Green Bell Peppers

Recently, I have been having fun cooking some recipes my mom used to make or other "moms" used to make. Some of the recipes have called for green bell peppers. Most of the recipes I make with peppers these days call for the red/yellow/orange type. Even when I make a recipe that calls for green, I use red or orange which are my favorites. I have not bought a green bell in years. I also make stuffed peppers using the red or orange. So what about you....are you still using the green in your recipes? Do you think they have fallen out of favor or is this just a preference, I've developed?

Certain cuisines necessitate them - for instance both Creole and Cajun rely heavily on them.

I think you are right on there...I noticed a Jambalaya I made the other day did not taste the same with the red bells. I may have to change my habit here and go back to using the green type for this cuisine.

[Jenise]

I love green bell peppers and would be as loathe to see them leave the planet as any other kind, and I even loved them as a kid which, thinking back on it, was probably pretty strange. I'm surprised how many adults never warmed up to them, though.

Red or any other color isn't better to me, just different; I don't really think of them as interchangeable. I still prefer green in stuffed peppers, though I'd never throw a red one off my plate!

I seldom buy the yellow or red ones. I like them raw with dip and put them in salads, chili, spaghetti sauce, etc. I cut them in rings to garnish the top of potato salad, along with sliced eggs. When I had a garden we'd dice them up and freeze them.

The red, orange, etc. are generally more expensive than the green ones. They differ somewhat in flavor - I think the green ones are a little more intense. I agree that there are some dishes that are certainly better with the green ones like shrimp creole. I have read, however, that the red ones have more vitamin C and have lycopene.

Here is an excerpt: A red pepper actually has more vitamins and nutrients, and contains lycopene. The level of carotene, an important antioxidant, is nine times higher in a red pepper. And the red kind has twice the vitamin C of the green. So add red peppers to your salads--and stuff them, too.

I think I have read, too, that red peppers are higher in vitamin C than oranges, but I can't locate that info right now.

I use all colors depending on the dish.

Love bell peppers of all colors and will eat them as a raw snack with maybe sriracha or something similar, anytime. Like the green bells a lot and that they aren't as sweet as the bells that are harvested later, and green bells are definitely preferable to red or yellow in many dishes because of the difference in taste.
The Cajun "trinity" for example really has to be green bells.

[David M. Bueker]

I love red and yellow, but despise green bell peppers which for me penetrate every single aspect of almost any dish they inhabit (some cajun preps excepted, likely due to the myriad & intensity of the other flavors involved).

I probably would not hate them as much if they had not been mis-used in things like crab cakes or similarly delicate foods. Once I focused on that flavor I could no longer get past it. My wife can't even stand to be in the same room with a cut green bell pepper.

Strangely enough (for those who know Bordeaux) I am a big fan of Sociando-Mallet.

I think the green ones are a little more intense..

Hard to get more intense than the sweet red peppers during peak season!

I love them as they add so much flavor but sometimes I have to be careful because they can really dominate.