How to freeze peppers for different dishes for the winter

Bell pepper is perhaps one of the most popular and brightest decorations of any dish. In season, it is easy to buy in any market or store. But in winter it is very expensive, often sold sluggishly. We are no longer talking about any benefit from him. How to keep this beautiful and vitamin vegetable? Experienced housewives prefer to freeze peppers for the winter. To do this, you need to correctly select and peel the fruits, and then use shock freezing.

Preparation of pepper for freezing

The quality of your dishes will depend on the initial choice. Good pepper has dense fleshy walls, a peel without dents, signs of lethargy, rot or disease. Even if you carefully cut off the damaged area, this does not guarantee that the pathogenic bacteria will not be in the rest of the pulp.

The following operations should be carried out with selected peppers:

1. Wash thoroughly under running water.
2. Carefully remove the core and all white parts of the fruit with a sharp knife of a suitable size: if left, they will give the pepper a bitter aftertaste.
3. Rinse the peppers again from the remaining seeds under running water.
4. Allow to dry.

Tip
purity.bigbadmole.com/en/ magazine notes that excess moisture will prevent proper freezing. To dry the peppers faster, blot them with paper towels: they easily absorb drops and at the same time do not leave their fibers on the vegetable.

Freezing Chopped Peppers

Pepper is used in various stews, soups and salads, so there is a reason to freeze it immediately chopped:

• straws are usually used for soups or pizza,
• cubes - for salads and stews.

Among other things, since the workpiece will occupy significantly less space in the freezer. So, to freeze this bright vegetable already chopped, you need:

1. Pre-peeled peppers cut into halves.
2. Check if there are any seeds left, if necessary, clean them.
3. Cut into straws or cubes, depending on which dish is useful for you vegetable.
4. Pack the resulting pieces in bags for freezing and put in the freezer.
5. After a couple of hours, shake the packets to prevent the pieces of pepper from sticking together.

Tip
If the space in your freezer allows, first lay out the cut on a flat surface so that the pieces do not touch each other, and forget for a couple of hours. Only after that pack on containers. This is the best way to get frozen placer.

Whole pepper freeze

Unlike most vegetables, bell pepper freezes well both chopped and whole. This is possible due to the fact that it is hollow, it has no core.

So that the workpiece does not take up much space in the freezer, the fruits must be properly prepared:

1. When peeling, do not squeeze the stem, but cut off the top, as if removing the cap. You should get a nice “cup” with a flat top wide edge.
2. Cut the core with a sharp, suitable knife and wash the fruit.
3. Rinse and dry with a paper towel, as we advised above.

Further, to save space in the freezer, you need to stack the peppers in each other. So that they do not freeze and subsequently easily separate, the resource purity.bigbadmole.com/en/ offers two ways to freeze.

The first way will require stealing space in your freezer for a while:

1. Gently lay the peppers on a flat plate or pan so that they do not touch each other, at least tightly.
2. Put everything in the freezer for a couple of hours.
3. When the peppers are hard, remove them from the freezer.
4. Without wasting time (so that the peppers do not begin to defrost), carefully fold the vegetables into each other, like glasses. Try not to make an effort: the denser you put the vegetables, the harder it will be to separate them.
5. Put the resulting pyramids in a bag and put them in storage in the freezer.

The second method is much more economical in terms of time, but you will need a few plastic bags and scissors:

1. Cut the plastic bags so that one cup of pepper comes in, leaving a small supply of cellophane. Rounded pieces with a diameter of about ten centimeters will do, but it all depends on the size of the peppers.
2. Wrap peppers from the outside with the resulting sections of cellophane and insert into each other.
3. Put the resulting pyramids into packages one at a time so that the barrels do not stick together during the freezing process.
4. To get the desired number of peppers - pull the edges of the cellophane layer.

Stuffed Pepper Freeze

There is a way to save even more time when cooking stuffed peppers: freeze the vegetable already with the filling. The main difficulty is that the fetus ceases to be hollow. Because of this, he needs more time to freeze, and there is a higher risk that the peppers will lose their shape and taste after defrosting.

So that the stuffed vegetable does not deteriorate after thawing, the filling should have a minimum of moisture. purity.bigbadmole.com/en/ recommends throwing slightly fried or blanched minced meat onto a sieve or squeezing it through cheesecloth, letting the juice drain and only then pour peppers.

Tip
Experienced housewives recommend blanching peppers in boiling water first, so that they become softer and do not exactly crack when the stuffing is tamped in them.

How to cook with frozen pepper

Chopped peppers do not need to be thawed if the pieces go to dishes that require heat treatment. For salads and cold snacks, thawed cuts are more suitable.

Stuffed peppers are also recommended to thaw before cooking. In the opposite case, it will take more time for the filling to cook / warm in the core, and the thin walls of the vegetable will become limp and lose their taste.

How to defrost

Like any other frozen workpiece, you need to move the peppers in the refrigerator for several hours. Defrost can be completed at room temperature. It is not worthwhile to speed up the process with microwave waves, warm water or the heat of the batteries - the product will become sour and more likely to deteriorate.

Bell pepper is definitely one of the most beloved vegetables on the home table, it is full of juice, vitamins, it has a refreshing pleasant taste. To enjoy the vegetable all year, just freeze the fruits in season. The main thing is to observe simple technology.