Bell peppers are as essential in my kitchen as my chef’s knife and fire extinguisher (joking) (kind of), so it’s a wonder we’ve gone this long without making them our spotlight ingredient! This week, we change that. But as always, we like to dip our toe in the water before diving into the deep end of bell peppers, so here are a few of my favorite bell pepper recipes to get us started!

Use bell peppers for romesco sauce

Romesco sauce. If you’ve been around here for a while, you’ve heard of it. Because I am full on heart-eyes-emoji for this stuff. What is romesco? It’s a Spanish-inspired sauce made from roasted red peppers, tomato, lemon, and almond butter!

• How to make romesco sauce
• Roasted asparagus with romesco sauce
• How to make hummus (including romesco-flavored hummus!)

Roasted peppers are life

One of my favorite ways to jazz up a recipe is my throwing in some roasted bell pepper. To roast a pepper, just throw it on the top rack of the oven on a high heat. Cook until charred and black (flipping occasionally to evenly cook it), then throw into a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let it sit for 10 minutes or so, then remove the skin (that last step makes the skin super easy to peel off!)

• Roasted pepper and strawberry gazpacho
• Roasted pepper gouda grilled cheese

Use bell peppers to add crunch to salads

90% of the time, my use of bell peppers involves chopping up the almost-forgotten bell pepper in the back of my fridge to throw in a salad for extra crunch and color.

• Mama’s famous bean salad
• Green goddess sushi bowl
• Mix and match meal prepping
• Summer vegetable salad

Roll it up

For when we’re feeling fancy, our bell pepper recipes involve spring rolls and sushi!

• Cucumber sushi rolls
• Vegan rainbow spring rolls
• Pretty in pink spring rolls

Classic stuffed peppers

And of course, no bell pepper recipes roundup would be complete without a few stuffed peppers!

• Enchilada quinoa stuffed peppers
• Ricotta stuffed peppers