Freezing Peppers

Bell peppers are easy to freeze in many forms.

When you're choosing green peppers to freeze, be sure to select crisp, thick fleshed peppers with a glossy shine.

Green peppers, sometimes called bell peppers, can be frozen easily and used later in meat loaves, soup, casseroles and other dishes.

Selecting peppers…

When you're choosing green peppers to freeze, be sure to select crisp, thick fleshed peppers with a glossy shine.

Pepper Preparation

Wash the peppers and split them to remove the seeds and stem. At this point you can chop them or leave them in halves. It is not necessary to blanch green peppers. Put the peppers in a double thickness of a vapor-proof material.

Freezing chopped peppers…

If you have chopped the peppers and you want them to come out of the packages easily, try freezing them in a tray. Spread the chopped peppers out on a cookie sheet. Lay a piece of wax paper loosely over the peppers and put the cookie sheet in the freezer. After the chopped peppers are frozen, take the tray from the freezer, put the peppers into a moisture-vapor-proof container.

Freezing green pepper halves

These can be used later as cooked stuffed peppers. These should be blanched for stuffing before you freeze them. Blanch them for two minutes in boiling water. Chill these pepper halves and package them in freezer containers.

Freeze Stuffed peppers…

If you want to stuff your green pepper halves before you freeze them, you can do that, too. Use your favorite recipe, put the stuffed peppers in freezer containers, seal and freeze.

For more information on freezing peppers; contact your local county Extension office.