This Vegetarian Turkish Stuffed Peppers, as we say Biber Dolmasi in Turkish, is made with a rice filling and cooked in a tomato garlic sauce. They are first stove-top cooked and then oven baked. A flavor-packed family dinner for busy weeknights. They are easy to make and freezer friendly too.

This Turkish biber dolmasi is one of our favorite foods from Turkish cuisine. Do you love stuffing vegetables? You might want to see our other Turkish foods like stuffed onions recipe, stuffed grape leaves and Turkish stuffed zucchini too!
Pepper Dolma is one of the most traditional Turkish dishes. Although we often make feta cheese stuffed peppers as an appetizer, our choice is to make these easy vegetarian stuffed peppers with rice when it comes to a comforting dinner.
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Why We Love This Recipe
- It is easy to serve pepper dolma in portions.
- This is a freezer-friendly recipe. Let them cool completely after cooked in the pot over stove-top or baked in the oven and freeze in an air tight container. Thaw and reheat with a splash of water before eating.
- It is easy to customize. You can make this biber dolmasi recipe either vegetarian or with lean ground beef. Also, you can make the filling with brown rice, bulgur, wheat berries or buckwheat instead of rice.
Ingredients

Peppers: We use Turkish mini green peppers called dolmalık biber, which are peppers for stuffing. They are small in size and have thin skin. They are known as the peppers to stuff in Turkey. The thinner their skin is, the better. If you can't find Turkish dolmalik pepper, you can use regular bell peppers too. If they are too large, just cut them lengthwise in half before stuffing.
Filling: It contains white rice, onion, garlic, tomato, tomato paste, parsley, lemon juice, olive oil spices like black pepper, dried mint, paprika or chili powder (or red pepper flakes) and salt. You can use whatever rice you like, but we think long-grain rice works fine.
Garnish: Although it is not necessary, Turkish stuffed peppers are traditionally topped with tomatoes or the pepper tops we cut when preparing the peppers. They act as a lid for stuffed peppers. Also, we love to add some lemon slices in the pot for garnish and richness in the final taste of the dish.

Tomato Sauce: It is a simple sauce with olive oil, tomato paste, dried mint, garlic and water. This sauce takes these vegetarian stuffed peppers to a whole new level.
How To Make

Preparing Peppers: Cut the tops of the peppers in the form of a lid (please see the picture above) and remove the seeds. Try not to damage the peppers (see the notes).

Make The Filling: In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients for the rice mixture filling.

Assemble: Stuff each pepper with 1-2 tablespoons of the filling depending on the size of the peppers. Leave a little space for rice to rise when cooked.
Place each stuffed pepper in a pot. If the pot is oven-proof, things will be easier.

Cut the cherry tomatoes in two and place one half over the filling in the peppers. These tomatoes act like a lid for the peppers. Alternatively, you can use the tops you cut from the peppers as a lid too. Place lemon slices on the peppers.

Make The Sauce and Cook The Peppers: Combine olive oil, tomato paste, garlic, dried mint and water in a sauce pan and bring it to a boil. Pour it in the pot.
Cook the stuffed peppers covered over medium heat for 15 minutes.
Reduce the heat and let it simmer for 15-20 minutes or until the rice is tender.

Bake: Preheat the oven at 425F/220C. If your pot is oven-proof, place it in the oven. If not, transfer the stuffed peppers and lemon slices into a baking dish. Pour all the juicy sauce in the pot into this pan. At this step, you can add a splash of verjuice over dolmas. Bake for about 10 minutes or until they get golden brown.
Serve: You can serve these Middle Eastern vegetarian stuffed peppers with rice warm or at room temperature with some yogurt on the side.
Tips

- We either use cherry tomatoes to top the filling in the peppers or put the pepper tops we cut as a lid (please see it in the picture above). You can do whatever you prefer.
- If the peppers you are using are larger than the ones we use, you can cut them lengthwise into two and then stuff them. You can see a sample in the picture below.
- You really don’t need to top the stuffed peppers, we do it because we love how they look that way.
- If you have leftover filling, you can cook it in another pan over low heat, let it cool and keep in the refrigerator. Reheat and serve it as a side dish on another day. Alternatively, you can stuff a few tomatoes with that remaining filling. To do this, cut the top of tomatoes, remove the seeds and stuff. Place them in the same pan.
- If you want to make these with ground beef, add it (about 250g or ½ pound) into the filling with rice.
How To Serve It
We love to sprinkle sumac on top of the filling right before serving, but it's totally optional. We love the extra tangy flavor of this Middle Eastern spice. Also, it is almost a must to serve these with lemon and plain yogurt on the side. If we make the meatless version, we mostly serve it at room temperature and with extra olive oil.
We serve it either with a dollop of plain yogurt or Turkish cacik on the side. A fresh tomato and cucumber salad like Turkish shepherd salad goes well too if it’s summer time.

How to Reheat It
When heating the leftover biber dolmasi, take one tablespoon of the liquid in the pan and drizzle over the filling inside the peppers so that it doesn’t get dry and heats equally. Heat covered over medium low heat on the stove. If there is no water left in the pan, add some extra water and then heat.
As always: If you make this recipe, let us know what you think by rating it and leaving a comment below. And post a pic on Instagram too—tag @give_recipe so we can see!
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📖 Recipe
Biber Dolmasi (Turkish Stuffed Peppers)
Bell peppers stuffed with rice and with or without ground beef makes the easiest weeknight dinner when prepared and frozen beforehand.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 40 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 12
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Cooking
- Cuisine: Turkish
- Diet: Vegetarian
Ingredients
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12 small green peppers (or 6 large)
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Filling:
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12 tablespoons rice (1 tablespoon for each pepper)
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1 large onion, chopped finely
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4 cloves garlic, chopped finely
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1 medium-sized tomato, chopped finely
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1 and ½ tablespoons tomato paste
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¼ cup parsley, chopped
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1 tablespoon dried mint
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1 teaspoon black pepper
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½ teaspoon paprika
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1 and ½ teaspoon salt
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1 tablespoon lemon juice
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¼ cup olive oil
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Garnish:
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4-5 cherry tomatoes (to top the filling in peppers)*
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5-6 thin slices lemon, for garnish
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Sauce:
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2 tablespoons olive oil
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2 tablespoons tomato paste
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2 cloves garlic, mashed
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2 teaspoons dried mint
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2 cups hot water, divided
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Instructions
Preparing Peppers:
- Cut the tops of peppers in the form of a lid (please see the picture above) and remove the seeds. Try not to damage the peppers.
Make The Filling:
- In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients for the filling.
Assemble:
- Stuff each pepper with 1-2 tablespoons of the filling depending on the size of the peppers. Leave a little space for rice to rise when cooked.
- Place each stuffed pepper in a pot. If the pot is oven-proof, things will be easier.
- Cut the cherry tomatoes in two and place one half over the filling in the peppers. These tomatoes act like a lid for the peppers. Alternatively, you can use the tops you cut from the peppers as a lid too.
- Place lemon slices on the peppers.
Make The Sauce and Cook The Peppers:
- Combine olive oil, tomato paste, garlic, dried mint and water in a sauce pan and bring it to a boil. Pour it in the pot with stuffed peppers.
- Cook the stuffed peppers covered over medium heat for 15 minutes.
- Reduce the heat and let it simmer for 15-20 minutes or until the rice is tender.
Bake:
- Preheat the oven at 425F/220C.
- If your pot is oven-proof, place it in the oven. If not, transfer the stuffed peppers and lemon slices into a baking pan. Pour all the juicy sauce in the pot into this pan. Bake for about 10 minutes or until they get golden brown.
Serve:
- You can serve it warm or at room temperature with some yogurt on the side.
Notes
- We either use cherry tomatoes to top the filling in the peppers or put the pepper tops we cut as a lid (please see it in the picture above). You can do whatever you prefer.
- If the peppers you are using are larger than the ones we use, you can cut them lengthwise into two and then stuff them.
- You really don’t need to top the stuffed peppers, we do it because we love how they look that way.
- If you have leftover filling, you can cook it in another pan over low heat, let it cool and keep in the refrigerator. Reheat and serve it as a side dish on another day. Alternatively, you can stuff a few tomatoes with that remaining filling. To do this, cut the top of tomatoes, remove the seeds and stuff. Place them in the same pan.
- If you want to make these with ground beef, add it (about 250g or ½ pound) into the filling with rice.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 2
- Calories: 133
- Sugar: 3.5 g
- Sodium: 300.3 mg
- Fat: 7.3 g
- Carbohydrates: 16.4 g
- Protein: 2.1 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
Mac says
Turned out wonderful! I did cook my rice before hand with chicken broth which was a personal preference. With the rice already cooked, I only boiled the peppers for round 15 minutes (mostly at a rolling boil to soften the peppers) before putting into the oven. Will make again!
Nienke says
Great recipe! Enjoyed making. I was just wondering if i am supposed to pour the sauce over the peppers so they fill up or leave the pepper without sauce and only pour the sauce in the pot.
Thank you!
Zerrin & Yusuf says
Hi Nienke,
Thank you for this question. We pour the sauce in the pot but no problem if some of it goes into the peppers. What we aim here is to cook the stuffed peppers in the sauce. Hope this helps.
Bertha Dager says
I'm so thankful for finding your page, this is so important to me because my husband eats all of your recipes and I didn't have enough because nobody in my husbands family could share the with me. God bless you for introduce your page on my way.
Thank you very much.
Zerrin & Yusuf says
Hi Bertha,
You are most welcome! Hope you have a chance to try our recipes.
Please feel free to ask us any question you might have.
Cheers!
cy says
Another delicious dish! I just made it tonight. Everyone loved it, even certain picky eaters. Turkish food is easy to prepare and the results are just wonderful! Thank you for sharing your recipes with us.
Zerrin & Yusuf says
Such a lovely comment. Thank you! We are so happy to hear you all liked our biber dolma (stuffed peppers) recipe.
Helly says
I'm a novice cook and I made it for dinner today. It came out soooo good! Thanks!
momgateway says
Adding mint is an interesting touch to stuffed peppers...
Turkish Food Passion says
Zerrin, now I am hungry for stuffed green peppers! This is one of my favorite recipes.
Trissa says
I just love stuffed peppers! What sets a great stuffed pepper apart is how it is filled - your stuffing sounds heavenly! I would try it one day with meat instead of rice for a meal!
Erica says
I love the addition of cinnamon! They look delicious!
Michelle says
Love your blog design and the hand drawn pictures! Stunning photographs!
Gera @ SweetsFoodsBlog says
The bell peppers look grand! Perfect timing for my dinner 🙂
Cheers,
Gera
Cajun Chef Ryan says
I like how you saved the tops and put them back on the pepper like a cap or hat. Great way of presenting them also.
Sophie says
Now, this is lovely food!!!
MMMMMMMMMM,...I love stuffed peppers, even yellow & orange one's!
Jessie says
I love stuffed peppers, yours looks amazingly delicious!
Diana says
Pretty Peppers. We love stuffed peppers.