At the end of the summer, I love to freeze a bounty of sliced fresh bell peppers to use all winter! Freezing bell peppers is easy and a great way to use up your harvest, or stock up on extra when they're in season. Whether it's from the garden, or the farmer's market, having nutritious bell peppers sliced and ready to go in the freezer is so handy for lots of meals!
- Summer Harvest - There's nothing quite like garden veggies in the summer, and freezing is a great way to stretch those flavors to last all winter! Freezing bell peppers is great for adding to fajitas, pizza, omelettes, soups, pastas, and chilis. A very useful vegetable to have stocked in the freezer!
- Preserve your Garden! - Bell peppers are one of my favorite vegetables so I love to grow them in the garden. When I have more than I can use, I slice and freeze the extras. If I didn't grow as many as I hoped, I head the last few summer farmer's markets. Ask if you can buy a bunch of peppers at a discount. I've had great success with this, way cheaper that what it would cost for grocery store peppers in the winter! Check out all my 50 Farmer's Market Recipes!
- If you Love Freezing your Garden Harvests, check out these 21 Ways to Use Garden Tomatoes without Canning and try these 27 Homemade Foods to stock in your Freezer!
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Garden Fresh Ingredients
Homegrown vegetables are simply the best! Shop your garden, or the farmer's market for a large amount of bell peppers and never have to buy them in the winter when they are out of season and more expensive!
- Bell Peppers - You can use any color bell peppers and decide to mix the colors or keep them separate. You can also freeze spicy peppers in the same way, but keep them in their own bag!
- Before you freeze them all, use your bell peppers fresh! We love bell peppers in these Grilled Steak Kabobs, this Garden Fresh Salsa, and this Prosciutto Pasta with Olives and Artichokes!
How to Freeze Bell Peppers
Freezing bell peppers is easy and you can freeze any amount you have, no matter how big or small!
Step 1 - Wash the bell peppers under cold water and let them drain well in a colander.
Make 4 cuts around the stem, slicing off 4 segments of the flesh while leaving the seeds and ribs behind, still attached to the stem.
Step 2 - Slice or dice the peppers and add them to freezer bags. Mix the colors or keep them seperate.
Don't overfill. You want to be able to zip the bags and lay them flat so they don't freeze in a big clump. Squeeze out as much air as possible.
Tips for Freezing
- Sliced or Diced - Maybe you want to slice some and dice some, depending on what you will use them for. Sliced peppers are great on pizza or fajitas while diced can mix into taco meat, chili, or eggs. And if you have frozen sliced bell peppers, they are pretty easy to chop into diced if that's what you need!
- Lay your Freezer Bags Flat and Don't Overfill - Some recipes will say you need to first flash freeze your peppers on a large sheet pan before transferring them to freezer bags. This is fine, but if you don't overfill your bags and lay them flat, I find the flash freeze step unnecessary. By laying the bags flat in the freezer, they won't freeze in a large clump and easily break apart when you need to use them. Pick up the bag of frozen peppers and lightly drop it on the counter to break frozen peppers apart.
- Consider Adding Sliced Onion - This is totally optional, but while you're doing all that chopping, you could mix in a sliced onion to one of your bags. Consider what you are likely going to make with your frozen peppers. Pizza, fajitas, and pastas usually use both onions and peppers together!
- Don't Thaw Frozen Peppers - Probably the most important tip! You don't thaw peppers when you want to use them, you just cook them straight from frozen! If you thaw peppers overnight in the fridge or on the counter, they will be a wet mushy mess! Peppers are quick cooking and can be added frozen to skillet or right on a pizza!
Ways to Use Frozen Bell Peppers
Stock your freezer with sliced bell peppers and you'll never need to buy them all winter! It's so nice to have homegrown vegetables to use all winter, making cooking lots of meals so much easier! Don't thaw, cook bell peppers straight from frozen!
- Fajitas and Tacos - Add a big handful of frozen pepper slices and onions (fresh or frozen) to a skillet for chicken fajitas or our favorite Ground Beef Fajita Tacos! You can sprinkle a few over a pan of nachos too!
- Pizza - We love adding frozen bell pepper slices to our Homemade Pizza! It's a topping we like to always have on hand!
- Pasta - Add frozen peppers right to the skillet in this Sausage Orecchiette Pasta, this Creamy Tomato Pink Sauce Pasta, or add a handful to Creamy Farfalle with Prosciutto and Peas.
- Omelets - Saute frozen bell peppers with other veggies and make omelets or any egg dishes.
- Soup - Add frozen chopped green peppers to the crockpot for this White Chicken Chili, or add them to Chicken Tortilla Soup or Beef Vegetable Chili!
- More Ideas - Use frozen peppers for these Slow Cooker Italian Beef Sandwiches or this White Bean Sausage Cassoulet! Try this Sausage Peppers and Onions Marinara Pasta too!
Recipe FAQs
You don't! Frozen bell peppers should be cooked straight from frozen. Thawing them in the fridge, on the counter, or in the microwave will turn them to mush! Just toss the frozen sliced peppers right into a skillet, they cook up just as quickly as when they are fresh!
Freezer bags of sliced bell peppers can be frozen for 6 months or more. Ideally, you want to freeze enough for the whole winter until the next summer harvest!
No, you should not freeze whole bell peppers, because there is no way to use them. If you freeze them whole, you would need to thaw them to chop and use them. This will turn them to mush! You want to cook them straight from the freezer, so slice or chop them for however you plan to use them.
More Ways to Preserve your Garden!
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How to Freeze Bell Peppers
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Print Pin RateEquipment
- freezer bags
Ingredients
- bell peppers any amount
Instructions
- Wash bell peppers under cold water and drain well in a colander.
- Make 4 cuts around the stem, slicing off 4 segments of the flesh while leaving the seeds and ribs behind, still attached to the stem.
- Slice the peppers and add to freezer bags. Don't overfill, allow to lay flat when zipped to they don't freeze in a large clump. Squeeze out as much air as possible.
- Freeze for 6 months or more.
Notes
- Don't Thaw to Use - Don't thaw peppers when you want to use them, cook them straight from frozen! Thawing bell peppers will be a wet mushy mess! Peppers are quick cooking and can be added frozen to skillet or right on a pizza!
- Slice or Dice - Chop bell peppers in the size you plan to use them. If you freeze them sliced, you can always chop them smaller when they are frozen.
- Any Color - Use any color or type of bell peppers, mixed or kept separate. Spicy peppers can be frozen in the same way.
- Don't Overfill - Filling the bags too full can leave you with a clump of frozen peppers that is hard to use. Instead, fill them less full and lay them flat in the bag when freezing.
- Ways to Use Frozen Bell Peppers - Used for fajitas, tacos, pizza, pasta, soup, chili, crockpot recipes, eggs or omelets.
- Nutrition info is for 1 bell pepper.
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