Baked Bell Peppers Stuffed With Cream Cheese

Are you looking for a crowd-pleaser appetizer? Try these Delicious Cream Cheese Stuffed Mini Bell Peppers that you can make just in under 30 minutes. You will need only 7 ingredients for this amazing recipe. Ideal for any party or family gathering. Also, this recipe is a low-carb and keto-friendly appetizer.

These healthy stuffed peppers will surprise your family and guests with how tasty they are. They are so delicious that these peppers will disappear from the plates in silence in just a few minutes.

This recipe is gluten-free and if you will use vegan cheeses, you can make it easily vegan.

Another thing that you will like about those stuffed sweet peppers is that you can make them 1-2 days ahead and bake them when you’re ready to serve them.

🥰 Why You Will Love This Recipe?

• Its an appetizer that is very tasty and easy to make.
• You can serve them, raw, warm, or at room temperature.
• You can add different spices and aromatic herbs into the filling to make the recipe more personalized.

🏆 Tips for Success? How to Make It Better?

• For a little bit of crunch, add crushed walnuts over the peppers.
• You can wrap the sweet peppers in bacon.
• Pick bell peppers of the same size. This will help you to cook all of them evenly, avoiding overcook some of them and undercook anothers.
• Pick mini bell peppers of different colors to make the dish more attractive on the plate.
• Love spicy food? Use jalepenno peppers instead of bell peppers.

🤔 How to Scale the Recipe up and Down?

This is a simple recipe, so, just increase or decrease the amount of the ingredients proportionally.

I will recommend to cook a bigger portion than you initially planned because they are so tasty, that they will disappear from the table very quickly. Everyone will love them.

🕒 How Long Does It Take to Make These Stuffed Peppers?

If you’re limited on time, you can make the filling and serve them raw. You will need only 10 minutes for these mouth-watering appetizers.

If you have some more time, I will advise baking them. This will take you another 20 minutes.

In both cases, you can have a quick and easy snack that you can put on the table in under 30 minutes.

🥘 Ingredients Needed for This Recipe?

• 4 Baby Bell Peppers.
• 1 Cup of Cream Cheese.
• 1 Cup of Cheddar Cheese.
• 1 Tablespoon of Capers.
• ¼ Teaspoon of Dried Oregano.
• 1 Tablespoon of Olive Oil.
• ¼ teaspoon Black Cumin Seeds.

🥦 Ingredients Swap?

• Bell Peppers. If you’re ok with spicy food, you can use jalapeno peppers instead.
• Cheddar Cheese. You can replace it with mozzarella cheese, monterey jack, or pepper jack.
• Capers. If you can’t find capers, you can substitute them with green olives.
• Oregano. You could replace it with basil.
• Black Cumin Seeds. You can use bagel seasonings or sesame seeds instead.

🍛 Variations

These mini sweet peppers can be stuffed with a lot of ingredients. These are a few or possible combinations:

• Make them spicy. Give it a spicy taste by using jalapeno peppers instead of mini sweet peppers.
• Bacon-Wrapped. You can use bacon slices and wrap the mini sweet peppers in them. Or, you can just add finely crumbled bacon to the filling.
• Add meat. Also, you can consider adding cooked ground beef or sausage to the filling. Make sure that the meat is fully cooked before you mix the cream cheese.
• Add Garlic. If you love garlicky dishes, you can add two minced garlic cloves into the filling.
• Italian stuffed peppers. Add into the filling crumbled Italian sausage, mozzarella, and some Italian seasonings.
• Mexican stuffed peppers. Use chicken or ground beef and taco seasoning instead.
• Greek stuffed peppers. Use ground turkey, a mix of Greek seasoning, cream cheese, and instead of cheddar, use goat cheese.

🍽️ Serving Suggestions

While you can serve this yummy appetizer raw, warm, or even at room temperature as such, you can serve them also near other finger food dishes. Consider serving them near some Sweet Chili Glazed Chicken Wings, Parmentier potatoes, Zucchini chips with parmesan, or onion rings.

👩‍🍳 Directions

Prepare the Filling

Take a large bowl, and combine in it all the ingredients for the cream. I used Cheddar cheese, cream cheese, capers, and dried oregano. Mix well all the ingredients and our filling is ready.

Quick Note: Either brick-style (US) or spreadable (UK) will work fine for this recipe. If you’re using brick-style cream cheese, leave the package at room temperature for about 20-30 minutes. The cream cheese will become softer and it will be easier for you to mix it with the rest of the ingredients.

Prepare the Bell Peppers.

After that, prepare the bell peppers. Wash them well in cold water.

Cut the mini bell peppers in half to form small boats, and remove the seeds and other excesses.

Combine Everything All Together.

Take a spoon and generously fill each halved mini pepper with the previously made filling. Drizzle over them with oil and sprinkle on top of the seeds you have decided to use.

I picked black cumin seeds for the contrast. You could also use everything bagel seasoning.

Pro Tip: Optionally, you can sprinkle some additional shredded cheddar cheese over the peppers to get a nicer crispy texture in the end.

If you prefer to eat them raw, then you can stop at this step and stuffed sweet peppers are ready to be served. However, I advise you to try them at least once baked.

If you decide to cook them, preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C) and cook them for 20 minutes.

Serve them as such, or you can additionally garnish them with chopped green onions or parsley. Also, you may consider adding a few crushed walnuts for the texture.

♻️ Make Ahead, Storage and Heating:

🤔Answering Your Questions:

📋 Recipe Card:

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