Help Me Use a Gallon of Roasted Red Peppers
August 29, 2020 1:47 PM   Subscribe

My grocery store inexplicably had stacks of 1-gal cans of Cento Roasted Red Peppers - supply chain hiccup? Who knows. But they were only $5! So I got one. Now what....?

I love RRPs but know that once opened they spoil quickly. So I'm thinking about attacking it with 3 strategies - eat fresh, freeze plain, freeze in a recipe. I could use:
-advice on freezing them - should I puree them first?
-recipes that use a lot of RRPs and can be frozen
-great ideas for using them right out of the can.
Thanks for your ideas!
posted by Miko to Food & Drink (19 answers total) 8 users marked this as a favorite
 
I bet you could use some of them to to make this Serbian pepper relish/spread
posted by zdravo at 1:58 PM on August 29, 2020 [1 favorite]


Muhummura is a simple dip made with roasted red peppers and walnuts. It’s incredibly delicious!
posted by sixswitch at 1:59 PM on August 29, 2020 [6 favorites]


Right out of the can, in large quantity, they will improve virtually any hoagie.
posted by armeowda at 2:00 PM on August 29, 2020 [1 favorite]


Romesco sauce!
posted by gryphonlover at 2:03 PM on August 29, 2020 [11 favorites]


Roasted red pepper hummus is delicious!
posted by zorseshoes at 2:03 PM on August 29, 2020 [6 favorites]


muhammara is what I came to suggest too.
posted by fingersandtoes at 2:19 PM on August 29, 2020


Ooh! I have a recipe for roasted red pepper and smoked salmon soup in my profile. Everyone loves it, even my notoriously picky daughter!
posted by MexicanYenta at 2:46 PM on August 29, 2020 [3 favorites]


I love roasted red peppers on top of portobello mushroom "burgers". Add pesto and you're set. Perfect in the summer.
posted by belau at 3:34 PM on August 29, 2020


I've frozen them whole and it works great. Thaw them out and they're as good as new. No need to puree them, unless you want to!
posted by hannahelastic at 4:12 PM on August 29, 2020 [1 favorite]


I have been making this recipe a lot lately. It’s amazingly good. It’s a nice creamy pasta salad with roasted red peppers, smoked Gouda, and artichoke hearts. The adobo sauce gives it a nice smoky heat. When I make the recipe I usually use lots of fresh oregano, basil, and thyme. I up the adobo sauce significantly and chop a few of the peppers into it as well to give it some more heat.
posted by Slinga at 5:26 PM on August 29, 2020 [1 favorite]


A favorite sandwich:

Roast turkey/tofurkey
Smoked cheddar
Roasted red pepper
Maple Mayo (4 parts Mayo to 1 part Maple syrup + a small amt of brown sugar, mixed well.)
Slices of bread (I've had this with both whole wheat and rye, both are good)

Slather Maple Mayo on both slices of bread. Don't skimp, this stuff is good.
Pile t[of]turkey, cheese, peppers on one slice.
Put both slices in toasty oven and lightly toast.
When cheese is melty, assemble with empty slice on top and slice diagonally.
Enjoy.
posted by Gray Duck at 5:49 PM on August 29, 2020 [2 favorites]


Seconding Romesco sauce.
posted by briank at 5:50 PM on August 29, 2020


I am eating shepherd's pie, right now. I make it with corn as the middle layer, in the manner of my people (1 can corn + 1 can creamed corn), and I lack motivation, so instant mashed, and the ground beef, today, has gochgaru pepper and Korean barbecue sauce, soy, ginger and garlic. It's very, very good. Y'all could use RRP as the middle layer. I often use taco-style seasoning for the beef.
posted by theora55 at 7:20 PM on August 29, 2020


Wow, that's a great score. I no longer know where to buy cans of peppers that size, but when I could get them they were $15 and I thought that was a good deal.

Puréed roasted red peppers, optionally with the addition of heavy cream, make a good alternative to tomato sauce for pizza. For complementary toppings I'd use caramelized onions, walnuts, and feta or goat cheese.
posted by aws17576 at 10:33 PM on August 29, 2020 [3 favorites]


We used to get roasted red pepper pesto at a farmers market. It's different from romesco sauce. I made my own version - I don't have a recipe, but it's basically the same as making regular pesto, except you use roasted peppers instead of basil. Excellent on ravioli!
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 1:04 AM on August 30, 2020


Those would be perfect for adding to any chili recipe.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:39 AM on August 30, 2020


Emeril's roasted red pepper aioli is delicious if you're into garlic.
posted by JanetLand at 5:59 AM on August 30, 2020


So we freeze a lot of prepped ingredients, and in fact I just came across a couple bags of (homemade) roasted peppers cleaning out my freezer yesterday. Our peppers weren't roasted whole, but cut into strips. They were a couple years old and mostly fine. One bag was freezer burned because we weren't as careful making sure it didn't have any extra air in it.

The main thing I'd wish I'd done differently is freezing them spread out on a wax paper lined tray\bakers rack before bagging them so they're frozen individually and it would be easier to get smaller portions. We had originally frozen them in 1/2 C portion in smaller baggies thinking that would be a useful size, and that was fine, but we had more "Oh I just want a little for my burger" kind of moments than I was expecting. If you do go the pre-measured smaller baggies route, you can still freeze them on a tray and then they're nice and flat and easier to store. With the bigger bags you do have to watch out a little more for freezer burn, if it's going in and out of the freezer a lot, so be careful with that.

On a similar note if you do puree them I've found that freezing purees in an ice cube tray and then transferring to a ziplock bag is incredibly useful. I haven't done this with roasted bell peppers, but I have with chipotles pureed with the adobo and that was great. Perfect for adding to beans\chilis\BBQ sauces. Since I have a few different trays for different shaped\sized ice cubes I also label the bag with the cube size so that if I need a certain amount for recipes I know how many to add. You could also just measure the portions going in if the full sized ice cube seems like too much.
posted by Gygesringtone at 6:25 AM on August 30, 2020


I have bought bulk roasted red peppers at Costco before, and I ended up freezing some of them whole. What I found was that the texture suffered, but the flavor certainly did not. The freezing seems to have caused the cell walls to explode, so the thawed peppers were flat instead of plump and the juice had come out of them.
posted by Stewriffic at 10:32 AM on August 30, 2020 [1 favorite]


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