! Made with all with simple pantry ingredients. Minimal prep, awesome taste.
Ingredients
MIX FILLING:
- 1 cup uncooked quinoa, rinsed
- one 14-ounce can black beans, drained
- one 14-ounce can refried beans
- 1 1/2 cups red enchilada sauce
- 1 tablespoon taco seasoning
- 1 1/2 cups shredded cheese
STUFF INTO:
- 6–8 large hollowed out fresh bell peppers
Instructions
BAKE: From frozen, bake at 400 degrees for 1 hour 15 minutes, covered.
FINAL STEP: Finish by melting extra cheese on top. Serve with guac, sour cream, cilantro, hot sauce, etc.
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 1 hour, 15 mins
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: Mexican
Keywords: freezer meal stuffed peppers, stuffed peppers recipe, freezer mexican stuffed peppers
View original recipe here.
You might also like our freezer meals post.
These look delicious. I’m gonna make these for my cousins when they visit.
I’ve made this twice and both times when I baked them (not from frozen), it seemed to take forever and the quinoa didn’t seem to cook even after an hour. I put water in the dish and tightly wrapped it with foil. Tips?
Same—do you know why the quinoa doesn’t cook!
I do want to note, my husband and I LOVE all of the freezer meals you’ve posted. We greatly appreciate your blog!
Sealing the peppers well in oven was the trick! Found that out just now. Best of luck!!
What do you mean by sealing the peppers?
I made these but saw your comment so I was scared to bake them. Instead I put them in the croc pot with a little water for 2.5 hr on high and the quinoa cook and the recipe was perfect!! I did not freeze them but I will make them again and try to cook them from frozen in the croc pot.
The same thing happened to me! The quinoa didn’t seem to cook, as in it was still crunchy! Anyone have any ideas? I baked them in the oven from fresh (i.e. not frozen). On the other hand, I had extra filling, since I only had 4 peppers, so I baked it in a separate container and that came out just fine! The flavors are great and I love how easy this is! I just wish it cooked in the peppers!
Hi! I want to freeze these in preparation for when baby arrives! I’m wondering if adding cooked shredded chicken breast would work with the freezing/baking process?
Yep! Should work just fine.
These look delicious. I’m gonna make these for my cousins when they visit.
These look delicious. I’m gonna make these for my cousins when they visit.
Yep! Should work just fine.
Idlve to make these without freezing first…..any tips?
These look delicious and I really want to try them! I’m not a huge refried beans fan though, could I just use a second can of black beans and lightly mash them to get more of the refried bean consistency?
Can these freezer stuffed peppers be thawed before baking
Thawed then baked for 45 min. at 400 deg. Just like your original recipe?
Thanks
Yep, that should work just fine!
can you make these in a crock pot? How long would you cook them for? Thanks!
Definitely, Mary Beth! Try out this recipe here! https://pinchofyum.com/quinoa-black-bean-crockpot-stuffed-peppers
Looks delicious, must try to make this as soon as possible. Thanks for sharing!
Hey there, I’ve got a big batch of peppers that are calling out to be used soon! I am planning on making these, eating a couple and freezing a ton more. My questions is; have you tried plopping them in the Instant Pot straight from the freezer? Is there a reason not to? Also, do you find freezing the peppers effects the texture of the fruit once cooked? I can imagine freeze/thaw back to raw might leave the flesh mushy, but freeze/bake is all good? Love your work! xoxo
Hi, Ashley! We haven’t tested these out in the Instant Pot from frozen, so we’re not sure how these would turn out. We found that when you reheat them covered in the oven that the texture of the pepper turns out just fine and not mushy. Let us know if you end up trying these out in the Instant Pot – we’d love to hear how it goes!
FYI I made these using a slow cooker and worked just as well as baking in my opinion! The only thing you have to be careful about is timing and taking the peppers out of the cooker – they can be very tender and fall apart. Still delicious though!!! I also like improving and adding some other things to the mix, like corn and onion or whatever I have on hand.
Thanks for the tips, Madison. Glad you enjoyed these peppers!
This is NOT vegan, but listed as such on sea pea and saffron.
I’ve made a few of the other freezer meals from here (mostly the instant pot ones) and they’ve been good. This, on the other hand, was unfortunately a disaster. I had six peppers stuffed to the brim. Having read the reviews of the quinoa not cooking, I tightly covered the baking dish with tin foil. Cooked from frozen… after 1 hour and 15 minutes, not only was the quinoa not cooked, the peppers and stuffing was still cold. Yikes. So I put the oven on convect, covered again, and chucked them back in for another half hour. Checked again, and this time the peppers were soggy and sitting in an inch and a half of liquid… and the quinoa was nowhere close to cooked. Now I’ve chucked the filling out of the peppers and into the liquid, chopped up three of the peppers to mix in, and hopefully I can at least salvage some kind of casserole out of this. Is there a trick I’m missing?
Hi, Stephanie! So sorry to hear these stuffed peppers didn’t turn out for you. We’re not totally sure what went wrong unfortunately. We appreciate you sharing this feedback with us though – thank you!
Can the quinoa be cooked before stuffing the peppers if you are making the recipe fresh?
If you’re making the recipe fresh, you can find instructions for that here actually. 😉
These were a great postpartum meal!
Glad to hear you enjoyed this, Lindsey!
I made this recipe but cooked the quinoa first then added the ingredients into the pot mixed it up and added it to my pepper then I baked it. Found it very bland. Then I added sriracha, olives, picked jalapeño and it was really good after that.
Hi, can you tell me what enchilada sauce contains? (It’s not a typical ingredient here so want to reconstruct a replacement).
We just used this enchilada sauce recipe. 🙂
Did ANYONE ELSE think the recipe called for 114 OZ of beans?! No…just me? I am super pregnant and instructed my husband to purchase 114 OZ worth of refried beans and black beans, AKA TWENTY CANS OF BEANS. Needless to say we’re ready for the apocalypse now. Can you please write it as something like 14 oz/1 can of beans. I’ll even take 1 14oz can of beans. One 14 oz can of beans would be super. Delicious recipe though we couldn’t stop eating the mix.
Thanks so much for the feedback, Lindsay! We apologize for the confusion. Glad you enjoyed the recipe!
These look delicious. I’m gonna make these for my cousins when they visit.
I baked from frozen – checked after 1 hour, 15 minutes, as the recipe indicates, and the filling was still quite frozen. I put the foil back on and returned to the oven for another hour, and after that the peppers were perfect: the quinoa was cooked, the peppers were soft. Aside from eating dinner an hour later than expected, this recipe is great!