How to Store Peppers–Fresh or Frozen

During our Summer CSA, our farm members receive all kinds of peppers: green and yellow and red bell peppers, lunchbox peppers, mild child peppers, and hot peppers. How to store all this pepper goodness?

If you’re planning to use your peppers within a week or so, place them in a sealed plastic bag and keep in your crisper drawer in your fridge.

If you want to save them for later use, peppers are very easy to freeze (and such a welcome sight when making chili in January!).

lunchbox peppers (sweet)

lunchbox peppers (sweet)

jalapeno peppers (medium to hot)

Freezing Bell Peppers

I most often freeze my bell peppers whole. I slice off the top and set it aside, remove the inner core/seeds from the pepper, then place the entire cored pepper into a freezer bag. Depending on the size of the pepper, I can fit anywhere from 6 to 9 into a gallon freezer bag. 

green bell peppers (sweet)

Back to those pepper tops! I chop them in about 1″ pieces, flash freeze them in a single layer on a cookie sheet, then place them in a quart freezer bag, which makes them all ready to go for that winter chili. If you don’t mind a little more work, you can slice or chop the entire pepper so it’s all ready to go for future use.