Giada De Laurentiis' Cheesy Bell Peppers Stuffed With Orzo Are An Easy Way to Sneak Some Veggies onto Your Plate

Easy meets healthy in celebrity chef Giada De Laurentiis‘ Cheesy Bell Peppers Stuffed With Orzo. Between the silkiness of the cooked peppers and the satisfying orzo mixed with more hearty vegetables, this meal from the Food Network star is one you’ll be happy you served your family – and yourself.

Have these ingredients handy for De Laurentiis’ Cheesy Bell Peppers Stuffed with Orzo

For this filling recipe (ingredient quantities and reviews can be found here), you’ll need to have canned Italian-style tomatoes, zucchini, fresh mint leaves, grated Pecorino Romano cheese, olive oil, garlic, chicken broth, orzo, and bell peppers.

Orzo pasta is the star of this dish. Versatile and chewy, the Giada at Home host uses orzo in many of her dishes including Crispy Orzo Salad, Crispy Coconut Orzo with Peas, and even White Chocolate Orzo Pudding. Of the latter recipe, the chef writes on Giadzy, her lifestyle and food blog, “Seeing a theme here? You can really use orzo to replace rice in many capacities – including rice pudding! This spin has a texture that we love even more than the traditional dessert.”

How to put this recipe together

Before anything else, the oven is preheated to 400 degrees F as the stuffed peppers will bake at the end of the preparation process.

Now, De Laurentiis calls for combining the tomatoes, chopped, into a large bowl along with the zucchini, mint, cheese, olive oil, garlic, salt, and pepper.

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The broth is boiled in a pan and then the orzo is added and cooked until it’s just almost cooked. Using a sieve or strainer, the orzo is placed into the bowl containing the veggies. The remaining broth is moved to the baking dish.

Cut the tops from the peppers and clean out its seeds; cut as well just enough off of the bottom of the peppers to allow them to stand in the baking dish. Stand each empty pepper in the baking dish containing the broth and spoon the orzo and vegetable mix into the peppers. Once covered, place the dish in the oven and bake for 45 minutes, after which you’ll place cheese on the orzo filling of each pepper and bake an additional 15 minutes. Serve and enjoy!

Thumbs-up for this update on a traditional favorite

Reviewers were impressed with De Laurentiis’ Italian makeover to a tried-and-true dish.

“Very versatile recipe!  This is my husband’s favorite dish for the past few years and would make an impressive meal if entertaining  company!,” said one reviewer.

Another home cook added, “Super tasty! Whipped this up in 20 minutes and baked as directed. I liked the orzo filling instead of rice (much faster cook time too). I’ve been trying to reduce my meat intake recently so this recipe really hit the spot for a savory dish!  Great job Giada!”

And a happy eater wrote, “Absolutely loved this recipe. I usually don’t care for stuffed peppers but these were delicious. I would highly recommend this recipe.”

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