How to Trim and Slice a Bell Pepper

If you’re like me, you probably slice peppers in half lengthwise through the core, and proceed to trim out the seed core from each half (which inevitably send seeds flying around) and then slice up the flesh, trimming off the bitter pith attached to the ridges along the way.

Well, if you’re like me, you’ve been doing it wrong. Here’s how to trim and slice a bell pepper the easy way:

Take you pepper and stand it upright. You will notice that, viewed from above, the pepper looks like a rounded square with four discernible sides.
Slice off each side lengthwise. A slightly concave, rectangular piece of pepper will fall away each time you slice. There should be little or no pith attached, but if there is, trim that off. Slice each side into strips (as pictured above) or whatever shape you want.

You’ll be left with a core that looks a bit like the core of an apple:

You can just throw the core away—or, if you want to be really frugal, you can trim off the top and/or bottom and cut them into small pieces.

So that’s how to slice a bell pepper. I first time I tried this method, I couldn’t believe just how quick and easy it was. And best of all, it produces fairly flat pieces that can easily be cut up into strips, dice or whatever shape you need.

Note

You will occasionally come across a bell pepper that’s more of a triangle, with three sides. No matter, you can slice it just the same way.

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Susie

2 May 2017 at 05:22

I do it like this, too, but usually I push the stalk into the pepper to release it, then I cut the pepper like you do and I don’t have to cut around the stalk!

Nuts about food

3 September 2014 at 04:19

Of course you are right Frank, that is exactly how I slice peppers. I recently saw someone doing it the way you described and I still haven’t tried it… but now I wonder what I am waiting for! I love these kinds of tutorials: the kind that seems so obvious but helps so many of us!