Oven Roasted Peppers

I bought two pounds of red, orange and yellow peppers for a dollar! Yes, one buck! I was so excited, I felt like I'd robbed the store. Do you know how expensive these colorful little guys are when you buy them individually? Well... there I was feeling like I got the deal of the century, and after two weeks of putting them in salads, making salsas, and adding them to sauces and stir frys, I still had a pound and a half left. Hmmm, not such a great deal if you don't use them. I wasn't sure I'd be able to force them on my family in another dish and was pretty certain that I'd end up throwing them away once they got all mushy in my vegetable crisper.  Yeah, news flash, at some point the crisper doesn't crisp any longer...sigh. Then it came to me...'why don't I roast and freeze them?'. They're so much better roasted anyway, right?
 
I thought roasting peppers was some complicated process, it had to be, because buying them at the grocery store is super expensive. Who knew it's one of the easiest things to do.  As I soon found out there's more than one way to skin a pepper. I read through various cookbooks and websites; some roast the peppers whole covered with olive oil others roast them on a grill or right on the stovetop burners and then cut up and seed the peppers afterward. All basically the same way, just in different order. I used the 'how to' from Allrecipes.com to roast my peppers.  I found it to be the most straight forward and I preferred doing all the preparation of the peppers before roasting them. So here we go...

Oven Roasted Peppers
1. Set oven to Broil on High.
2. Wash peppers.
3. Cut around the top of peppers with a knife. Kind of like a pumpkin, this allows you to pull out the stem along with the seeds together. Rinse. (see below...beautiful, they look like a flower.)

 

 4. Slice each pepper in half.

 5. Remove ribs and cut off the end portion of each pepper.

 6. Set aside end pieces to be used for salads, soups, sandwiches, etc.

 7. Use palm of hand or fingers to flatten peppers.

8. Arrange peppers, skin-side up on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Some 'how to's' call for coating the peppers with a little bit of olive oil, but there's no need to add oil or anything, they'll roast up beautifully just as is with no added fat.

 

 9. Broil on high for about 10-15 minutes, checking and rotating pan to ensure even roasting. Skins will start to turn black and you can add more time until you get the desired results. This took me about 15 minutes to get this amount of char. Remove from oven and cool completely. About 15 minutes.

 10. Once cooled, the charred skins will be easy to peel. Most of them come off as one large sheet.

 11. There now you have your beautifully roasted bell peppers. Ready to use or to freeze for later use.

 12. I opted to freeze mine to use later. Label your freezer bag and date it, ensure you have most air out of the bag and pop it into the freezer. Done.

And it's just that simple...Keep a look out for my next blog where I used these roasted peppers in my Crostini with Roasted Peppers, Goat cheese and Honey Appetizer. It's super delicious.