Romanian Stuffed Peppers (Ardei Umpluti) uses sweet yellow Hungarian peppers, stuffed with a mixture of ground pork, rice and herbs and slowly cooked in a simple tomato sauce with sour cream. It’s a taste of the old country that is to die for!
People always ask me what are some of the authentic Romanian dishes and I have a few recipes here on the blog and to this day, one of my favorite has to be these stuffed peppers. This is my mom’s recipe that she’s been making ever since I can remember and she thankfully passed it down to me. Luckily for all my readers my mom also taught me to share, so share this delicious recipe I will!
If you’ve never tried Romanian Stuffed peppers then you are in for a treat, these savory little flavor bombs are packed full of delicious ground pork and fluffy white rice. It’s all cooked down in a tomato sauce that is so good you’ll be tempted to sip it right out of the pan.
What Is Ardei Umpluti?
If you’re trying to learn a new language, here’s a little Romanian for you! So “ardei umpluti” literally means stuffed peppers. Now stuffed peppers are a dish that exists all around the world using a variety of meats, starches, and cheeses, but none are quite like their Romanian brother.
This recipe is chock full of fresh dill and parsley studded ground pork stuffed into sweet peppers, all swimming in a delicious tomato sauce made creamy with a little sour cream.
Ingredients
Detailed measurements and instructions can be found on the printable recipe card at the bottom of the page.
Peppers
- Peppers – We’re using medium sized Hungarian yellow sweet peppers but if you can find any regular yellow bell peppers will work just fine.
- Pork – We’re looking for ground pork, as fat as possible. The reason for this is so that our meat in the stuffed peppers is nice and juicy and not hard like a brick.
- Rice – Use any kind you’d like just be sure it’s uncooked. I usually prefer to use a long grain rice.
- Onion – Chopped up, be sure to look for something that cooks down well like white or yellow onion.
- Egg – This will bind all of our filling ingredients together nicely.
- Herbs – Fresh dill and parsley chopped up fine. The more fresh dill the better. Trust me on this one.
- Seasoning – Salt and pepper to taste.
Sauce
- Tomato – Either puree and passata either can be used interchangeably in this recipe.
- Sour cream – Just a dollop of this will add some creamy tang to our dish.
- Water – To thin out our sauce and give us a better consistency.
- Seasoning – Salt and pepper to taste.
How To Make Romanian Stuffed Peppers
- Preheat your oven: Arrange a rack in the middle of your oven and preheat to 375 F degrees.
- Prepare the peppers: Prepare the peppers by cutting off the tops of the peppers. Remove and discard any seeds and membranes from the insides of the peppers. To keep the peppers from falling over while cooking, cut a small flat piece off the bottom of the pepper so that it has a more even bottom and they’ll stand up nicely.
- Combine the filling: In a large bowl combine the ground pork, rice, onion, egg, dill, parsley, salt and pepper. Mix well. Stuff each pepper really well and arrange them in a big pot standing up.
- Prepare the sauce: To make the sauce whisk together the tomato puree with the sour cream, water, salt and pepper. Pour this over the peppers. Add more water if needed, there should be enough water to come about half way up the peppers.
- Cook the peppers: Cover the pot with a lid or aluminum foil and bake for 1 1/2 hours covered. Remove the lid and continue baking for another 45 minutes to an hour uncovered. The peppers are ready when you insert a fork in a pepper and it goes easy through the skin of the pepper and meat, and the rice is cooked.
- Finish the dish: Serve these hot with lots of sauce and a dollop of sour cream on top, along side some crusty bread for dipping in the sauce.
Other Cooking Options
You don’t just have to make these in the oven, they cook up perfectly in the slow cooker or pressure cooker! If you’re worried about the sour cream in the sauce, just be sure to combine the sauce before adding it to your slow/pressure cooker – it should be fine if pre mixed!
Slow cooker
- Follow this recipe instructions listed above but instead of using a pot or dutch oven, place the peppers and sauce in your slow cooker.
- Cook on low for 6 to 8 hours or high for 4 hours.
Pressure Cooker
- Follow the directions as listed above but place your peppers on the trivet provided to prevent them from burning.
- Close the lid of your pressure cooker according to the manufacture instructions.
- Cook for 8 minutes on the manual setting and allow the pressure to release naturally when done cooking
How To Serve
If you want some carbs to bulk up this meal and soak up all that delicious sauce, I have a few suggestions.
- Traditionally this meal is served with an extra dollop of sour cream and some good crusty bread.
- Some soft dinner rolls.
- Spooned over Mashed Potatoes.
- Served over fluffy white rice to soak up all that delicious sauce.
Some Tips
- These stuffed peppers are best when made with sweet yellow Hungarian peppers or sweet yellow dove bell peppers.
- If you do not have tomato puree or passata you can also use tomato paste instead, about 3 or 4 tbsp and just whisk it with enough water to cover the peppers about half way through. Tomato juice will also work.
- I have personally tried stuffing these peppers with chicken, turkey, or beef – but my favorite is always pork! Pork stays so juicy and moist, so make sure it’s not the extra lean, the fattier the pork the juicier the stuffed pepper. Same with cabbage rolls.
Leftovers
Fridge
These peppers will keep for 3 – 5 days if stored in an airtight container in the fridge.
Freezer
Be sure the meat is cooked all the way through and that the peppers are entirely cool before placing in the freezer. Put the peppers in a freezer safe container or wrap them individually with plastic wrap before placing in a freezer bag. This will keep for 6 – 8 months. Allow the dish to thaw completely in the fridge before allowing to warm back up to temperature in the oven.
More Delicious Recipes To Try:
- Romanian Meatball Soup
- Cabbage Rolls
- Creamy Polenta
- Romanian Meatballs
- Traditional Romanian Polenta
- Cabbage Soup
- Beef Bourguignon
- Hungarian Goulash
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Romanian Stuffed Peppers (Ardei Umpluti)
Ingredients
For Peppers
- 10 medium peppers
- 1 1/2 pound ground pork
- 1/2 cup rice uncooked
- 1 onion chopped
- 1 egg
- 1/4 cup fresh dill chopped
- 1/4 cup fresh parsley chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
For Sauce
- 2 cups tomato puree or passata
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 2 cups water
- 1/2 teaspoon salt or to taste
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper or to taste
Instructions
- Arrange a rack in the middle of your oven and preheat to 375 F degrees.
- Prepare the peppers by cutting off the tops of the peppers. Remove and discard any seeds and membranes from the insides of the peppers. To keep the peppers from falling over while cooking, cut a small flat piece off the bottom of the pepper so that it has a more even bottom.
- In a large bowl combine the ground pork, rice, onion, egg, dill, parsley, salt and pepper. Mix well. Stuff each pepper really well and arrange them in a big pot standing up. I used a large 5 quart oval Dutch Oven with a lid.
- To make the sauce whisk together the tomato puree with the sour cream, water, salt and pepper. Pour this over the peppers. Add more water if needed, there should be enough water to come about half way up the peppers.
- Cover the pot with a lid or aluminum foil and bake for 1 1/2 hours covered. Remove the lid and continue baking for another 45 minutes to an hour uncovered. The peppers are ready when you insert a fork in a pepper and it goes easy through the skin of the pepper and meat, and the rice is cooked.
- Serve these hot with lots of sauce and a dollop of sour cream on top, along side some crusty bread for dipping in the sauce.
An hour and a half cooking time seems really long. Can you cut the cooking time by parboiling the peppers before stuffing?
It’s really more about the rice not the peppers. I suppose you could use cooked rice and then shorten the time, I’ve never done them that way. This is the only way we ever make them.
Iām making this recipe today and Iām super excited about it!!! Iām a little nervous about using uncooked rice, lol. For my Galumkis I usually use cooked rice. Is there a certain type of rice I should be using??? Love your recipes by the way!!
You can use a medium or long grain rice. Don’t worry about using uncooked rice, the peppers are in the oven for quite a bit and there’s lots of liquid in the pot so lots of time for the rice to cook.
I have one Hungarian and one Romanian Church cookbooks from the 60″s. Both call for tomato juice and sugar or tomato soup. Your thoughts?
Sure, you can definitely use tomato juice, I used passata mixed with some water so you basically end up with the same thing. A bit of sugar is also a good idea to cut out some acidity, though I don’t usually taste it, especially once I add lots of sour cream to mine. š
Great traditional recipe! I like green peppers for it but my wife likes the red ones best, so those are the ones I’m using most often.