How to reliably keep home bell peppers for the winter

This delicious and beautiful vegetable is a rare guest on our table during the off-season. Not all housewives know that you can save bell peppers for the winter in a few simple ways. Almost all of its useful properties during storage remain unchanged. And there is something to save. Bell pepper is a champion among vegetables in the content of vitamin C (ascorbic acid). It contains antioxidants, silicon, iodine, iron and many more other biologically active compounds.

How to take pepper for storage?

There are two stages of ripeness of this vegetable.

1. Technical maturity - the fruits have reached the value laid down by the characteristics of the variety, but do not have a characteristic color, when you click on the fruit, a crunch is heard.
2. Biological maturity - the fruits are painted in a color characteristic of this variety.

For freezing, drying, pickling, it is necessary that the fruits are in the stage of biological ripeness, and for storage fresh, you can use pepper, which is in the stage of technical ripeness. Only fruits of impeccable quality are selected for storage, without defects, traces of rot, cracks and dents.

Tip

Collecting this vegetable, you need to carefully cut it together with the stem, because the branches of the plant are very fragile, you can easily damage them. It is better to do this with a secateurs, a knife.

The fruits are neatly stacked in boxes, with a small layer, taken to a cool room, sorted for processing. Bell peppers with slight defects can be used for freezing.

Fresh storage

This method can provide the hostess with raw materials for cooking various dishes, fresh salads for at least 1-2 months. Pepper tends to ripen under certain conditions, passing from the stage of technical maturity to the stage of biological maturity. The optimum temperature for this is from +2 to + 5 ° C. Fruits of impeccable quality are placed in shallow boxes in one layer, sent for storage in a suitable room. It can be a loggia, porch, pantry, basement or cellar.

Tip

To keep this vegetable fresh longer, you need to store it in a dark place, regularly pick up spoiled fruits.

If you have the conditions, you can use an interesting way to store fresh pepper for the winter. To do this, you need to pick a bush along with the fruits on it, shake the ground from the roots and hang it in an insulated barn or cellar. Unripe peppers will receive all the nutrients due to them, and will be stored for a long time.

To keep bell peppers fresh in the biological ripeness stage, storage conditions should be somewhat different.

• The optimum temperature is from 0 to + 2⁰C. The place for such storage can be a refrigerator section, a vegetable box on the balcony, a cellar.
• High humidity. It can be provided by placing the fruits in plastic bags. They need to make holes for air flow.

Observing these conditions, you can count on a shelf life of 1-2 months.

How to save fruits for cooking stuffed peppers?

You can provide yourself with pepper for stuffing for the winter by freezing it. If properly prepared, it will be stored in the freezer until a new crop. To do this, peppers are carefully cleaned, trying not to damage. You need to wash it, cut the stem, remove the seeds.

Tip

After cleaning the seeds, it is advisable not to wash the blanks anymore, and if this could not be avoided, then wipe the fruits with a napkin from the outside.

The fruits are put into each other so that a “turret” is obtained, each portion is placed in a separate bag, and sent to the freezer. In winter, it is enough to defrost as much pepper as is needed for stuffing. Their taste will not differ from fresh.

Freeze blanks for salads and main dishes

The freezer will help to keep bell pepper for the winter for other purposes. Vegetable stew, borsch, soups, salads from fresh vegetables - all these dishes will only benefit from the presence of pepper in the composition of their ingredients. Therefore, it is desirable, in addition to whole fruits, to freeze it in the form of straws or halves.

For these purposes, fruits with little damage are suitable. It is desirable that they be in the stage of biological ripeness. Rainbow colors will decorate any dish. The fruits are washed, peeled from seeds, cut at the request of the hostess with straws, squares, halves. They are laid out in plastic containers, frozen.

Tip

Before freezing for the winter, it is advisable to dry the sliced ​​pieces or freeze them first in a free bag in one layer, and then pour them into a container.

Pickle and preserve

Preservation of bell pepper for the winter can be achieved by pickling in jars. There are many ways to prepare: adjika, lecho, marinades, salads. Here are some recipes.

• Baked peppers. Peppers bake on a baking sheet or roasting pan, peel them, put in jars, pour in marinade: three liters of water - 3 tbsp. l salt, the same amount of vinegar (9%), sweet peas, a few cloves of garlic, bay leaf.
• Pickled peppers. Fleshy fruits are blanched for 1 minute in boiling water, placed in liter jars, where there are 1 tsp. sugar, a third of tsp citric acid, celery leaves, sweet peas. Everything is poured with boiling brine (1 tbsp. L salt per liter of water) until it is transfused over the edge, rolled up without sterilization.

Tip

For reliability, you can cover the hot cans turned upside down to cool. To do this, use old blankets, a dense fabric.

Pepper Drying Rules

For preparations for the winter, bell peppers can be dried. This traditional storage method has been around for over a hundred years. The fruits are washed, peeled, cut into pieces of the desired shape, laid out on a grid covered with cotton thin cloth, and taken out to dry under a canopy. You can dry them in an open oven, special dryers.

Tip

Such blanks should be stored in dry glass jars, canvas bags.

In winter, it is enough to get a handful of dried pepper, put it in soup, stew 10 minutes before cooking, and the dish will acquire an unforgettable aroma and beautiful appearance. In southern Russia, dried vegetables are ground into powder and used in the preparation of sauces and meat dishes.

So, the harvest of bell pepper can be stored for a sufficiently long time if various methods are used: freezing, drying, pickling, fresh storage. Subject to technology, all beneficial properties are preserved in the fruits.