Bell Peppers

Our Bell Pepper plants are thriving this year! Bell Peppers are a warm season vegetable and part of the Nightshade family, along with tomatoes, eggplants, and potatoes. They are tasty, inexpensive and an excellent, healthy dietary choice. Bell peppers start out green, then will ripen to yellow, then orange, then red, and in some cases turn purple. Red, orange, yellow, and purple bell peppers generally taste sweeter than green bell peppers. The lobes on peppers are determined by growing conditions and genetics, they don’t indicate the sweetness factor of the pepper in any way.

As Bell peppers mature, their nutrient content increases, making green peppers a little less vitamin packed than the others. Still, Green Bell Peppers contain large amounts of minerals and vitamins, especially vitamin C, which helps heal cuts and wounds and are a good source of Vitamin A, which promotes eye health. Green peppers provide 80 mg of vitamin C per 3oz serving, yellow, orange and red peppers provide 184 mg per 3oz serving.

After harvesting peppers, use them within 3 to 5 days. Store peppers in the vegetable crisper of the refrigerator or use other covered containers.

Bell Peppers can be used in a variety of ways, they add color crunch and flavor to any meal. Here are some ideas:

Add peppers to sandwiches or wraps
Slice them up and add to a salad
Dice and add to salsa
Add to a stir-fry
Dice peppers and add to a quesadilla or taco
Add peppers to a pasta sauce
Add peppers to a stew, soup or chili
Make fajitas by cooking peppers and onion together
Grill peppers on a kebab
Slice raw peppers and eat them with a dip or hummus
Baked Stuffed peppers

Stuffed peppers are perfect for a meal, and freeze well if you want to make a batch ahead of time. My family loves to eat stuffed peppers! The classic stuffed pepper is made using ground beef but my husband is a vegetarian, so I tend to make vegetarian versions of stuffed peppers for my family.

I cut the tops off of the peppers, wash and clean out the insides of the peppers and then stuff them with a mixture of a grain (flavored rice, risotto, couscous, quinoa…) cut up vegetables, beans or chopped nuts for protein. I sprinkle them with a little shredded cheese and bake them at 425 degrees for about 13 minutes. They’re an easy and delicious meal.