Summer Squash soup with toasted pita bread..
Just be sure to save room for dessert…
A Day in the Life of a Chocolate Pepper.. June 25, 2007
As the daughter of a florist and gardener, one of the first things you learn about food is this: the cheapest, healthiest, and tastiest way to obtain food is to grow it yourself. Absolutely nothing beats a tomato picked fresh from a vine, apple pies made with hand picked apples, and ripe corn on the cob straight from the stalk. Unfortunately, this isn’t always feasible. Gardening requires a few special skills, patience, and a little real estate. Since my apartment has no balcony, porch, or yard, I am resigned to keeping a few potted plants at my parents house. Right now I have some basil sprouts, eggplants, and something a little intriguing…chocolate peppers.
I discovered this plant at a local Earth Day festival I attended a few months ago. A stand full of free garden starters was situated right in the middle of the festivities. At the time, the only information the girl at the stand could tell me was that chocolate peppers are named for their color — a rich, deep brown not unlike chocolate. I was immediately hooked. Anything with ‘chocolate’ in the title is guaranteed to have my full attention. It doesn’t hurt that the chocolate pepper is also one of the sweetest hybrid peppers available. Now, I realize that the fruits will not taste anything like the velvety, silky sinfulness that haunts my dreams. They might, however, with a few other ingredients, produce a darn good salsa.
Right now the pepper plant, as you can see, is a medium sized sprout.It still needs a little growing time before any peppers can be produced. (I will post pics once they are ready to be eaten.) These peppers will first make their appearance as green; with time they will darken to the ripe brownish color.
What happens next? This is very simple: grilling, stuffing, mashing for sauce — any little thing my heart desires.
A fantastic thing about peppers is they freeze well, especially if kept whole. If you are unable to use them all at once, store them in an airtight freezer bag and keep them for the winter. If eating them right away, though, wash very well and try not to keep them in the refridgerator for more than a week. TIp for the budget conscious: freezing home grown foods helps cut the grocery bill. It may not have the same summer-fresh quality, but it’s still very tasty. Plus, the more you freeze now, the more you will have for later. More for later, of course, means less groceries to buy! This can definitely also apply to canning your own foods. My advice? Get a hold of the biggest freezer you can find!
What makes peppers such a good thing? The following is a list of nutrition facts on sweet peppers obtained from Watch Your Garden Grow. Serving size is one small raw sweet pepper….Calories 19.98
Protein 0.66 grams
Carbohydrates 4.76 grams
Dietary fiber 1.48 grams
Calcium 6.66 mg
Potassium 130.98 mg
Vitamin C
Green 66.08 mg
Red 140.60 mg
Folate 16.28 mcg
Vitamin A
Green 468 IU
Red 4218 IU
Low in fat…high in Vitamins A and C and antioxidants. I will be enjoying many benefits from my new discovery!
