How to freeze bell peppers for the winter: methods

Thanks to the improvement of refrigerators and the emergence of large freezers, housewives are increasingly giving preference to freezing vegetables.
Peppers are probably the most convenient vegetable to freeze. After all, pepper tolerates freezing well and even after defrosting does not lose its color, taste and rich aroma.

Freezing peppers is such a simple procedure that even a novice housewife can handle it.

Which peppers are suitable for freezing?

First, I want to talk about how you need to choose the right tasty bell pepper. This is very important, because if the fruit is of low quality, then the taste characteristics will not be at the highest level. Therefore, when choosing peppers, I advise you to pay attention to the following criteria:

Visually, there should be no damage to the fruit: no dents, no barrels, no scratches. If you find a defect on a vegetable, it is better not to take it - most likely, the seller violated the technology for transporting and storing the product;
I always look at the color of the fruit and if I see white and brown spots on it, I put it aside;
Of course, I have my own peppers growing in my garden, and by the way, this year’s harvest is excellent. But suddenly you decide to buy bell peppers in supermarkets, be sure to pay attention to the absence of moisture and evaporation inside the package. Their presence may indicate an extremely short period of further storage;
From personal experience I know that it is better not to use green bell peppers for freezing, because... After being in the freezer it starts to taste a little bitter. Therefore, I try to use them only fresh. For freezing, it is better to take red and yellow fruits.

How to prepare peppers for freezing

Strong, dense and fleshy peppers, both green, red or yellow, are suitable for freezing.

The fruits must be whole, smooth, undeformed, without damage or spoiled areas.

Before freezing, the peppers are washed well in running water and then dried by placing them on a towel. You can additionally wipe each fruit with a paper towel.

Then the stalks of the peppers are trimmed and the cap is carefully cut off. The caps can be used as lids for stuffed peppers. But if peppers are harvested without caps, then the caps are still not thrown away, since they will be useful later in any case.

The seeds are carefully removed from the peppers, being careful not to damage the walls. Therefore, it is better to do this manually without using a knife.

How can you freeze bell peppers?

It used to be that stuffed bell peppers were only suitable for the holiday table. Today, I delight my entire family and guests with them, not only on holidays, but also on ordinary days and, most importantly, at any time of the year. I have my own secrets for freezing vegetables, thanks to which they remain juicy and very tasty, especially when combined with the subsequent addition of filling.

Peppers intended for stuffing should be small and elongated.

To freeze them you need:

Peel the vegetables from seeds and cut out the stalk, rinse thoroughly;
Leave them on a dry surface for a while to evaporate moisture.

In order not to wait and not to stop the cooking process, I wipe them with paper napkins or a towel;

Place vegetables on a previously prepared hard surface. You can use a baking sheet, board or tray;
Cover the arranged vegetables tightly with a cotton towel. This is necessary so that the fruits retain their shape;
Load the surface with vegetables into the freezer and leave for several days;
After 2 days, remove and place the fruits in bags. This will help save space in the freezer. Packages must be tightly closed.

I also use another option for preparing whole peppers. True, it requires more time, but after thawing the fruits, they taste close to fresh fruits.

Wash the vegetables thoroughly and remove seeds;
Heat a saucepan filled with water to boiling stage;
Place washed and peeled fruits in it for literally 30-40 seconds, no more. Such rapid heat treatment allows you to preserve the vitamins in the vegetable and its shape when frozen;
Let the fruits cool and then stack them on each other according to the “matryoshka” principle;
Place the resulting “columns” into bags and close them tightly;
We put it in the freezer.

I would like to share some advice:

After 2-3 hours, you need to take out the vegetable “matryoshka” and shake it a little so that whole vegetables do not “grow together” with each other and can be easily separated in the future.

Such preparations are stored for about six months at an average temperature of -20 C.

But I assure you that, given the ease of preparing dishes using delicious and healthy homemade preparations, your peppers will not last long if your family and friends know about their presence - this has been tested over the years from our own experience.

Peppers pickled for stuffing for the winter - a simple recipe

It is convenient to stuff canned peppers. You just take it out of the jar and fill the vegetable with the filling. I will give a simple recipe for pickled bell peppers, prepared for stuffing for the winter. Canning will significantly reduce the time you spend cooking.

We invite you to familiarize yourself with Apple and carrot juice for the winter

For a 3 liter jar you will need:

14 bell peppers;
a couple of tablespoons of salt;
a tablespoon of sugar;
3 tablespoons of nine percent vinegar.

How to close peppers for stuffing without sterilization:

Sterilize the jar and lid. Wash the peppers and cut out any excess.
Fill the container with vegetables. You can put fruits inside each other - there will be more space.
Pour boiling water over the twist and leave for half an hour, covering with a lid.
Drain the seaming water into a saucepan. Pour vinegar into a jar.
Add sugar and salt to the marinade and boil. Boil for a couple more minutes.
Fill the jar with pickled peppers with boiling pouring. Then you need to immediately roll up the product, turn it over and wrap it in a blanket for a couple of days.

Note: these canned foods are quite suitable for storage at room temperature.

Freezing semi-finished “bells”

The dream of every housewife is to prepare quick and healthy food. Such dishes include this option for freezing sweet peppers - I called them “tasty bells.” To do this you need:

Just wash the peppers, cut off their butts, and remove the seeds.
Prepare the filling. Most often I use meat with rice and roots. You can use any other one to your liking. Next, simply stuff the delicious bells and place them in freezer bags to freeze.

As you can see, the method of freezing stuffed peppers is very simple, and most importantly, it is ideal for people who watch their figure. And also to women who cannot afford to spend a lot of time on twisting and mothers, for whom every minute is worth its weight in gold.

How to make an everyday dish original?

A special place in my family’s menu is occupied by various vegetable stews, where sweet bell peppers become the main character of the dish. Especially for these dishes, my culinary collection has collected several options for freezing fruits in small pieces. And, of course, this option makes it possible to implement creative ideas, because the shape can be absolutely any: these are squares, rectangles, straws, and many other options.

Using your imagination, you can make original lunches and dinners for children using stars and circles of juicy peppers - such products bring children indescribable delight, and the resulting extraordinary form helps parents use bell peppers in their children’s diet. Children often have no idea about the names of the most beautiful figures, which allows them to get rid of the eternal childish reasoning “I won’t. It's not tasty. He's bitter."

Large peppers are suitable for freezing in small pieces due to the presence of a thick wall, which will affect the vitamin composition of the vegetable after it is thawed.

First, wash, peel and dry the selected large fruits;
Think over the shape and start cutting them. I usually cut vegetables into small squares if I plan to use them in soup. And if the preparation is suitable for everyone’s favorite stew, then I cut it either into strips or into rings;
Further steps are exactly the same as for freezing whole vegetables: put the resulting pieces on a tray, cover with a cloth and put in the freezer for two days;
After 2 days, take it out and put it in bags.

You can see step-by-step instructions for preparing homemade frozen bell peppers in the video:

Personal advice to everyone who prepares frozen peppers, regardless of their type: it is better to place the vegetables in small portions in bags. This is extremely convenient when you prepare the same dishes and already know how many vegetables you need to add to it.

How to freeze peppers for the winter

First you need to prepare the pepper. The process is as follows:

First you need to wash it thoroughly and cut off the stem.
It is not recommended to remove the stem; it is best to cut it off by 1 cm for ease of placing the pepper for freezing.
After thoroughly cleaning the bell pepper from the seeds, it should be allowed to dry so that the moisture does not worsen the taste when frozen.

The most suitable container for freezing peppers is a tray that can be removed from the freezer. If there is no such item, it is advisable to use a regular tray. A piece of clean cotton cloth is placed on the tray, such that it can cover the peppers. Then the pepper halves are laid out on a cloth. Of course, you can cut it not into halves, but into slices, slices, cubes, which is much more convenient for preparing stews, purees, soups, etc.

You can also freeze the peppers in the form of stuffing. Everyone decides for themselves in what form to leave the vegetable. After you have spread the pepper tightly and compactly, cover it with a cloth. Next, put it in the freezer until completely frozen. The process of preparing vegetables for the winter does not end here. When the food is completely frozen and hard, you need to take it out and package it.

Storing peppers on a tray in the freezer is inconvenient and impractical because you won't have the opportunity to put anything else in the freezer. That is why it is best to put frozen vegetables into bags and tie them tightly. The main thing is that there are no holes in the bags, otherwise the vegetable will dry out and be tasteless. It is not recommended to put all the peppers in one bag; it is better to put them in several bags and carefully place them in the freezer. It is better not to remove the peppers until winter so that they do not lose their taste and beneficial vitamins.

How to cook with frozen peppers?

After reading these simple recipes for homemade preparations, you probably wondered: “How can I use these same preparations when frozen?”

Everything is very easy, you don’t need to defrost it in advance (if you did everything correctly according to the freezing recipe). Just follow my tips, developed over many years of making homemade frozen preparations:

If you are preparing soup, then just put the required amount of stock into a pan with boiling broth 20 minutes before it is completely ready. As I said earlier, small pieces are most often used in the soup, so they will cook in hot water quite quickly;
If you are preparing a vegetable stew, it is better to add a frozen portion of pepper at the very beginning of cooking along with the rest of the vegetables;
If you want to amaze everyone with your culinary skills and plan to cook stuffed peppers with meat filling, then it is better to defrost them first. This is necessary so that the walls of the fruit become soft and pliable, otherwise it will not be possible to completely fill the vegetable with meat, cavities will remain and during cooking the vegetable will not absorb meat juice and will lose its shape.

Unfortunately, it is not always possible to eat fresh vegetables in our country, but, nevertheless, you can make healthy preparations with your own hands at home. The list of vegetables from which they can be made is huge and, if desired, any housewife can make her life easier thanks to homemade “semi-finished products” that contain a large amount of useful substances and vitamins.

I talked about a number of vegetables that can be used to improve the functioning of the human body in the topic “Basic products for improving the functioning of the heart and blood vessels.” They can also be frozen and later used in your diet.

And today I will be glad if you share your recipes for homemade bell peppers for the winter and tips for their implementation.