Do you love stuffed peppers? This Instant Pot Stuffed Pepper Soup Recipe combines all your favorite stuffed pepper ingredients into a soup version adding in sausage for a little extra flavor and spice. Everything is easily cooked in the Instant Pot making clean up a breeze! This recipe is perfect for a cold day or a busy weeknight.
With seventeen years of marriage….it took the 15th year of marriage to discover my husband covets stuffed peppers.
My husband is a pretty easy going man at the dinner table. He really is happy with anything I cook as long as it is edible. I typically switch between a Southern “naughty” meal to a “healthy” meal to balance our week of calories. My man loves some Southern food. I didn’t really grow up eating stuffed peppers, so I never really thought of them… Then one day we were eating at our favorite local little Greek restaurant, Zorba’s, and they had a stuffed pepper special. He was so excited. Then I caught him ordering the stuffed peppers at some of the other little diners. I thought to myself, “I have to make these for him. They can’t be too hard.”
I tried making the stuffed peppers a couple of times at home and my husband would say,”These are good, but these are not like Zorba’s.” It tried making them different ways…. with a cheese topping, without a cheese topping, with a homemade marinara topping, with just tomato sauce, different stuffing mixes… I just never got it right.
So I decided to scrap them and just let him order the stuffed peppers on the days Zorba’s has them on special.
Meanwhile, I wanted a hearty soup for dinner on a cold day. A bright light came on in my head and I decided to make an unstuffed pepper soup. My grandmother made amazing stuffed cabbage, so I created this soup like she would exchanging out the cabbage for bell peppers. AMAZING!!!!!! My husband LOVED it. The surprise on his face that he liked it was only slightly irritating.
Instant Pot Stuffed Pepper Soup Recipe
The next day, I was talking to my mother on the phone. I was telling her about this fantastic Instant Pot Stuffed Pepper Soup Recipe I made. She proceeds to tell me how she recently made my grandmother’s stuffed pepper recipe the other day. REALLY? I was like, “Mom, I want her recipe. Why didn’t you share it with me? Geeze!” She responded,”Well I made it from memory, but I do have the recipe. I will look for it and give it to you.” The conclusion to the story is, I will have to try my grandmother’s recipe on my husband and see if he approves. If he does, I will be sure to share it with ya’ll.
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Stuffed Pepper Soup Recipe
Meanwhile, this Stuffed Pepper Soup Recipe is pretty fantastic. I mix ground beef and sausage instead of the typical all ground beef recipe. It gives the soup added spice and flavor. The ingredient combinations are wicked good. It makes a big bowl of warm comfort. Make sure you drain the fat after cooking the meat before adding in the remaining ingredients when you cook it in the instant pot.
*Note: I use the ChopStir Original Ground Meat Chopper, Frozen Juice Concentrate Stirrer, Heat-Resistant Nylon, Made in the USA, Black
to chop and ground the meat into tiny pieces. It is a great tool to have on hand for any ground meat recipes.
If you like this recipe, check out: Hamburger Soup, Instant Pot Mexican Chicken Soup, and Low Carb Zuppa Toscana Soup.
If you try this recipe, please let me know how you like it! I would love to hear back from you! xoxo
Instant Pot Stuffed Pepper Soup Recipe- Unstuffed Pepper Soup
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground beef lean
- 1 lb ground sausage
- 4 bell peppers chopped
- 1 cup rice uncooked
- 1 onion chopped
- 14 oz canned crushed tomatoes
- 32 oz beef broth
- 15 oz tomato sauce
- 2 tbs garlic crushed
- 1 tsp celery salt
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Turn on Sauté setting on Instant Pot.
- Add ground beef and sausage. Cook until browned. Drain grease.
- Add onions and garlic. Cook until onions are softened.
- Mix in celery salt, crushed tomatoes, and tomato sauce.
- Mix in remaining ingredients. Cover and lock lid.
- Cook on manual high pressure for 4 minutes.
- Naturally release for 10 minutes, then fast release any additional pressure.
Video
Nutrition
Sue says
Made this recipe with ground turkey instead of ground meat and it was delicious!
Katie says
Sarah, the Zorba’s I mention is in my hometown of Fayetteville, NC.
Sarah M Ste Marie says
I am following your recipe and have to know is the Zorba’s you speak of in Highland Indiana?
Katie says
I think cooking quinoa in the Instant Pot with the other ingredients would make it too mushy. I would suggest omitting the rice and cook everything else the same way. Instead of natural releasing for 10 minutes, you could fast release. Then cook quinoa separately and add it in as you eat it. Hope that helps.
Jordan says
Any guidance on substituting the rice with quinoa? I’d love to make this lower carb. Thanks in advance!
Katie says
Use regular rice.
Jamie Sparks says
Is this using regular or minute rice? If regular, do I need to rinse it?
Cat says
Very good. Used 1 pound ground beef and one pound ground veal, 3 peppers, 28 oz whole tomatoes. Will definitely make again!
Susan says
Just made this tonight and it was DELICIOUS! It has exactly the flavor I remember from my Mom’s stuffed peppers. I did get the dreaded “burn” message because I forgot about scraping the bottom of the pan after sautéing the meat, but by then, the soup was ready to eat anyway! One of my new favorites, thank you!
Katie says
Maybe 1/4 cup of finely chopped celery. You can salt to taste. I would think about 1 tsp should be enough, but taste test at the end.
Kristen says
If you don’t have celery salt (or a celery adverse husband lol), how much salt and diced celery would you recommend using?
Katie says
You can definitely make it on the stovetop. Cook same way in one pot. After adding rice, cook about 20-30 minutes covered, stirring occasionally, checking to see if the rice is fully cooked.
Rosa says
Can u make this stove top or slow cooker ?
Katie says
I am glad you liked it Annette. Thanks for sharing!!
Annette says
This was absolutely amazing!! The taste is better with a little salt and I might add a little nore beef broth to it before I put it away. I like a little more broth to my soups.
Katie says
I think mine is the 6qt.
Jan says
Did you use a 6 or 8 qt. pot? I’m a new IP user and am wondering if all of that liquid will fit in the 6 qt.
Katie says
It is regular rice. Thank you! I hope you like it!
Connie says
Is the instant rice or regular rice you used? Looks amazing!!
Katie says
Sort of…. The Instant Pot will be set to stop cooking after 4 minutes, but you let it natural release for 10 minutes. So it is still steam cooking in the pot for those 10 minutes without the actual Instant Pot on… I hope this makes sense. Then you open the lid after 10 minutes and it should come out perfect. Therefore, you are actually cooking the rice a bit longer than 4 minutes.
Gina says
I just got a pot and my rice was an epic failure. I want to try this, but does the rice cook in 4 minutes time?
Katie says
Thank you for leaving a review. I am so glad you liked it!! xoxo
Tracey says
This is a 5 Star soup!! The only thing I did differently was that I didn’t sauté the garlic and the onions, and it turned out great. Thank YOU!!
karrie @ Tasty Ever After says
So cute about your hubby! Glad he likes stuffed peppers and you made this soup because I LOVE IT!! This soup looks so good and I can’t wait to make it. We are having snow this Friday so I’ll be making this soup for dinner.