Roasting Red Peppers

It's finally pepper season around here. They are big beautiful and cheap and I love them.

In order to enjoy them all year round I roast them first.
Like tomatoes they need to be peeled before you freeze them.
Roasting them accomplishes two things it makes them easy to peel and gives them that deep, delicious flavor.

Start by preheating your oven to 450 F and covering your cookie sheet with foil.
Wash the peppers and place on the cookie sheet whole.

Set the times for 15 minutes, check them and turn them.

They will start to blacken, that is what you want.
Check them again in 15 more minutes. You want them blackened on all sides, so depending on the size of your peppers, they may need another 15 minutes.

Once they are done, place them in a brown paper bag or cover bowl to cool.
As the steam from the peppers condenses, the skin becomes easier to peel off.

Then the fun begins.

Peel off the skin...

Pull out the stem...
( you can see I do these tasks while watching football;-)

Remove any excess seeds.

I place whole, peeled and seeded peppers on a wax paper covered cookie sheet to freeze them.

Notice the handsome cat in the background.

When they have frozen, I remove them from the cookie sheet and store them in the freezer in a plastic freezer bag.

I love pulling them out in the off season to add to spreads, stir fry's, beans, pizzas, enchiladas, lasagnas, soups or even marinated salads.

This method works for any type of pepper, green or red, hot or mild.