While most of our garden didn’t do as well as we had hoped this year, we did harvest quite a few jalapeño and cayenne peppers. I would have liked to have had more green peppers but was thankful for the few we did harvest.
In the past, I have frozen green peppers by cutting them in half and removing the seeds and stems. Then, I either have left them as halves or sliced them into smaller pieces before freezing them.
With most of the jalapeño peppers we picked this year I simply cut them into slices, without removing the seeds, before freezing them.
When freezing peppers it is a good idea to freeze them on a cookie sheet for a few hours before transferring them to a container or freezer bag. This ensures that the peppers won’t stick together and will be easy to use in recipes later.
This weekend I decided to try a different method of preserving jalapeño peppers. I washed them and then tossed them with a little olive oil before placing them on a baking sheet.
Then, I baked them in a 300 degree oven for about an hour, stirring them every 20 minutes or so.
When they were finished I froze them on a different baking sheet and then transferred them to a freezer bag. I am not exactly sure how I will use these roasted peppers, but more than likely I will use them chopped up in some chili.
I did eat a few of them after removing the stem and seeds and they were rather tasty and not overly hot.
With they cayenne peppers I harvested this year I decided to dehydrate them. For this process I simply rinsed and dried the peppers with a towel before placing them on a paper towel lined baking sheet in my basement.
It really didn’t take the peppers long to dry out completely. While this method worked for cayenne peppers, I am not sure that this would work for all types of peppers, but I imagine a dehydrator would work well, though.
What I plan to do with the dried peppers is to either make a wreath or swag. I think they will be a nice decorative and useful addition to my kitchen. I will definitely post pictures when I make something with them.
When you have an abundance of peppers what is your favorite method of preserving them?
