An overabundance of produce is a shame to waste. If you found a great deal on bell peppers or your plants were very successful, consider freezing the excess for use all year round.
EditSteps
EditPreparing Bell Peppers
- Choose bell peppers that are ripe and crisp. Use overripe peppers immediately in your cooking.
- Rinse the surface of the bell peppers in cool running water.
- Cut them in half with a sharp knife. Remove the seeds and the membrane inside the pepper.
- Cut them in vertical strips or dice them, depending upon how you like to use bell peppers in recipes. You can also do a portion of each and freeze them separately.[1]
EditFreezing Bell Peppers
- Find a cookie sheet that will fit in your freezer. Rearrange the contents of your freezer to ensure the cookie sheet has a flat space on which to rest for an hour.
- Cover the cookie sheet with parchment paper or wax paper to prevent the vegetables from sticking to the tray.
- Spread out your strips or your diced bell peppers. Ensure that they aren’t in clumps. Each piece of pepper will need air to circulate around the entire piece.[2]
- Flash freeze the peppers by placing them inside the freezer. Your freezer should be 0 degrees or below.
- Leave them in the freezer for 30 minutes to one hour. Check that they are individually frozen when you remove them.
EditStoring Frozen Bell Peppers
- Lift the bell peppers from the parchment paper with a spoon or flat spatula.
- Pour the peppers into small freezer bags, approximately one-half to one cup (90 to 175 g) at a time.
- Squeeze all the air out of the freezer bag. Seal it tightly. If you have a vacuum-sealing machine, it will keep your bell peppers even fresher.
- Label the bag with the contents and date.
- Store the vegetables in your freezer for up to eight months.
EditTips
- While most foods need to be blanched before freezing, bell pepper hold up and are more versatile when they are flash frozen without blanching. If you want to blanch them for use in cooked recipes, like chili or lasagna, you can submerge the strips for two minutes, then place them in an ice bath for two minutes before flash freezing them.[3]
EditThings You'll Need
- Bell peppers
- Water
- Cutting board
- Knife
- Cookie sheet
- Wax paper/parchment paper
- Freezer
- Freezer bags
- Spatula
- Vacuum-sealing machine (optional)
- Marker
EditSources and Citations
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