The Surprising Health Benefits Of Freeze Dried Peppers

If you’ve wondered about freeze-drying peppers, you’ll be excited to learn there is a surprisingly large number of benefits to storing peppers like this.

Freeze-drying foods can lead to some wonderful results, and peppers are no exception. If you’ve found yourself at the end of a season with more peppers than you know what to do with, let me give you the reasons why freeze-drying them may be a great solution for you.

Freeze-drying peppers has several surprising health benefits, as it helps retain their rich number of nutrients, it's a great way to keep them crisp and easy to eat, and it allows you to buy the peppers in bulk when they are in season and keep eating them all year long.

Peppers are bountiful at the end of summer, but can still be expensive, and no one wants to waste money on a vegetable that isn’t going to last for more than a week or so before they begin to lose their crispness. Finding a way to preserve them is going to not only benefit your budget, but you’ll be excited to learn how great the health benefits of peppers are when you eat them year-round. Learning the surprising ways in which these summer beauties can continue to provide you with health benefits after they have been freeze-dried will make it worth it.

There are few things that I love more than a crisp red, green, or orange pepper to put on my salad, in a sandwich, or even just eat raw. My freeze dryer is a perfect way to keep peppers on hand all year long and keep the health benefits they provide at an easy reach, no matter what the season.

‍What Are the Surprising Health Benefits of Freeze Dried Peppers?

The pepper…whether you’re a fan or not, these round or oval-shaped vegetables have made quite a splash in recent decades for their unique taste, multiple colors, and a vast variety of uses. On top of that, they are not only flavorful but also full of nutrients that we all need to survive.

The pepper is the fruit produced from the Capsicum plants. These plants began first in South America, then the Caribbean, and were eventually found in the southern part of North America.

Nowadays, however, pepper plants can be grown all over the world, from seed packets, or from young seedlings. They will still do best in warmer climates, and most pepper varieties are easiest to harvest in mid to late summer.

Depending on your climate and planting zone, you may be able to keep them producing well into fall as well.

Though all peppers provide a person with an abundance of nutrients, the bell pepper is the one I am focusing on, as it is widely available and it’s the pepper most of us are extremely familiar with.

The bell pepper is also the easiest one to eat in several ways, from raw to fried to cooked to grilled. Bell peppers make a great complement to salads, pasta dishes and paired with different main courses. And, as I said earlier, a fresh slice of a bell pepper is delicious as a snack, with or without something to dip it in!

Let’s take a closer look at the health benefits of freeze-drying peppers and help you decide if freeze-drying peppers is something you want to add to your kitchen.

1. Freeze Drying Peppers Helps Retain Their Rich Nutrients

We all know that there are certain vitamins and nutrients we should be getting more of into our diet, but sometimes it’s a struggle to find the right foods that are not only dense in the good stuff, but also taste good.

Well, believe me when I tell you that you’ve hit the gold mine of taste and nutrition if you can become a pepper person!

Bell peppers contain a rich diversity of vitamins packed into their heart-shaped packages. Not only do they have a ton of vitamin C, but they are also rich in potassium, magnesium, and iron.

Vitamin C is necessary for our bodies in order to have strong immune systems, stave off illnesses, and produce collagen.

Most people get their Vitamin C from fruits like oranges and grapefruits, but bell peppers actually can provide a person with more Vitamin C than even these citrus fruits.

Potassium is vital for nerve and muscle function and can be found in a wide variety of foods. But the amount that is in a few slices of a bell pepper will get you close to your daily requirements without having to worry about finding it in other foods.

Iron is also a vital mineral that we all need. Adding in bell peppers to your regular diet will go a long way in making sure your iron levels are sufficient for optimal health.

So, we know that bell peppers are important to providing many of the nutrients we need on a regular basis. And – freeze-drying these vegetables will go a long way in preserving these vitamins and minerals so that they continue to meet our dietary needs long after they come off the plant.

Freeze-drying peppers will maintain their richness – both in flavor and in nutrients – much better than boiling the peppers or even cooking them can.

In fact, the only way to eat a pepper and maintain its full nutritional value is to eat it raw. The second best way is to freeze-dry it, as the process will lock in the needed nutrients to be enjoyed later.

2. Freeze Drying is a Great Way to Keep Them Crisp and Ready to Eat

As I mentioned earlier, the process of freeze-drying peppers will help them maintain their nutritional value almost to the same level as if you were to eat them raw.

But, the other great part about freeze-drying is that it also preserves the pepper’s original flavor, an important perk to the freeze-drying process.

The surprising benefit of this is that when a food is able to maintain close to its original flavor, it’s much more likely that people will enjoy eating it.

And, if everyone enjoys eating your freeze-dried peppers, there is a higher likelihood that will benefit from the health perks the peppers provide.

One of the challenges to keeping up a healthy lifestyle is sometimes finding that the foods we know are good for us will lose some of their flavor later in the year, when they aren’t in season any longer.

By freeze-drying your peppers, you won’t have this issue, and you can rest assured you will be serving up peppers that are still chock full of health benefits and taste like true pepper at the same time.

3. Freeze Drying Allows You to Buy Peppers in Bulk and Eat Them All Year Long

Finally, another huge and surprising health benefit of freeze-drying peppers is that the process of freeze-drying means that you can buy your peppers in bulk when they are plentiful and then freeze-dry them – allowing you to have rich, yummy peppers all year long.

One of the biggest benefits of freeze-drying food is the convenience it provides. When a food is no longer in season, freeze-drying means you can still enjoy the taste of something months after it’s no longer on the supermarket shelves.

The other benefit to this is that when you have a stockpile of a food that you know is good for you and your family, it is more likely that people will reach for that item when they are hungry, versus reaching for something that isn’t as healthy, just because the “good stuff” is no longer available.

Having a plentiful supply of freeze-dried peppers means you will never have to sacrifice the health benefits of a crisp pepper for something less desirable or less nutritional. Freeze-drying your pepper will always provide this surprising health benefit, because it will make it much harder to pass up something healthy for something that’s not, even when it’s way past pepper season.