This is one of those kitchen tips that many of you may already do, but I thought I would share it for those that have never tried it.
Did you know that you can freeze green peppers?
Yes, you can. And freezing green peppers is so easy.
During the summer, and even into the last few weeks, I have had a ton of green peppers coming from my garden. Way more than I can use.
This usually happens this time of year. Green peppers are expensive to buy in the store, so I do not want them to go to waste. Freezing them is the perfect solution.
Now, I know most of you don’t have green peppers coming from your garden, but I have also done this when I find a great sale on green peppers. It is a great way to stock up and save money on groceries. Buy on sale and freeze for using later.
All I do is slice or chop the green peppers, depending on how I want to use them. I lay them out on a cookie sheet and freeze until firm. I place them in a zip top type freezer bag and freeze until ready to use.
When I need to use them I simply scoop out what I need. It is simple and much cheaper than buying green peppers every time I need one.
Now, I will admit the texture is not quite the same once they are frozen, but they work great for soups, chili, and my crock pot fajitas. I love having green peppers waiting in the freezer when I need them.
Have you ever frozen green peppers? If you do, I would love to hear if you do it the same way I do or do you have a different tip for freezing them to share?
lol. We just freeze them whole. When we’re ready to thaw them, we rinse off any frost, and wrap it in a paper towel while it thaws.
I freeze my green peppers, but I don’t lay them on a cookie sheet first. I just drop them in a bag and freeze them, which doesn’t always work out that well. I agree though that once they’ve been frozen they are not the same.
I freeze my peppers exactly the same way as well as my celery and onions. I’ve tried freezing stuffed peppers but eventually gave that up and now only freeze the filling in serving size portions. Because they contain so much fluid, as they freeze, the expanding fluid breaks the cell walls, resulting in a very limp pepper when it thaws. The flavor is fine but the texture just wasn’t what we wanted in a stuffed pepper.
I have done this for years – don’t even lay them out to freeze before bagging because they can be broken apart easily when frozen. I dice some, leave some in strips like you did, and leave a few in halves for stuffed peppers. They can always be cut smaller if needed and in fact are easier to dice or snip with scissors when frozen. I also do this with jalapenos, often find a bag of them for $1 or so and they last me all season this way. Learned this from my Mom.
We grow jalapenos almost every year in our garden, and I agree, they freeze well also. I do it all the time with jalapenos also.
just a thought on jalapenos i cut them take the seeds out and put them in my dehydrator and then when they are completely dry I put them in a blender and grind them and use them as sprinkles on my food. I have also dried green peppers and added them to the jalapeno sprinkles and works great and lasts forever. just be sure to take the blender outside and do it and wearing a mask over your mouth helps a bunch.
I have not had much luck freezing green peppers. They always turn out too watery.
Well, I do the same, only I like to put a silpat under them as they tend to stick to the pan 🙂
I freeze the peppers as Lynn does, and I have discovered that when using them on pizza, especially, if I just put them on the pizza frozen and bake they turn out tasting much better. I used to sauté them first with onion, mushrooms, etc and then put as a topping on my pizza but they are better tasting f left raw and baked with the pizza. Such a money saving tip!
I have done this…only I didn’t slice mine. I just cut them in half so that I have the option to use them for stuffed peppers or chop or slice them for other recipes. It’s great to pull out peppers from the freezer for recipes!!!
Thanks for sharing Lynn!
I was told that you needed to blanch the peppers before freezing then!
I was sure that we didn’t do that when I was growing up!
This sure makes it a lot easier!
I have never blanched them and it works fine. I have never had problems and it is much easier this way.