One vegetable that can be easily frozen uncooked without prior blanching is peppers. Peppers that have been partially thawed can still be eaten raw or added to prepared meals like casseroles. While they can provide a lot of flavour to your favourite foods, hot peppers are undoubtedly not for everyone. However, those who enjoy a little kick also enjoy the quiet.
Are you trying to figure out the best way to freeze hot peppers? By reading on, you learn how to freeze green, red, and jalapeño peppers without blanching. Try these strategies to keep your food fresh and prepared when most needed. You’ll appreciate them, even more when you don’t have to wait for them to thaw. Any spice enthusiast would enjoy this dish. The best feature is that you can use this recipe whenever you want.
The Ways to Freeze Hot Peppers
Have too many extra hot peppers? Freezing spicy peppers is a practical way to keep chillies fresh for months to come, whether you have extra from your season’s pick or have a “eyes bigger than your stomach” moment at the grocery store. If you freeze them properly, you can maintain the flavour and still experience the heat. To get the best results from your frozen jalapenos or other chilli peppers in the future, follow the instructions below.
Step 1: Wash Your Chile Peppers Very Thoroughly
Put your chillies in a colander and cover them with warm water. Make sure to pick up each chilli by itself and clean all of the curves.
Step 2: Pat Your Peppers Dry
Before freezing, you should make sure the chillies are completely dry because if not, they can wind up sticking together. Once all moisture has been removed, pat them dry and set them out on paper towels.
Step 3: Prepare The Chillies And Think About Your Potential Usage Cases.
Do you want to serve these whole chillies as a side dish? Rawly chopped for a salad? For a hot dish, diced? Think about how you regularly use them and act right away. If you intend to use chillies for stuffed pepper meals, you can freeze them whole. Some people might like this. However, it’s advisable to chop them immediately if you intend to use them in any way. Your chillies might not react as well after being frozen. The smaller portions will also thaw out much more quickly.
Remove the seeds by halving the chilli. Then roughly cut the chillies once more. If you’d prefer, you can stop there and postpone further dicing until you decide on the size you’ll want in the future.
Step 4: Place Chilli Peppers in an Airtight Plastic Freezer Bag
A strong, well-sealed bag is what you need. However, watch out for thinner generic substitutes. Ziploc freezer bags work nicely, and they may not have as strong of a sealing mechanism, and they can puncture, letting air back in. Fill the freezer bags with the peppers, press out as much air as possible, and then tightly close the freezer bag.
Step 5: Store the Chili-Filled Bag in the Freezer.
Frozen hot peppers can last up to nine months or nearly a season. However, for overall flavour, the sooner you can use them, the better.
Option Consideration for Step 3: Blanching Your Chile peppers
Simply slicing and freezing your chillies will be sufficient for most uses, especially if you want the crispiest chilli to emerge from the freezer. However, you should blanch your chillies before freezing them if you intend to cook with them and want to get the most health advantages. This is especially important if you intend to freeze them for six months or longer.
Like other fruits and vegetables, the breakdown of enzymes and bacteria causes chillies to lose colour, vitamins, and minerals over time. Since these enzymes and bacteria are largely eliminated during the quick heat treatment of blanching before being frozen, the chillies will continue to be almost as nutritious for you as the day you collected them. However, keep in mind that blanching takes away some of the fresh chilli’s crispness, which might not be desirable if you intend to use the fresh chillies in salsas or salads.
Tips for Freezing Peppers
The seeds and membrane of the peppers can be removed by scraping them out with a spoon, or you can choose to leave them in. Choose wisely because most peppers’ pale inside contains most of the heat.
Alternatively, you can spread your chopped or whole fresh peppers on a baking sheet and freeze them before bagging. Transfer the frozen items to freezer-safe bags, seal them, and return them to the freezer.
Safety Tip
When working with spicy chilli peppers, gloves are advised. The oil that makes chilli peppers spicy, capsaicin, can make your skin feel burning if it comes into contact with your skin. You can avoid the burn by wearing gloves and thoroughly washing your hands if you experience a burning feeling.
How Long Can You Freeze Hot Peppers for?
In the freezer, how long do chilli peppers last? They will remain safe after about 8 to 10 months if stored properly while maintaining their greatest quality. The freezer time indicated is solely for the highest quality; chilli peppers that have been frozen at 0° F continuously will keep safe eternally.
How to Blanch Chilli Peppers?
- Chilli peppers should be gradually added to a pot of boiling water. Boil them for no more than three minutes. If your chillies were coarsely chopped, simmer the pieces for two minutes.
- After removing the chillies from the water, quickly chill them in an ice-filled basin for three minutes.
- After removing the peppers from the ice water, carry on to step 2 above. Please place them in freezer bags after thoroughly drying them off and allowing them to settle until no moisture is left.
Remember to carefully examine your use case, especially if you won’t be using the chillies for another month or two. For such a brief use, blanching is not required.
Can You Freeze Jalapenos without Blanching?
Hot peppers can be frozen without being blanched. To preserve their heat, it is better to freeze them the same day you gather them. When peppers freeze, some of them, like jalapenos, lose their spice. This is typical, and you should always choose peppers with fine lines. The texture and flavour of frozen jalapenos will be closer to pickled peppers. However, frozen peppers retain the fresh jalapeño’ colour, flavour, and energy.
Use an ice cream scooper or spoon to remove the seeds from the peppers before freezing them. After that, slice them into various forms, such as rings, quarters, or dice. The chopped peppers can be put on a baking sheet and frozen for 12 hours. To prevent sticky hands from thawing, you can chop them before freezing. When handling hot peppers, keep in mind to put on gloves because they could get very steamy after thawing.
Peppers can be frozen in any quantity and arranged separately on a cutting board to prevent sticking. You may use them for stir-frying, baking, and casseroles once defrosted.
Can You Freeze Red Peppers without Blanching?
To freeze peppers, use one of the numerous techniques. You have the option of freezing them whole or in slices, and blanching them first is a smart move in either case. Enzymes are stopped, and germs are killed by blanching. While sophisticated equipment is not necessary to blanch peppers, it will expedite the process. Peppers should first be placed in a sizable bowl of ice water before blanched. It takes approximately as long to blanch them as to boil them.
Place the peppers on a baking sheet or flat surface after cleaning and drying them. Freeze for at least an hour. Before putting them in freezer bags, ensure all the air has been removed. Date and use-by dates should be written on the bags’ labels. After that, freeze them, and utilize them within eight to ten months. To conserve freezer space, you can label the peppers with the date and use-by dates.
Red peppers can be sliced and frozen without being blanched. To prevent the seeds from spilling out, be sure to chop them to the proper size. Depending on their shape, cut them into rings or strips. Before freezing them, you can also peel and cut them into the required shapes. Freezer burn will be avoided in this way. Cut them into rings or strips when they are thawed, then enjoy!
Can You Freeze Green Peppers without Blanching?
Green peppers can be frozen without first being blanched. It would help if you first cut them up into tiny pieces. You can shape them into thin rings or thin strips or dice them into 1/2-inch (1.27 cm) pieces, depending on your preference. It would help if you kept them in top shape no matter what. After cutting them, you have two options: cook them immediately away or freeze them for later use.
However, you might wish to blanch the peppers first to keep them frozen for longer. Vegetables are kept clean and tasty by blanching, which also keeps them tender. They are an excellent choice for flavour preservation because it also maintains their colour and value. Blanching also makes it simple and accurate to measure them. To preserve flavour, you might want to blanch the peppers before freezing them.
You can cut them into tiny slices before freezing. The slices should ideally not touch one another and have the same thickness. They should be put on a cookie sheet, followed by at least 30 minutes of freezing. Then you can use them to prepare dinner or another dish. Slice them as thinly as you’d like when you’re ready to serve them, and then freeze them for about 30 minutes.
Conclusion
If you have a huge crop of peppers and wish to store them for later use, freezing them is a wonderful idea. Although you can skin or peel your chilli peppers if you’d like to, you don’t have to cook them before freezing. Just bear in mind that the skins typically come off easily after you defrost them.
To preserve the greatest quality after freezing chilli peppers, it is advised that they be eaten within six months. They begin to degrade in quality and may have freezer burn after around six months.
