osewme

DH & I are trying new recipes & he made up a mix to put in bell peppers. We've already cooked the mix (hamburger meat, seasonings, green chilies, chili powder, tomatoes, etc.). Since the mix is already cooked, can I just stuff the peppers with it & put it in an Instant Pot & cook for about 5 minutes? Will that cook the pepper & just basically "heat up" the mixture inside the pepper? I want it to be a fast meal & really don't want to have to boil the peppers or bake in the oven.
Help with this would be appreciated.

Stitchnripper

I would put them on the trivet with some liquid in the bottom underneath and then do an instant release after the minutes. I think 5 minutes might make a soft pepper but I wouldn’t mind that. You could Google “instant pot recipes for stuffed peppers” and see what some of those say.

osewme

Thanks, Alyce! I did try to google but everything talked about stuffing them with the "raw" ingredients & my mixture is already cooked. I'm thinking since it only takes about 5 minutes to cook veggies in an Instant Pot that I could just stuff them with my already cooked ingredients & them put them in on Steam Mode for 5 mintues & do a quick release when finished. That should give it time to cook the peppers & heat up the inside filling good. Does that sound right?
P.S. DH likes soft peppers!

Stitchnripper

yup. I would give that a try. If you get it on the first try that’s great. Can’t imagine they wouldn’t be good. But then you can decide if they need more or less time when you make them again. We’ve never had anything come out inedible in the instant pot but I’ve adjusted the recipe and/or cook time next time I made whatever it was.

bakermom

You should be OK using 2-3 minutes, maybe even 0. I've seen some veggies only take 0 because they cook as pressure is building. I stuff my peppers/cabbage with raw filling so this is only a guess. Found this:
https://eatinginstantly.com/instant-pot-steamed-vegetables/#:~:text=Add%20the%203%2F4%20cup,all%20that's%20ne eded%20to%20steam!

osewme

Thanks for that link, bakermom. I did cook the stuffed pepper but cooked it for 15 minutes & then did a quick release & DH loved how it turned out. I think I could have done it in a lot less time but I'm still having to get used to the fact that the IP takes such a short time on veggies. Anyway, we froze several & I'll be ready to cook more when he's ready to eat them again. I will reduce the cooking time next time until I'm comfortable with "very little" cook time.