Add Some Color to Your Freezer

We’ve been getting a goodly number of peppers in shares recently, and there’s more on the share table if you are inclined to do some pepper preservation. Of course you can dry some hot peppers, like chiles, but I found out recently that it’s even easier to preserve sweet peppers and other kinds of hot peppers so you have them on hand for stews and chili as the weather gets colder. As it turns out, it’s a fairly easy process—you don’t have to can or even blanche peppers to keep them for use all winter long.

Wash the peppers, seed them, and cut them into strips. Then arrange the strips on wax paper-covered cookie sheets (as shown in the photo, I kept the strips segregated by color and hotness). Put them in the freezer uncovered, and when the strips are frozen, bag them in freezer bags and put them right back in the freezer. If you want, you can take out just what you need, or thaw a whole bag to add a little fire to a pot of chili.

Another vegetable that’s easy to freeze for future use is the beet. Beets are already about the most versatile vegetable around, great for anything from pickling to adding to chocolate cake or salad or . . . well, the list goes on and on (here's a great recipe for beet fritters and another one for beet or carrot soup). If you want to keep them on hand after the growing season, just roast them, then peel, dice or slice, and put them in freezer bags.

I roasted a dozen or so medium-sized beets in a Pyrex pan, adding about a ¼ cup of water and covering with foil before putting them in a 350-degree oven for about 45 minutes. Then, when they cooled, the skins slipped right off, and I diced them for salads, to add a little color when everything is grey and cold.

Now my freezer is a riot of color, with green, yellow, and red peppers stacked along side deep purple beets. It’s enough to remind me that spring will come again every time I open the freezer door!