To freeze peppers all you need to do is - freeze them. Bell, hot or sweet peppers don't need to be boiled or steamed or blanched in any way before freezing them, so if you're a self proclaimed lazypants, peppers are your preserving pals.
You're gonna have to go easy on me today because even though I'm talking about roasting peppers and sticking them in the freezer, it's not what I'm *thinking* about.
You see my peppers are roasted and frozen which means I'm thinking about the next stuff I need to preserve and hoard until winter; potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, carrots, beets, cabbage, squash ... Pretty much every vegetable I grow in my garden gets saved or preserved in some way.
It's what causes me to develop my famous autumn eye twitch.
It's a code-red level of emergency preparedness normally only seen in squirrels.
O.K., just in case you aren't a fan of freezing for whatever reason, if you have a bunch of red peppers NOW IS THE TIME to revisit THIS POST FROM A FEW WEEKS AGO!
Instead of freezing red bell peppers, you can dehydrate them and then grind them INTO PAPRIKA!
But let's get back to you. You want to save some red peppers aka capsicum do you? There are a few ways you can save them but my favourite is roasting then freezing them so let's start with that.
Table of Contents
Roasting Red Peppers
This is my favourite way to preserve peppers mainly because I really like fire. Plus of course roasting peppers until the skins are charred gives them a delicious toasty, smoky taste that's perfect with the sweet flesh.
- Grab your red peppers. Wash and rinse them.
- Lay the peppers on a dish towel and dry them completely before charring them.
3 Ways to Roast Peppers
- BROIL the peppers in an oven.
- GAS STOVE FLAME charring on the stovetop.
- BBQ on a high flame.
- BROILING: Place the peppers on a tray (they're going to release a bit of juice) and stick them in the oven so the top of the peppers are about 4" from the broiler. Broil, turning the peppers as needed so all sides are evenly charred.
- GAS STOVE: Set the gas burner to low/medium and put your washed pepper directly on the grate. You can roast as many as 4 peppers on a single grate.
These peppers are not ready. They're at the beginning of their roasting.
- Roast peppers (whether in the oven, BBQ or on the stove) until the entire pepper skin is blackened. Once an entire side is charred, turn it to char that next side.
- When all the sides are charred remove them from the heat and put all the peppers into a bowl with a plate on top or another heat safe container to steam.
DO YOU HAVE CAST IRON STOVE GRATES? This is how I keep my cast iron grates black.
That STEAM is what will make removing the pepper skins easy. Dirty, but easy.
RESIST THE URGE TO SPEED THINGS UP BY RINSING THE PEPPERS🌶 UNDER WATER.
You'll lose all the flavour you worked to get by charring the peppers.
You're gonna want to. Halfway into the first pepper you're going to want to pick it up and take it over to the tap and shove it under running water. Do. Not.
HANDY TIP - Keep a bench scraper nearby and scrape your countertop clean after every pepper.
- Once the peppers are cool enough to handle wipe the skin way with your fingers or a paper towel. It will be messy. M.E.S.S.Y. But resist the urge to clean the skins off with water. You'll wash away all the flavour you just created by roasting.
- Once the peppers are skinned, cut them into slices, remove any seeds and membrane and put them in a bowl for now.
Tray Freezing
Tray freezing is where you take whatever it is you are freezing, in this case peppers, and place them on a lined tray, making sure they aren't touching and freezing them.
This way once they're frozen and ready to package you have individual servings or pieces that won't stick together or clump in the freezer. They're easy to pull out one at a time.
Tray freezing is a GREAT method for individual balls of cookie dough, slices of bacon, and pretty much anything else you can freeze.
- Dry the skinned peppers with a paper towel and put them on a waxed paper lined baking sheet or plate. Freeze.
- Once the peppers are frozen solid, tap off any ice that accumulated and put them all in a baggie or glass storage container and put them right back into the freezer to store.
Whenever you want a roasted pepper you can just grab one from the baggie in the freezer, each will be separate and easy to remove.
TIP The best way to cook vegetables that are frozen is to cook them from frozen. Do not let them thaw before cooking. This gets rid of the water in the vegetables quickly in the pan or over and helps them maintain a better texture when you cook them.
How to Freeze Peppers
O.K., let's say you aren't a fan of charred peppers or you don't have time to char them. NO problem. You can freeze peppers without doing that.
** Hot peppers can be frozen whole. Just wash & dry them before putting them in a baggie in the freezer.
- Wash and dry peppers.
- Cut the stem off, slice the pepper in half and remove the seeds and membrane.
- Cut pepper into slices, diced, or leave whole halves and tray freeze.
- Once frozen solid, put them pepper pieces into a baggie or glass freezer container.
I'm glad I just wrote that because as I mentioned I roasted all of my peppers, but I have a favourite soup recipe that calls for 1 diced red pepper. I make it in the winter ALL the time so I'm going to take the 4 most recent peppers I picked and dice and bag them.
When winter arrives and I'm making soup I can just grab the bag of 1 diced pepper from the freezer and add it to the soup.
The soup is Fire Broth soup by the way and it's filled with vegetables, a few hot peppers and Italian sausage. It's a delicious filling soup for winter.
BOOK RECOMMENDATION: If you don't like canning (because yes it is a bit of a pain and for some people terrifying) the book Freeze Fresh by Crystal Schmidt is excellent. It shows you how to freeze just about any vegetable that you can grow plus it includes recipe ideas.
I'll be using the frozen roasted red peppers in my quick chicken and pepper salad with goat cheese, on pizza and in omelettes through the winter.
I'm so excited about everything I'm freezing this year - because I'm an admitted freezer dork - that I'm completely redoing my already organized freezer this week.
I should finish that just in time for my end of fall nervous breakdown.
Hi Karen first off let me tell you I have frozen grape tomato’s two years ago worked well as plants exploded that year with them all at once.
Two weeks ago we bought frozen…. Well that was a mistake! We both took a bite and we both had same reaction 😵💫!
So looked on internet and I think I figured it why, they used lemon juice to keep them from going brown…
Do you have any recommendations for Egg Plant freezing?
As we have had some success in growing them , just can’t eat them fast enough to not freeze some.
Egg Plant sos
I got a large white board on the side of my freezer, and listed everything in the freezer by category & amount. When something is used, it gets erased or something new is added. I have kept it up a couple years now and it is great. I have been known to stare at it when trying to decide dinner.
That's a good idea. I put stickers on my freezer bins with the contents and then remove the sticker from the box when I take it out. But a white board would probably be easier. With my crappy freezer I could probably use a dry erase marker right on the outside of the freezer. ~ karen!
DANG! I just picked all my peppers, green or red, roasted them, filled with cream cheese, wrapped in bacon, and gave away trays full - IAN (down here in FL) is coming for me and my garden! (and probably my freezer and laptop). So now I know what to do next year. Got your salad recipe for Chicken, Goat Cheese, Red Roasted Peppers with Balsamic Vinegrette to save for 2023! or I might just sail by you tonight while you are sleeping safely in a dry bed!
Mary! I hope you're doing O.K. I've been watching it on the news all night. ~ karen!
Thank you for always caring. We are west of the storm due to its unpredicted turn into land earlier than expected. I know there have been numerous deaths and bridge collapsing. So glad we are just windy with little rain. I have trees blowing like crazy outside the window while I catch up on favorite blogs and YT. A palm frond shot one through the screen porch and glad it wasn't me, instead. There are so many fronds all over the place - did you know there is a palm disease or insect that is killing palms all over Florida? They are fine one day and very quickly, dead. The hotels can afford to give them shots to kill the bug/disease but I've heard it is hundred of dollars and must be repeated every year, so I will miss mine when they go. One positive from storm is I will surely gather tons of Usnea fallen from trees to make into cough/congestion syrup.
Freezing is easier I admit. As long as you date packages an if you keep record of what is in freezer updated you truly have groceries at hand all winter long that saves you $$$
Doing a list is easy, keeping it up can be more difficult.
That's true about keeping your freezer list updated is harder than doing it. ~ karen!
Perfect post Karen! I just picked a bunch of green peppers and jalapenos. My second planting of beans are coming also. Love gardening but thankful its winding down. Work work work...
Question for you....I have alot of green tomatoes that I need to do something with. Every time I try and "bag" them (as I've been told helps to ripen them) they go bad.
Any ideas. Its just such a waste....
Its midnight and now you've got me hungry for soup! Lol
That fire broth looks delish. With some no knead dutch oven bread.....oh man, that's a plan....(no dieting here my friend) 😁
Oh and who knew turkeys love to dig holes and lay in dirt! There's two groups of around 18 turkeys that have taken over my pumpkin patch and come daily to dust themselves and lay in the pumpkins! Love living in the country!
I had no idea that turkeys were apt to take over pumpkin patches. I've had the same thing with a den of bunnies. For the green tomatoes, they'll only have a good chance of ripening if they're no longer shiny. They get to a point where the green skin goes dull and it's only then that they'll store to the point they might go red. Even if you store only the right green ones, some of them will go rotten so you have to check on them every week or so and remove them. Hope that helps. ~ karen!
I often use plant trays (the kind you start your seeds in) to store tomatoes for ripening. Just line them with a newspaper and cover with tomatoes in a single layer. You can stack them criss-crossed in a place where you can check them each day and pick out the ripened or dead ones to use or dispose of.
my hubby says theyre dusting themselves in the dirt but those holes are deep! Must be cute with the rabbits:)
Wow I had no idea but yup, those tomatoes sure are shiny!
Thank you,as usual very helpful😁
Till your next fabulous post. Stay well....🤗🌽🍆🦃
Great idea Norma!
Thank you so much.😊
I highly recommend turning your green tomatoes into chutney. So delicious with a creamy cheese like goat cheese or brie on crackers or crostini. There are a bunch of recipes online all over. I prefer chutney over relish, which is another thing you can do with green tomatoes. If your green tomatoes are large ones, shred them up and use them as a zucchini substitute in your favourite zucchini bread recipe. Just make sure to squeeze out some of the water as they are juicier than zucchini.
Yes!! Chutney....and I love goat cheese!
Never would have thought to use in place of zucchini.
You, Linda are smart!!
Thank thank you!😃
I almost marvel at your seemingly boundless energy. I do hope you force yourself to find time to do nothing at all. You've earned it. Procrastination is totally a good thing. You always have something to do tomorrow plus you have nothing to do today.