Bell pepper season has officially started, and I am pretty excited about it. It’s hard to think of another vegetable I like this much that’s also so versatile (tomatoes might be a close second!). We enjoy eating bell peppers in so many dishes from fajitas to gumbo to grilled panini sandwiches to pizza (as a topping) and even as raw slices dipped in some hummus or homemade ranch. Plus my other favorite thing about bell peppers is that the season feels fairly long compared to other fresh produce. I don’t know about you but I feel like strawberries, peaches, and raspberries are here and gone in a flash. So if you’re one to procrastinate you’ve still got a little time left to stock up and preserve fresh bell peppers before the season ends.
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How to Preserve Bell Peppers for the Winter:
- Roast and then Freeze. My all time favorite method is to seed the peppers, slice them, roast them, and then freeze them. There are dozens of uses for these frozen slices of summer (including the dishes mentioned above). And the best part is you don’t have to plan ahead if you suddenly want a roasted bell pepper on your grilled panini sandwich. All it takes is a quick rinse under lukewarm water and the bell pepper will (mostly) come back to life.
– - Canning Recipes. I am a newbie to canning, but I recently made the pictured green tomato relish that called for red bell peppers and the outcome was the bomb (in a good way). The relish tastes like the best salsa you’ve ever had and if you take the time to can the end result it will last up to a year. You could freeze the cooked relish as well. There are also some simpler recipes out there for just canning slices of plain bell peppers.
– - Freezing in Prepared Dishes. It’s hard to beat dinner that’s previously been made using fresh ingredients and then stocked away in your freezer. So rather than freezing the peppers by themselves consider incorporating them into soups like chili, gumbo, or tortilla soup or main dishes like fajitas, stuffing, or quesadillas, and then freeze the end result. You’ll thank yourself later when the only thing between you and a delicious wholesome dinner is defrosting and reheating!
Please share your favorite ways to use and preserve bell peppers in the comments below.
Roasted Bell Peppers
Ingredients
- bell peppers
Instructions
- Preheat broiler to high.
- Wash peppers by giving them a quick rinse under water.
Seed and slice peppers then transfer the pieces to a baking sheet.
Place tray 5 – 6 inches under the broiler and cook until at least 50% of the skin appears blackened. This takes about 8-10 minutes in my oven.
Remove from oven, and place in brown paper bag to steam for at least 5 minutes. Once cool enough to handle peel off as much of the skin as you can and discard.
Freeze roasted bell pepper slices on a baking sheet and then transfer them to a ziplock bag or other freezer-proof container once they are frozen (so they don’t stick together) or use them right away.
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Hi … Can the whole bell pepper be frozen without slicing it to
Make stuffed peppers Over the winter ?
I freeze whole peppers all the time for stuffed peppers. Slice off top, take out seeds, throw in pot of boiling water for few minutes, flash freeze them on a cookie sheet and then I would stack them inside each other in qty of four (or however many you take out at a time) and throw them in a freezer bag.
Hi Elena. I think it would work fine. I have frozen them before but already stuffed or sliced for stir-fry. ~Amy
Organic peppers are soooo expensive at the grocery store. It never accured to me to preserve them. The next time they go on sale, I think I’m going to stock up and try roasting and then freezing.
I absolutely love roasted capsicums (that’s what we call them here) and have roasted my own (home grown) in the past. Can you tell me how long you can freeze them for? Thanks. :)
Hi Jaya. I try to rotate items out of my freezer by three months but frozen vegetable are fine up to 10 months. ~Amy
Hi I like the idea of freezing soups and cooked foods. Is there anything you do special after putting the soup in the jar and putting it in the freezer? Just want to make sure it doesn’t get freezer burn
Hi there. You want to make sure you use wide mouth jars and leave room at the top for the food to expand. :)
End of the season and we took even the little peppers off the plants. What a bountiful harvest!! Roasted frozen peppers is a great idea! Thanks! So far have frozen stuffed peppers, whole peppers to be stuffed(red and green for Christmas), pepper pieces. Even made some pepper sauce (like tomato sauce), frozen in small freezer containers. Red pepper jelly is fantastic with cream cheese, with or without ham or turkey slices on a soft burrito, rolled up and sliced into little rolly-polly sandwiches.
Our local organic grocer had huge boxes for $6 of peppers and I had no idea what to do with them, my biggest fear of doing this is soggy peppers when I defrost. Is soggy peppers a problem or are they okay frozen raw or roasted?
Hi Cathy. The texture does change when you freeze peppers but they are still great for cooking and roasting… not so great raw. :)