Bell peppers are used in so many dishes from salads to pizzas and casseroles to soups. Being such a commonly used vegetable in the kitchen means you’ll want to know the most efficient way to cut a bell pepper. This guide will teach you how to navigate this vegetable to cut it correctly, every time.
Want to practice your new skills? Make sure to check out some of the top recipes from my website that use bell peppers at the end of this post.
How to cut a bell pepper
Place a washed and dried bell pepper on a cutting board. Use a sharp knife to cut off about 1/2 inch from both the bottom and the stem end.
These tops and bottoms are edible and can be used as a quick snack or in another recipe where the shape/size of the bell pepper doesn’t matter.
Next, cut off the sides (either three or four) as shown in the picture above. I’ve found this technique to be faster and more efficient than cutting the bell pepper in half and removing the ribs/seeds afterward.
In five cuts, you’ll have four sides of the pepper and one large core with seeds attached. Discard the core and seeds.
Quiz Time: Female peppers have only 3 bumps/sides and are better for snacking, whereas male peppers have 4 bumps/sides and are better for cooking. True or False? Answer here
You now have three or four sections (sides) of the cut bell pepper. Take each section, lay it skin-side down on the cutting board, and use a sharp knife to cut into strips. Depending on the recipe you can cut these strips extremely thin or thick.
For snacking, the thickness of strips is best moderately thin, just over 1/4 inch.
If you are going to be cutting the strips into cubes, be aware of how thick you want the cubes and cut the strip’s thickness accordingly.
Thick cubes: Cut thick strips 2-4 times.
Thinner cubes: Cut medium size strips, 4-6 times.
For a DICED pepper: follow steps 1-2 and then for each section of bell pepper make parallel cuts at your desired width but DON’T cut all the way through. Leave 1/4th of one end of the pepper section intact. Rotate the piece 90 degrees and then cut those strips into very small cubes. (leaving the end uncut makes cutting the other direction much easier as the strips stay in place)
Other Cuts:How to cut bell peppers into a ring:
Complete step one. Run your knife around the inside of the flesh to cut away the core and seeds; discard. Lay the bell pepper on its side and thinly slice it into rings.
How to cut mini peppers:
Cut (washed and dried) mini peppers in half lengthwise and remove the small core. Then prepare as necessary (strips, cubes, dice, etc.).
Either snack on the peppers with a good veggie dip or use the seasoning mix on this Roasted Vegetable recipe to toss with peppers and roast as a satisfying side dish. To incorporate your cut peppers into meals, check out some of the top recipes from my website that use bell peppers:
Here are some of a reliable recipes using bell peppers:
Italian Sausage and Veggies (Reader FAVORITE!)
slow cooker Chili (RAVE reviews!)
Couscous Salad (Greek)
Quick Tip
Did you know that green, yellow, orange, and red bell peppers all come from the same plant, just at different stages of ripeness? Green is the pepper at its unripe stage, and it will evolve to yellow and even orange before hitting its peak ripeness (and sweetness) stage at red. Peppers will continue to ripen only when they’re attached to the plant, so putting one on the window sill won’t help it turn red.
