One of our favorite snacks and colorful ingredients is bell peppers, also called sweet peppers.

Bell peppers are easy to find year-round, available in green, red, yellow and orange (and at some markets, lavender, purple and white), making it easy to add color to your plate (raw, they also add crunch).

But they don’t add many calories. A one-cup serving has 30 calories per cup. As a bonus, it includes more than 200% of your vitamin C needs and 2.1 grams of fiber.

Trivia: Peppers are fruits. Here’s why.

While the bell pepper is a member of the Capsicum species like the hot chili peppers, it is the only variety that doesn’t produce any capsaicin, which is the compound that provides the heat in chili peppers.
 
 
COLORFUL VARIETIES

Orange, purple (photo #7), red and yellow peppers are actually riper and sweeter versions of green peppers. They also pack more beta carotene and vitamin E.

The flavors differ too: green is the most vegetal, red is the sweetest, and the others are in-between.

You may come across some specialty varieties, especially at farmers markets:

 
There are also mini sweet peppers: snack-sized and easily portable.
 
 
WAYS TO USE BELL PEPPERS

Here are 25 ways to use bell peppers. If a recipe calls for only one color, be adventurous and try a second color as well—or every color.

Appetizers: From garnishes on crostini to appetizer (e.g. pepper chunk, small mozzarella balls and cubes of ham) to dips.

Chicken, Egg, Pasta & Tuna Salads: A small dice adds color and crunch.

Chili: Peppers are a complement to beans in vegetarian chili, and they work with beef chili, too.

Chinese & Indian Food: Bell peppers are a staple in these two popular international cuisines (photo #1).

Condiments: Try sweet-and-hot red pepper jelly and relish. Try try this recipe with cheese and crackers, or on a hot dog, burger or sandwich.

Cornbread & Muffins: Bell peppers substitute for jalapeños in this cornbread recipe. How about baking some red bell pepper bread?

Crudités: Red, yellow and orange bells perk up a white, beige and green vegetable platter.

Dips & Spreads: Here’s a recipe for Grilled Red Pepper Dip and a Red Bell Pepper Tapenade. Make dip containers: even off the bottom of a raw pepper, and use it to hold dips or spreads.

Eggs: Fill an omelette or a strata, top a scramble, or enjoy a side of sautéed bell peppers with any egg preparation. You can bake eggs in halved bell peppers (photo #2—here’s the recipe).

Fajitas & Fajita Bowls: Top steak, or a steak and lettuce bowl, with grilled bell peppers and onions (and any other veggies of choice).

Gazpacho: Use instead of, or in addition to, tomatoes.

Grains & Grain Bowls: Add a raw bell dice or strips for color, fiber and flavor.

Green & Non-Green Salads: Check out this prize-winning Bell Pepper And Cherry Tomato Salad With Mozzarella Pearls.

Grilled Or Roasted Vegetable Medley: Here’s how to make foil-grilled peppers. How about grilled potatoes, peppers and onions?

Ground Beef: Try this Mexican-style Beef Pepper Skillet With Jack Cheese.

Pickled Peppers: Go Peter Piper and picked a peck (or less) of peppers. Add slices of pepper to a jar with this brine. They’ll be ready to eat in an hour, and keep up to two months.

Pizza & Pasta: Dice any color bell pepper and toss it onto a pizza before baking, into pasta sauce as it cooks (photo #3), or of course, as part of Pasta Primavera.

Polenta: For a main dish, try this polenta recipe with sliced sausages and bell peppers. We also like this recipe for Polenta With Ratatouille.

Purée: Use red bell pepper in dips, including hummus and yogurt dips.

Ratatouille: A hearty summer dish from the Provence region of France, this delicious veggie dish combines bell peppers, eggplant, tomatoes and zucchini, gently simmered with garlic and olive oil. Here’s a side dish recipe, and another recipe with breakfast eggs. How about Potato Salad With Ratatouille?

Salsa: Substitute bell peppers when tomatoes are out of season.

Sandwiches & Wraps: Raw or cooked, pair bell peppers with goat cheese, grilled cheese, Philly Cheesesteak and of course, a sausage and peppers hero. Check out these Bell Pepper & Cheese Triangles on croissant dough.

Sauces: You can find many recipes for creamy bell pepper sauce, made without dairy. Here’s one that uses a base of chicken broth and another with a base almonds. Use them on eggs, grilled foods, pasta, pizza and anything that needs a sauce.

Sautés: Combine bell peppers, mushrooms and onions for a simply delicious side or topping that goes with just about any savory dish.

Skewers: For vegetable skewers or with a protein, nothing’s more colorful than “traffic light” peppers (red, yellow and green).

Slaws: Add a small dice into the shredded cabbage, fennel or jicama.

Soups: Roasted or steam the peppers and purée. Add to a stock or dairy base and season to taste (remove any charred skin before blending). Check out this Stuffed Pepper Soup: all the ingredients of stuffed peppers in a bowl of soup. Or, combine bell peppers with cauliflower or potatoes for a mixed vegetable soup. This Creamy Roast Pepper Soup (photo #6) is a stunner.

Stews: This tasty Slow Cooked Stuffed Pepper Stew turns all the ingredients of stuffed peppers into a stew format (photo #5).

Stir Fries: Toss a sliced bell peppers in the wok whenever you stir-fry. Try this recipe from The Clever Carrot (photo #1).

Stuffed Peppers: Make your own mixture of beans, brown rice, vegetables, and seasoning, then stuff the peppers, top with grated cheese and bake. Ground beef and rice is the classic, but trendy combinations include quinoa and kale. Anything works, from sausage stuffed peppers with blue cheese or feta, of ghdxd Deconstructed Stuffed Peppers: meatballs with rice, with strips of bell pepper. Here’s the recipe for these “unstuffed peppers.”

Vegetable Sushi: In addition to adding bell pepper to a sushi roll with fish or other vegetables, you can make this vegan bell pepper sushi—which looks like tuna—in this recipe (photo #4).

 
BELL PEPPER HISTORY

All peppers, sweet and hot, have their origins in Mexico, Central America, and northern South America.

Hot peppers have been cultivated for more than 9,000 years, with the earliest cultivation in Central and South America. The earliest fossil traces so far are from southwestern Ecuador, where dating to about 6,100 years ago (the different types of hot peppers).

In plant taxonomy, bell peppers are Capsicum annuum, one of the five species of the Capsicum genus. The others are for hot chile peppers (here they are).

All capsicums are members of the Nightshade Family, Solanaceae, which also includes potatoes, tomatoes and eggplant.

Why Peppers, Not Chiles?

The actual name of all hot peppers should be chile, not pepper. The word used in the Nahuatl (Aztec) language is chīlli. The variants chilli and chile entered English through Spanish in the mid-1600s.

So why do we call these fruits “peppers?” When Columbus and his crew first tasted them, the spicy taste resembled that of the black pepper that had been imported to Europe from India since Roman times.

Someone compared the heat to peppercorns, and “peppers” they became.

Pepper seeds were brought back to Spain in 1493 and then spread through Europe and Asia.

The term “bell pepper” dates at least as far back as the late 1699 where the pirate and ship’s surgeon Lionel Wafer wrote about them in his book, A New Voyage and Description of the Isthmus of America. He commented that “the Bell is esteemed most proper for pickling.”

The modern, mild bell pepper cultivar, was developed in the 1920s, in Szeged, Hungary [source and source].

Check out all the varieties you can grow at home.

[1] Beef Stir Fry with orange bell peppers, snow peas and pea shoots. Here’s the recipe from The Clever Carrot.

[2] Stuffed Peppers with eggs, squash, ricotta and feta. Here’s the recipe from Foodie Crush.

[3] Spaghetti With Roasted Red Pepper Sauce. Bonus: It’s vegan. Here’s the recipe from Minimalist Baker.

[4] Vegan Sushi: What looks like tuna is bell pepper. Here’s the recipe from Olives For Dinner.

[5] Stuffed Pepper Stew: the ingredients of stuffed peppers in stew form. Here’s the recipe from Skinnytaste.

[6] Creamy Roast Bell Pepper Soup. Here’s the recipe from Plays Well With Butter.

[7] Some varieties of purple bells are called chocolate bells (photo © Burpee).

[8] The Enjoya bell is a mutation that appeared in The Netherlands (photo © Melissa’s).

CHECK OUT WHAT’S HAPPENING ON OUR HOME PAGE, THENIBBLE.COM.

[1] Instead of vinegar, you can mix different acids to make a vinaigrette. We often use lemon juice, but lime juice is even perkier (photo © Hannah Kaminsky | Bittersweet Blog).

[2] Fresh lime juice makes the perkiest vinaigrette. In Key lime season, you can use Key limes for less acidity (photo © Lisa Fotios | Pexels).

[3] Lime vinaigrette is perfect for Asian-inspired chicken salad, or for everyday romaine (photo © The Tuck Room | NYC).

When you have vinaigrette at a Mexican or Thai restaurant, it’s likely a lime vinaigrette.

A squeeze of lime to accent food is customary in the cuisines; for a salad, lime substitutes for vinegar in the 3:1 olive oil-to-acid blend.

Have a lime? Dress tonight’s salad with lime vinaigrette.

Some people add honey to the recipe, others use a pressed or minced garlic clove. We prefer the latter for authenticity.

In our opinion, the brightness of the lime should not be covered up by honey! We feel the same about adding cream for a creamy vinaigrette.

You can customize the recipe with other flavors: some chopped fresh coriander and a dash of ground cilantro, oregano and dried chili flakes, for example.
 
 
RECIPE: LIME VINAIGRETTE

Ingredients For 4 Servings

 
For The Vinaigrette

 
Preparation

1. WHISK the vinaigrette ingredients together. Optionally, use the “shaking” technique: Add the ingredients to a jar with a lid and shake until blended.

2. DRESS the greens just before serving. Save the leftover dressing for the uses below.
 

USES FOR LEFTOVER VINAIGRETTE

 
 
> THE HISTORY OF LIMES
 
 
> THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF LIMES

The first surprise in this spaghetti dish with creamy tomato sauce (photo #1) is that there’s no cream, butter or cheese in the sauce.

This San Marzano tomato-based pasta sauce recipe from DeLallo is so creamy, you’d think it would be loaded with cream, butter, and/or cheese.

The second surprise is that the creaminess comes from a vegetable: cauliflower.

It’s not “just” a vegetable: Cauliflower is one of the anti-carcinogenic Brassica family of cruciferous vegetables, which also includes arugula, bok choy, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, horseradish/wasabi, kale, kohlrabi, mustard, radishes, rapeseed/canola, rapini, rutabaga and turnips, among others.

So if you’ve embarked on a more sustainable diet for the new year, try this vegan recipe. You won’t notice the absence of dairy.

Using whole wheat pasta gives it another better-for-you bonus.
 
 
RECIPE: SPAGHETTI OR LINGUINE WITH CREAMY TOMATO SAUCE

Ingredients For 4 Servings

 
Preparation

1. PLACE a large pot of water seasoned with salt to boil. This will be used to cook the cauliflower and pasta. Meanwhile…

2. ADD the olive oil and garlic to a large sauté pan over medium heat and sauté until fragrant, 1-2 minutes. Add the red pepper flakes and tomato paste, and sauté for another 30 seconds. Finally, add the San Marzano tomatoes. Cook until bubbling, then remove from the heat and set aside.

3. ADD the cauliflower to the boiling water, lower the heat and boil for 5-8 minutes, or until fork-tender. Transfer to the tomato sauce with tongs, leaving the water in the pot to boil.

4. USE the boiling water to cook the pasta, according to package instructions. Meanwhile…

5. CAREFULLY TRANSFER the tomato sauce mixture to a blender and blend until completely smooth. Pour the sauce back into the pan. Once your pasta is al dente…

6. DRAIN and add it to the tomato sauce. Mix to combine. Season with salt and pepper and serve.
 
 
TIP: KEEP THE CAULIFLOWER STALKS

Don’t throw away the rest of the cauliflower. The stalks, base and leaves comprise some two-thirds of the cauliflower.

They’re just as delicious as the florets.

[1] Make spaghetti or linguine in this creamy, dairy-free sauce (photos #1 and #2 © DeLallo).

[2] San Marzano tomatoes. Why are they the most flavorful? See below.

[3] Fresh San Marzano tomatoes (photo © The Heirloom Tomato Company).

[4] Don’t toss the rest of the cauliflower: stems, base and leaves (photo © Melissa Breyer. See how she uses them.).

These prized Italian tomatoes, which are D.O.P.-protected (Denominazione d’Origine Protetta), are grown in the nutrient-rich volcanic soil around Mt. Vesuvius.

An heirloom variety of plum tomatoes, they are naturally so sweet that you’d swear that a can of San Marzanos has added sugar—but it doesn’t.

Tomatoes originated in Peru. The story is that the first seeds to become San Marzano tomatoes came to Campania, Italy in 1770, as a gift from the Kingdom of Peru to the Kingdom of Naples.

The seeds were planted in the area that is the present-day commune of San Marzano, a small town southeast of Naples at the base of Mount Vesuvius. The volcanic soil is believed to act as a filter for water impurities, producing a lower-acidity, brighter-flavored tomato.

The pulp is dense, and because of the lower acidity, the tomatoes have a deeper tomato flavor and a natural sweetness. Sauces made with them require no additional sugar.

Even the juice in the can that streams from the diced tomatoes tastes like the best tomato juice!

While the varietal is grown in the U.S. and worldwide, the original San Marzanos, imported canned from Italy (photo #2), benefit greatly from the volcanic soil.

If you grow the seeds in your own soil, you may not get the same level of sweetness. But try it: The seeds are easily available online.
 
San Marzano Vs. Roma Tomatoes

They look similar, but compared to the well-known Roma variety of plum tomatoes, San Marzano tomatoes have an elongated oblong shape—thinner and pointier, believed to be a mutation (photo #3).

San Marzanos have only two seed pockets, while most tomatoes have five to seven. Since seeds contribute acidity, this feature also accounts for the lower acidity.

The San Marzano is so distinctive and high quality that it is the only variety that can be used to make certified Neapolitan pizza.

Here’s more about San Marzano tomatoes.

[1] Wonder Melon watermelon juice in two flavors (all photos © Wonder Melon).

[2] Enjoy a glass of straight juice, or blended into a smoothie.

[3] Make Watermelon Margaritas (photo from Wonder Melon | Facebook).

Some 10 years ago, a California company called Sundia sold the most delicious pure watermelon juice.

Alas, they got out of the juice business, and we lost our favorite juice.

It’s quite time-consuming to juice a watermelon at home, so since then we’ve tried every watermelon juice and blend we came across. Nothing made the grade.

Finally, Wonder Melon: two varieties of watermelon juice blends: Watermelon Cucumber Basil and Watermelon Lemon Cayenne.

The cold pressed juices are are refreshing drunk plain, in smoothies or cocktails. They are:

 
WATERMELON CUCUMBER BASIL WONDER MELON

This juice is expertly blended with Watermelon Juice, Lemon Juice, Apple Juice, Cucumber Juice, and Basil for an incredibly refreshing juice that’s perfectly sweet with a touch of tartness and light herbaceous. With only 80 calories a bottle, it’s a drink you can’t resist.

Food Trivia: Cucumbers and watermelons are first cousins.

Both are from the binomial order Cucurbitales and family Cucurbitaceae, differing only at the genus level.

That’s why if you eat the white portion of watermelon rind, it tastes just like cucumber.
 
WATERMELON LEMON CAYENNE WONDER MELON

A touch of tartness from lemon and hint of heat from cayenne pepper, the juice has just 4 ingredients: watermelon juice, lemon juice, apple juice and a dash of cayenne. An 8.45-ounce bottle has 100 calories.

There’s a store locator on the website.

You can purchase Wonder Melon on Amazon.
 
 
THE HISTORY OF WATERMELON

Watermelon, Citrullus lanatus, is believed to have originated in the Kalahari Desert in southern Africa. An ancestor of the modern watermelon still grows there.

That ancestor is not tasty at all: bitter and with many seeds. It was cultivated for the water inside, to quench thirst in the desert.

Mutations over thousands of years of cultivations created the sweet flesh we enjoy today.

Watermelons are about 92% water—that’s how they got their name. In ancient times, travelers carried watermelons as a replacement for water—a watermelon canteen, as it were.

Watermelon has been cultivated as early as 2000 B.C.E. The first recorded watermelon harvest occurred nearly 5,000 years ago in Egypt. Watermelon seeds have been found in the tomb of Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamen (King Tut).

Here’s more of the watermelon’s history.

Check out watermelon nutrition.

[1] Acorn squash stuffed with Brussels sprouts, dried cranberries and almonds (photo © Chef Eric LeVine).

[2] Stuffed Portabella Mushrooms. Here’s the recipe from Healthy Recipes Blog (photo © Healthy Recipes Blog).

[3] Potato latkes with grilled root vegetables, applesauce, sour cream and Maille mustard (substitute nondairy sour cream—photo © Maille).

[4] Quinoa and beans salad with roasted heirloom carrots (photo © Obra Kitchen Table | Miami)

[5] Angel hair pasta with San Marzano tomatoes and extra-virgin olive oil (photo © Davio’s | Boston).

New year, new goals.

As advocates for sustainability, our first tip of the year focuses on Meatless Mondays.

If you’re not already in the fold, now’s the time to open the gate.

It’s not just about meat. Cheese and other dairy products, including yogurt and cottage cheese, contribute the same greenhouse gases that meat does.

Yes, you could eat fish; in fact, substituting more seafood for meat is another important resolution.

So if you really want to help Planet Earth, we propose to make Meatless Monday, Vegan Monday.

Almost every health, nutrition and sustainability expert advises: Eat a plant-based diet. Here, we’re only asking you to eat a plant-based Monday.
 
 
MEATLESS MONDAY: WHERE TO BEGIN

There are countless online recipe troves to tempt you. You can make—or take out, or order in:

 
For protein, add:

When you look at recipes, you’ll discover that quite a few popular foods are on the Meatless Monday menu.

 
Restaurant chains nationwide from Burger King to Chik-Fil-A to KFC offer meatless options. Hooters just debuted Meatless Wings (just as crisp and half the calories of its chicken wings).

Here are 147 chains with vegan options.

Here’s a Whole Foods article, 9 Easy Ways to Eat More Plants at Every Meal.
 

MEATLESS MONDAY HISTORY

It may seem like Meatless Monday is a 21st-century idea, but it originated during World War I.

Before formal rationing began, the U.S. Food Administration promoted reduced consumption of key staples to aid the war effort.

President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation calling for every Tuesday to be meatless and for one meatless meal to be observed every day, for a total of nine meatless meals each week [source].

“Food Will Win the War,” proclaimed government ads. “Meatless Monday” and “Wheatless Wednesday” were introduced to encourage Americans to do their part.

The effect was overwhelming. More than 13 million families signed a pledge to observe the national meatless and wheatless conservation days.

During World War II when President Franklin D. Roosevelt relaunched the campaign to help the war efforts. In the immediate post-war years, President Harry S. Truman continued the campaign to help feed war-ravaged Europe [source].

Most of us alive today hadn’t heard the term until 2003, when the concept was relaunched by a former advertising executive turned health advocate, Sid Lerner.

In association with Johns Hopkins University (The Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Center for a Livable Future), the concept was reintroduced as a public health awareness campaign.

The “new’ Meatless Monday was launched to addresses the prevalence of preventable illnesses associated with excessive meat consumption.

With the average American eating as much as 75 more pounds of meat each year than in generations past, the message of “one day a week, cut out meat” became a way for people to do something good healthwise. The health benefits of reducing meat consumption became regular stories for the nation’s news outlets.

With awareness of global warming and the causes of greenhouses gases, Meatless Monday has achieved even greater promotion as an environmental campaign, and has been growing worldwide.

The growing vegan movement has greatly helped the movement. Even for omnivores, cafeterias and restaurants offer meat-free options not only on Mondays, but everyday.

Make one of your New Year’s resolutions to join in.