How to dry Peppers
The ideal ingredient in many recipes
Drying peppers is a very simple way to turn fresh peppers into an ingredient. Which can then be used in recipes ranging from
- Hot mexican recipes,
- to east European recipes (like goulash),
- to Thai stir-fry meals, etc.
This is a especially useful when growing fresh chili peppers from seed at home. Because in addition to harvesting a lot of peppers.
Your peppers will have a much nice flavour
If you go to the supermarket you usually have quite a choice of peppers to buy – although very often the type you will really need are not available in a fresh form. (Or very expensive)
However, if you grow your peppers at home then the one thing you will really notice is just how much more intense the flavour will be.
And in addition a key advantage is also that you will be able to grow peppers for your favourite recipes. Chili pepper varieties often not available in supermarkets. (Whether fresh or in the spice racks)
How to dry peppers
You will need the following:
Ingredients
- 450 gram Chili Peppers (or more)
- 1 Litre cold water
Equipment
- Chef’s knife
- Aluminum foil
- Baking tray
- Either Oven, Food Dehydrator or Air Fryer
Instructions
Step 1 – Get the peppers ready
- All you do is pick your peppers, wash & dry them.
- Then cut of the stem and either halve or quarter them (depending on how big they are).
You can either remove the seeds or leave them. The seeds do add extra heat but can taste bitter. If you want to use them dried (as in ingredient) I would recommend removing the seeds first, as it’s easier.
Step 2 – put them in the oven
- The next step is to put them on Aluminium foil on a baking tray, with outer skin down and flesh up.
- And put them in the oven at what is usually the lowest setting (about 80 degrees).
If you are using them as an ingredient they can take about 3 hours. But do keep checking them as they can burn. On the other hand if you want to crush them to a powder they can take longer. Up to 6 or even 8 hours.
Step 3 – grind them to powder
Oven dried chili peppers are ideal for grinding to a powder – so you can keep using them. If you grow peppers then especially hot ones like habanero or cayenne peppers are ideally suited for grinding.
- Simply let the peppers cool down and then use a food processor or coffee grinder and store them in a glass jar.
For your safety do consider wearing as mask as inhaled chili pepper dust is not very nice.
Video
I haven’t come round to making my own video yet showing how to dry peppers – and will be adding it soon.
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How to dry peppers
Equipment
- Chef Knife
- Aluminum foil
- Baking tray
- Either Oven, Food Dehydrator or Air Fryer
Ingredients
- 450 gram Chili Peppers (or more)
- 1 litre Water Tap water is ok
Instructions
- Heat oven to 80C
- Rinse the chili peppers under cold water and dry
- Cut of the stem
- Cut the chili peppers in half or quarter
- Optionally remove the seeds – seeds can sometimes be bitter but if dried can easily be removed afterwards
- Cover the baking tray with aluminium foil
- Place chili peppers on foil, skin down and 'flesh' up. Leaving space between them
- Put in oven and check
Video
Notes
- An air fryer ignore the baking tray instructions and put in basket at the lowest setting for 20 to 30 minutes
- Or a food dehydrator follow the manufactures instructions – but if can take a couple of days for the peppers to be done
Nutrition
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Very easy way to grow herbs
The small kitchen top unit (on the right) works just like a capsule coffee machine, but for plants
Just put in a plant pod and it’s completely automated watering, light and nutrients.
Full details on the Click & Grow site
How to dry peppers
Currently I have started growing fresh peppers at home, using an hydroponic system. However this might be a little while before they are ready to harvest.
The beauty of growing your own peppers is that they will be fresh, with a much more intense flavour. It’s not difficult to grow them from seed but a key element is to provide them with enough light – ideally using a specialised grow light which ‘imitates’ their natural environment. For more details have a look at the growing pepper plan.
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Adds a real flavour when making your own Mexican chilli recipe