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If you know you have delicious stuffed peppers in your future but aren’t sure what to serve with stuffed peppers, let us help! From salads to soups and even desserts, we’ve got you covered with 29 of our favorite sides (or desserts) to pair with stuffed peppers.
Stuffed peppers are a great year-round entree that are equally good when served for lunch or dinner.
There are hundreds of great recipes out there for vegetarians and meat lovers (and if you don’t want to make your own, Costco sells a nice six-pack whose primary ingredients are ground beef and cheese). We have two of our own in-house vegetarian stuffed pepper recipes below!
Herby Ricotta Stuffed Peppers
This Tuscany inspired recipe is made from fresh herbs, creamy ricotta, and sharp parmesan. Best of all they are ready in under an hour (with minimal hands-on time). I worked on this recipe after spending a few days in the charming Italian walled city of Lucca in Tuscany.
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Mexican-Style Quinoa Stuffed Peppers
Our second favorite stuffed pepper is completely different. With gooey jack cheese, protein-packed quinoa, and tender black beans, these Quinoa Stuffed Peppers make a healthy dinner or meal prep. We’ve taken classic Mexican spices paired with easy cooking methods to create what we think is the ultimate vegetarian stuffed pepper recipe.
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What Goes with Stuffed Peppers?
There are a variety of great options to serve with your peppers. We are going to, of course, recommend foods that just naturally fit with a warm, gooey stuffed pepper. I am also going to put on my nutritionist hat and consider what our recommendations can do to provide a nutritionally balanced lunch or dinner!
When looking at what to pair with stuffed peppers nutritionally, there are a few key components:
- Protein: Stuffed peppers are amazing, but they don’t always pack a big protein punch—unless you’re loading them with chickpeas, lentils, or tofu. If not, no worries! Try pairing them with something like braised tofu or a hearty chickpea soup (recipes below!).
- Carbs: Gotta have those healthy carbs for balance. If your stuffed peppers don’t already have quinoa or rice inside, adding a quinoa salad on the side is a perfect way to round out the meal.
- And one last thing—oven space! If you’re serving your peppers hot out of the oven, you probably don’t want to fight for oven space with sides or desserts. So most of our recommendations don’t need the oven. For the few that do, they’re things that don’t have to be served hot (because who needs more kitchen chaos?).
We’re breaking our pairing recommendations into categories so you can easily sort by what you’re looking for.
Table of Contents
Great Stuffed Peppers Side Dishes
Pan Roasted Broccoli
Broccoli doesn’t have to be boring! These simple ingredients can be your weekly favorite and a show stopper for any dinner. This roasted broccoli with lemon only requires 5 minutes of hands-on time!
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Jiffy Cornbread Casserole
Cornbread itself goes great with stuffed peppers, but why not up the game with this cornbread casserole? With just 5 minutes of hands-on work, this casserole leaves you plenty of time to concentrate on your stuffed peppers. It is made from pantry staples, including Mom’s old, reliable Jiffy mix. We’ve simplified this comfort classic to minimize the ingredients list and make the process super streamlined.
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Air Fryer Brussels Sprouts
This is an easy side. You can make it your air fryer, leaving your oven open for the stuffed peppers and perhaps dessert. All you need is 15 minutes. For this recipe, you can use fresh or frozen Brussels sprouts. The trick? Shake the air fryer pan halfway through cooking to evenly brown the sprouts. Air fried Brussel sprouts are a terrific vegetable side dish dish for any dinner.
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Air Fried Cauliflower
If Brussels sprouts are not your thing, try this super-easy air-fried cauliflower recipe. It is quick to make, and the cauliflower florets will come out perfectly crispy but tender. This is a great vegetable side dish with countless options for toppings—lemon, parmesan, toasted pine nuts—choose whatever your favorite seasoning is, and enjoy!
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Slow Cooker Garlic Carrots
With just five ingredients and two simple steps, these Slow Cooker Carrots are a seriously easy side dish recipe you can serve with just about any entree including stuffed peppers. Infused with garlic and balsamic flavor, they are sure to please.
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Pesto Smashed Red Potatoes
With fresh pesto and savory parmesan, these Pesto Smashed Red Potatoes are both a great pair with stuffed peppers, and a quick and easy side to make. They only require 4 ingredients and come together quickly thanks to pre-boiling the potatoes. Just boil, smash, and then bake to crispy perfection!
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Ranch Smashed Baby Carrots
Smashed vegetables make great side dishes for stuffed peppers and are just so much more fun than regular vegetables. With gooey parmesan and zesty ranch seasoning, these Ranch Smashed Baby Carrots with Parmesan make the perfect appetizer or side dish. They only take 4 ingredients and are ready in 30 minutes. Everyone will be finishing their plates with this at the dinner table!
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Marry Me Pesto Pasta
If your stuffed pepper recipe is heavy on meat, pasta makes a great side dish, and none better than a good pesto pasta. This is a quick and easy cozy dinner recipe. The sauce is creamy, flavorful, and comes together in 15 minutes – you really just have to wait for the pasta to cook. No guarantee of a wedding proposal is implied with this recipe, but hey who knows it is pretty darned good.
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Roasted Asparagus with Romesco Sauce
This Roasted Asparagus with Smoky Romesco Sauce is a simple, flavor-packed recipe that will complement our stuffed peppers and brighten up your dinner table! With just 1 pan and in 15 minutes you’ll have a show stopping side dish ready to go. It’s messy, colorful, so tasty, and you don’t need your oven leaving it free for the peppers.
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Zucchini Cheddar Bites
Zucchini Cheddar Bites are packed with hidden vegetables and are so addictive! With zucchini, carrot, and cheddar cheese, they’re great for cleaning out the fridge in healthy, delicious snacking form. I like these with stuffed peppers if I know there are going to be kids at the table. Sometimes stuffed peppers are a bit much for kids to take in with the blend of so many foods together. These kid-approved bites ensure they have a healthy option to fill up on.
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Shaved Brussels Sprout Salad
This recipe is as simple as chopping, tossing, adding dressing, and putting it on the table. You can have this ready in 15 minutes. With apples, dried cranberries, fresh parmesan, and shaved fresh Brussels sprouts it brings a lot of nutrition to your plate.
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Best Ever Bulgur Salad
This vibrant bulgur salad is packed with whole grains, herbs, and juicy pomegranate seeds! You can toss it together in minutes for a quick and refreshing side dish. If you aren’t familiar with bulgur, it is a type of whole wheat that has been cracked and partially pre-cooked. It is a good source of fiber, protein, and complex carbohydrates, and it makes a great salad base. If you are familiar with bulgur, our apologies and perhaps try our tabbouleh salad as well.
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Roasted Cauliflower Salad
Try this delightful medley of flavors and textures. We think it is a great pair with stuffed peppers or a light meal on its own if you have guests who aren’t excited about your peppers. With crispy beans, tangy feta cheese, and a zesty lemon dressing, this salad is a must-try for anyone looking to incorporate more veggies into their diet.
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Zucchini Corn Salad
Try this delightful medley of flavors and textures. We think it is a great pair with stuffed peppers, or a light meal on its own if you have guests who aren’t excited about your peppers. With crispy beans, tangy feta cheese, and a zesty lemon dressing, this salad is a must-try for anyone looking to incorporate more veggies into their diet..
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Sweet Potato Salad
This roasted Sweet Potato Salad is a combination of some of our most favorite ingredients. Sweet potato, quinoa, and arugula make up a bulk of the salad. But then we throw in their best friends: feta cheese, red onions, and raisins! This warm Sweet Potato Salad recipe is a hearty side salad for serving with warm stuffed peppers on a winter day.
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Thai Cucumber Salad
A refreshing, cool cucumber salad is a great accompaniment to stuffed peppers if you are serving them outside on a warm summer day. We like three different options that are all easy to put together but always crowd-pleasers. If you don't want this Thai salad, you can also use a Tzatziki cucumber salad or cucumber avocado salad.
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Soups to go with stuffed peppers
We think soup is an ideal complement to just about any stuffed pepper recipe, but we prefer creamy soups as the ideal side. I guess you could try chicken noodles, but it doesn’t work for us. Below, we list our five favorite soups to go with peppers, but if you don’t find what you are looking for, here are 50 other vegetarian soup recipes you ought to consider.
Creamy Chickpea Soup
Packed with vegetables, nutritious chickpeas, and Tuscan flavor, this filling dish has become a cozy weeknight staple in our house and pairs well with stuffed peppers. It is easily customizable to other ingredients you might have in the fridge, is ready in under 30 minutes, and is so easy you don’t really even need the recipe.
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Tuscan White Bean Soup
Here is another comfort soup that is ready in 30 minutes from the time you open your refrigerator to ladeling it to serve with your stuffed peppers. It is made with creamy white beans and Mediterranean flavors; this Tuscan white bean soup recipe is a quick dinner recipe perfect for weeknights! Loaded with vegetables and parmesan cheese, it pairs well with stuffed peppers but is a good one to serve anytime. It is made with pantry staples, so you can keep the ingredients on hand for when the craving for soup strikes. It is all done in one pot on the stove for quick clean up and packed with flavor thanks to a simple blend of seasonings.
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Roasted Vegetable Soup
Throw a bunch of vegetables into a baking dish, roast until charred and delicious, and blend into soup! It really is about that easy, and it will give you a customizable, nutritious, hands-off dinner recipe that’s packed with flavor and perfect for serving with stuffed peppers and a whole lot more. Easily customized to whatever vegetables you have in your kitchen, even those that have been lingering in the back of the veggie crisper for longer than you like.
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Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato Soup
This roasted red pepper and tomato soup recipe is a classic dish that is both comforting and flavorful. The roasting process intensifies the flavors of the tomatoes and red peppers, resulting in a rich and savory taste. It’s an easy recipe that can be made all year round and is perfect for a cozy weeknight dinner or a casual dinner party. Roasting the vegetables brings out their natural sweetness and creates a velvety texture that is perfect for cozy nights in.
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Thai Butternut Squash Soup
Treat your taste buds with this savory but sweet, tangy but earthy Curried Butternut Squash Soup. It is filled with a blend of coconut milk, butternut, and heaps of flavorings for the ultimate cozy vibes, and your friends will find it a great complement to your stuffed pepper recipes.
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Desserts That pair well with stuffed peppers
The best desserts to go with stuffed peppers are those that do not have to be served fresh out of the oven. You want to serve your peppers hot right from the oven, so pick desserts that can be made in advance.
Fudgy Black Bean Brownies
Brownies are always a good choice for dessert, and this fudgy Black Bean Brownies recipe is a decadent gluten-free dessert (and no one will ever guess that they’re packed with black beans!). I came up with this recipe after trying a similar brownie at a nutrition fair in college. So, I have been making these for about 12 years now. In addition to being gluten-free, a cup of black beans has about half the calories that a cup of all-purpose flour has, it’s got 20% of your daily iron, AND it has a higher protein content (15g). If you want to try these with a reduced sugar content, check out the reader comments at the bottom of the recipe.
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Easy Blueberry Pie
This recipe is loaded with fresh (or frozen works well, too) blueberries and is really quite easy, as stated in this reader review: “My partner was dubious about the latticework over the top, but your instructions made it super easy to do! I was able to figure it out and make some really nice lattices on top of my pie. The crimping of the edges, though, is still pretty rough, haha. But the taste was great!” —TIFFANY
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Stuffed Apples
What better to serve with stuffed peppers than a stuffed fruit dessert? Slow-cooker stuffed apples are your winner. These are a total dream and one of my favorite ways to cook apples! The apples are stuffed with a mix of oats, flour, brown sugar, pecans, butter, and cinnamon for a delicious flavor combination that tastes absolutely heavenly.
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Blondies
This chickpea blondies recipe is flourless, gluten-free, and perhaps most importantly, so good! Peppered white chocolate chunks, these blondies are gooey, chocolatey, chewy, and protein-packed. We guarantee they will complement your stuffed peppers and assert that you’ll want to make these again and again!
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Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp
These sweet-tart crisps go oh so well with any savory recipe that includes stuffed peppers. I grew up in Alaska (both Fairbanks and Anchorage) where rhubarb grew to enormous size with the long summer days. So naturally, as I studied nutrition science and began to cook for a living, I had to experiment with rhubarb. These crisps are my variant of an Alaskan favorite. They do require your oven, so as soon as you serve your stuffed peppers, put your crisps in the oven, and they will be ready right about the time people finish the main course. You will want the vanilla ice cream to melt over the hot crisps.
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Easy Avocado Chocolate Mousse Pie
This Chocolate Mousse Pie has a healthy little secret. Creamy, decadent, and delicious, it’ll change the way you look at vegetables. I experimented with this recipe (a lot) when I lived in The Netherlands. I was working an internship with Unilever doing food testing, so I learned a lot about taste tests. With this experience in hand, I used my Dutch friends to really put this recipe to the test. They loved the final iteration, but couldn’t guess what was in it until I caved and admitted the secret ingredient was a green veggie. The humble avocado.
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Apple Gouda Hand Pies
I usually recommend this dessert as a grab-and-go dessert. We make these sweet and savory pies with a flaky golden Gouda cheese crust. I came up with these the first year I lived in The Netherlands (2016), shortly after I started the Live Eat Learn blog. I wanted to do something with Gouda cheese, which originated in the Dutch town of Gouda. I hope you like these as much as my Dutch friends and I do.
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Zucchini Crisp
While our favorite is the previously listed rhubarb crisps, these crisps are a great healthy dessert option. They are made with zucchini to lower the calorie count and up the nutrition. Zucchini crisps. Not sure zucchini is your thing? Stick with the tried and true apple crisp. Don’t forget to top either off with a dollop of vanilla ice cream or homemade nice cream.
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