Silky smooth Oven Roasted Bell Peppers can be added to your omelets, stews, and salads and are a great addition to grilled fish, meats, and appetizer platters. This is a one ingredient recipe!
When roasted at high temperatures, bell peppers char, puff up, collapse, release their juices, and become incredibly sweet and silky.
How to Purchase Bell Peppers
Bell peppers are available at all grocery stores and farmers' markets. Choose organic peppers that are smooth and firm. The stems should be green, not brown. It is important to note that blemishes, bruises, and soft spots (n any fruits and vegetables) indicate decay and should be avoided.
Store bell peppers in your refrigerator vegetable drawer up to 5 days.
If the peppers have any blemishes, soft spots, or mold on them, they should go in the trash. Mold should never be cut away from any vegetable or fruit for the entire item is affected.
How to Roast Peppers
FIrst, preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper; place peppers on the pan, leaving room between them. Place the pan in the center of the oven. The peppers will start to turn black (char), and then puff up a little, and then collapse upon themselves. A lot is going on in that pan, and if it's too crowded, you'll end up with a big mess. Hence, you'll have to clean the oven, and I don't know about you, but that's not fun!
After removing the pan from the oven, place the peppers in a bowl, and cover with plastic wrap or a clean dish towel. After five or ten minutes, the skins will peel right off. Discard all the skin, stems, and scrape the seeds out. Slice your peppers into strips.
Keep in mind: if the skins are hard to peel, it is perfectly ok to eat them. They might not have been roasted or steamed long enough, but don't stress. It happens!
Are These the Same Peppers Sold in Jars?
Although roasted bell peppers are similar to the peppers that come in jars but when you make them yourself, you have several advantages:
- Quality control. Roasted peppers are packed in jars in some oil with salt and spices, and quite often, citric acid is always added as a preservative. When you make them at home, you pick the peppers and decide what kind of oil and salt you want to use, and you don't add preservatives.
- Roasted peppers cost a lot less than when you make them yourself. I've seen jars that cost as much as $25.00.
- Fresh vegetables beat "the best" stuff in a jar every time!
How to Store Roasted Peppers
Place the peppers into a jar with a tight-fitting lid and add extra-virgin olive oil to cover them. They will keep for 2 weeks in the refrigerator.
The peppers can also be frozen, with oil, for up to 2 months in a zip-top bag.
Serving Suggestions
Serve your roasted peppers with Sauteed Skirt Steak, James Beard's Zucchini Frittata, seared chicken breasts, or fresh fish such as Pan-Fried Yellowtail.
Oven Roasted Bell Peppers
Ingredients
- 6 bell peppers any color
Instructions
- Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 400 degrees.
- Place whole peppers on a parchment-lined baking sheet and roast in the oven for 40 to 50 minutes, turning every 15 minutes or so. The skins will be wrinkled and charred when finished.
- Place peppers and their juices in a bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap for 10 minutes or until cool enough to handle. Remove the plastic wrap and peel the skin off the peppers. Cut away the stems, membranes, and seeds. Spread peppers flat on a cutting board and slice into strips.
- If you are not ready to use them, place the peppers in a jar with a tight-fitting lid with a few tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil and refrigerate up to a week.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition Information
The nutrition information is provided as a courtesy and it comes from online calculators. Although we try to attempt to provide accurate information, these figures are estimates only.