Name: Instant Pot Stuffed Pepper Soup
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 5 min
Total time: 40 min
Ingredients: ½ tablespoon oil (olive oil, canola oil, or avocado oil); 1 pound lean ground beef; 1 small yellow onion (chopped); 2 cloves garlic (minced); 2 bell peppers (chopped); 5 cups low sodium beef broth; 2 teaspoons garlic powder; 1 teaspoon onion powder; ½ teaspoon dried oregano; 2 teaspoons paprika; 1 (15 ounce can) tomato sauce; 1 (15 ounce can) diced tomatoes; 1 teaspoon sugar or honey (optional); ¾ cup long grain white rice; 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce; Salt and pepper to taste

Instant Pot Stuffed Pepper Soup

Instant Pot Stuffed Pepper Soup is one of my favorite ways to enjoy the classic flavors of stuffed peppers. While I love my recipe for Instant Pot Stuffed Peppers, I prefer NOT having to the task of stuffing peppers. I also love that this soup is lighter, yet still incredibly hearty.

Filled with rice, peppers, meat, and tomatoes, this soup lacks NOTHING that the traditional recipe provides. And it is is a lot easier to make!

I absolutely love the fact that with the instant pot, recipes like Beef Stew, Instant Pot Chili, and this Stuffed Pepper Soup, that typically take hours to develop rich flavors on the stove or in the slow cooker, achieve rich, delicious flavor in less than an hour from start to finish.

This Instant Pot Pepper Soup is the perfect recipe to serve up when you are craving comfort, but are short on time!

Ingredients

Ground Meat: Use any type of ground meat you like for this soup. Lean ground beef, ground turkey or ground chicken all work well. In the pictured recipe, I used ground chicken. I have made this soup will all varieties of ground meat and they all work great. My husband does prefer the version made with beef, but only by a slight margin.

Onions and Garlic: Just like most soups, this soup is made better by the addition of fresh onions and garlic. You can omit, but your soup will not be as flavorful.

Bell Peppers: Obviously, you can not have Stuffed Pepper Soup without peppers! I use a variety of red and green bell peppers, but any bell pepper works. Feel free to use all of one color of a mixture of two or three colors. Just be sure they are BELL peppers, not another variety that may be spicy.

Spices: I add in oregano, garlic powder, onion powder, and paprika. Those are the classic flavors for Stuffed Peppers, so they work great in this soup recipe. Marjoram is another classic spice, but one that I don’t typically have on hand and it is not worth purchasing just for this soup. If you do have marjoram on hand, add in 1/4-1/2 teaspoon when adding the other spices.

Beef Stock: Use low sodium beef stock to control the sodium. If you don’t have beef broth on hand, you can substitute chicken stock, but it will not be as rich in flavor.

Tomato Sauce: The filling of Stuffed Peppers is filled with tomato sauce and the peppers are topped with tomato sauce, so this is a MUST in Stuffed Pepper Soup.

Diced Tomatoes: I add in diced tomatoes for texture and extra liquid. Because the rice is cooking in the soup, it will absorb a decent amount of the liquid, hence using both diced tomatoes and tomato sauce.

Sugar: I RARELY add sugar to savory dishes, but to help balance out the acidity of the tomatoes, a tiny bit of sugar or honey is recommended. Feel free to omit.

Rice: Use long grain white rice for best results. Brown rice requires too much cooking time for this recipe. By the time the brown rice would cook, the peppers would be mush!

Worcestershire sauce: Finishes this soup with richness and just the right amount of salt. If you are gluten free, but sure to use gluten free Worcestershire sauce.

How to Make Instant Pot Stuffed Pepper Soup

Making this soup is incredibly simple and fast. Thanks to the Instant Pot, the rice cooks in minutes and the soup develops richness that would take hours to achieve on the stove.

The only effort that is required is to saute the beef with the onions and peppers. To do this, turn instant pot to saute and let warm up for a minute. Add in the oil, beef, and minced onion. Cook, breaking up into small pieces, until the ground beef is nearly browned. Add in the peppers and minced garlic and saute for 1 minute longer, just to toast the garlic and finish cooking the meat. Turn off the instant pot and drain off any excess grease if needed. When you use lean ground meat, you will find that most times, you will not have to drain off any grease.

Peppers, onions, and meat sauteed in instant pot

Once the meat is browned, add in the stock and scrape up any browned bits from the bottom of the inner pot. That is really important and will help prevent a burn warning.

Then add the seasonings, tomatoes, tomato sauce, and rice to the Instant Pot and seal. Be sure your vent knob is pointed towards sealed. Then set cook time for 5 minutes on high pressure. Once cook time has elapsed, let pressure release naturally or for at least 15 minutes–this is really important because the pressure cooker is filled with hot liquid and you don’t want that coming out your vent knob, which it would do if you tried to do a quick pressure release.

Once pressure is released, open the instant pot and stir in Worcestershire sauce. Taste and season with additional salt and pepper if needed. My boy love to add in some hot sauce as well–but that is up to you and your taste preferences!

Ladle dishing out Stuffed Pepper Soup from Instant Pot

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Instant Pot Stuffed Pepper Soup