How to make Bell Peppers (Capsicum) digestible to everybody

Posted on March 7, 2013

 Maybe not everybody knows that bell peppers, also known as sweet peppers or capsicum, are not very digestible, so even if they’re really good, contain high quantities of vitamin C and add great taste to dishes they can mess you up a nice evening!
After a short explanation, I’ll tell you my secret tips to avoid this forever… yes, forever!

All these problems are due to bell peppers skin and two substances contained in them: Solanine and Flavin.

Solanine is a poison contained in all the members of the Solanaceae family (bell peppers, eggplants, potatoes, tomatoes…) and if ingested in big quantities can be really toxic to the body, but this substance tends to disappear gradually as the fruit arrives to the full maturity.

Flavin is contained in the white inner part of the bell pepper and in the seeds, and once ingested it attaches to the stomach wall causing pain or heaviness.

The bell peppers skin is another reason that doesn’t make them very digestible because the intestine struggles to expel it, giving us a sense of puffiness, even for several days.

So the first things you need to do are:

– buy organic and well ripe fruits;
– cut off the white inner part and seeds of the fruit as well as the stem.

Now many of you would say: “yes, I always do this, she reinvented the wheel…”.
And then come the interesting part!

If you want to eat bell peppers raw, like in salads (mmmm I like them so much!) the only things to do are to cut off the skin and then wash the fruit (in that case you would need a thick bell pepper).
Many people boil the bell pepper for a minute and then plunge it into an ice bath to easily remove the skin. I tried this but the bell pepper taste came up again after 1 hour, so I cannot recommend this to you.

Otherwise, if you prefer bell peppers cooked, you shouldn’t remove the skin because as they cook they will shrink and above all you would remove all the flavors and vitamins that are mainly concentrated under the skin.

I read somewhere (I’m sorry but this happened years ago and I really don’t remember the source) that a secret for a digestible bell pepper is……….. a PEAR! yes, just a little sweet pear.

So when you start cooking you peppers, add a finely chopped pear (peeled and seeds cleaned).
To cook 3 bell peppers I use just half of a pear and it works as well!
This little amount of pear doesn’t make your dish too sweet, you would not even notice it at the end.

So let me know if this works for you too!