Freezing Green or Sweet Bell Peppers

This year I had an overabundance of many different types of peppers, so decided to freeze a few of the Bell Peppers.

Not only are bell peppers packed with lots of flavor, they also add important nutrients to any dish. 
One red sweet bell pepper provides an entire day’s worth of vitamins A and C, (more than twice the amount found in an orange) and are a good source of the antioxidant vitamin E!





Bell peppers belong to the nightshade (Solanaceae) family of plants, along with chili pepper, cayenne pepper, eggplant, tomatoes, and potatoes (except sweet potatoes and yams). Their scientific name is Capsicum annuum. This scientific name, however, is used to refer not only to the bell peppers, but also to wax peppers, cayenne peppers, chili peppers, and jalapeno peppers.

Wash peppers, remove stem and seeds

It's really easy to freeze extra bell peppers for use later in stews, soups, on pizza or add to casseroles, mac-n-cheese, or scrambled eggs.

Directions:
Wash peppers, cut out stems then cut in half and remove seeds.
Cut Bell peppers into strips or rings or dice. I like to make sliced for putting on pizza and diced to add to casseroles and soups.

Slice or dice peppers

You can blanch the peppers before freezing, which will soften them up a little. That makes them good for use in casseroles and other dishes.  
And while many vegetables are better when blanched first, I never blanch my bell peppers before freezing.

Place fresh cut pepper on a tray to flash freeze

Flash Freeze:
Flash freezing the slices individually first prevents the peppers from freezing together and makes it easy to remove just as many as you need from the freezer bag.
Spread cut-up peppers on a cookie sheet or large tray and flash freeze. Once frozen, place peppers in a Ziploc freezer bag and freeze until ready to use.

Frozen diced peppers ready for freezing

Place peppers in Ziploc freezer bags and freeze until ready to use

To extend the time frozen foods retain flavor and quality, freeze in bags or container intended for freezing and keep the temperature of the freezer at 0 degrees F or below. It's usually recommended frozen vegetables are eaten within about 8 months to a year for best quality.

My son loves green bell pepper on pizza and usually during the summer and early fall, while harvesting from our garden, we have stuffed green bell peppers 2 to 3 times a month.  Freezing the peppers will let us have the fresh from the garden bell pepper flavor all winter long.  
Or until we use them all up!

Elizabeth


Other Posts:

Hot Pepper Relish

Zucchini Bread 

Black Bean, Tomato and Corn Salsa