Ok, maybe we ALL don't love the bell pepper but the majority of us do, including me. Served raw or cooked, they impart both flavor and color in all sorts of dishes from cuisines all around the world. At first sight, it's hard not to be attracted to their bold green, red, orange or yellow color, and, even if a recipe calls for a specific color, it's nice to know they can be used interchangeably -- although the green bell pepper is not quite as sweet as the others. Store-bought or home-grown, kept stored in the refrigerator, they have a reasonably long shelf life, about 10 days, which is why I almost always have a few of these beauties on-hand in my refrigerator's vegetable bin.
It's hard not to be attracted to their four bold & attractive colors, which can all be used interchangeably in any recipe.
Raw bell peppers are great sliced into strips and eaten with a salad dressing or dip for a snack. Diced raw bell peppers are a tasty addition to egg, chicken or tuna salad too. Native to Mexico and Central America, they are found in Mexican, Southwestern and Spanish fare that gets served for breakfast, lunch and/or dinner. Italian cuisine is known for grilling the peppers, and adding them as a topper to sandwich creations, stirring them into grilled meat, poultry or fish dishes, or, serving them cold in antipasto. The Italian rice dish risotto occasionally contains bell peppers, and, peppers stuffed with prosciutto and provolone cheese is a treat everyone loves. American stuffed bell pepper dishes often include ground beef and rice mixtures. Vegetarian versions may include rice or tofu. Some stuffed pepper recipes call for sausage meat and chopped vegetables such as tomato. In the Asian community, bell peppers are used in all sorts of beef, chicken, pork and seafood dishes, as well asstir-fries. Saying bell peppers are versatile is an understatement.
Try them in my One-Skillet Tex-Mex-Style Chicken Fajitas:
Or in my Italian-Style Sausage & Bell Pepper Sandwiches:
And how about Joy's All-American-Style Stuffed Bell Peppers:
"We are all in this food world together." ~ Melanie Preschutti
(Recipe, Commentary and Photos courtesy of Melanie's Kitchen/Copyright 2021
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