Pepper (Capsicum)

It is a vegetable that is green, red, or yellow, having a rounded shape that is hollow with seeds in the middle. Peppers usually help us to challenge our taste buds at times.

Capsicum is an herbal supplement used for treatment of post-herpetic pain (shingles), circulatory problems (peripheral), clotting disorders, diarrhea, digestion problems, fibromyalgia (topical), heart disease (prevention), neuralgias (topical), neuropathies (topical), pain syndromes (topical), prurigo nodularis.

Black Pepper

This is a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit, known as a peppercorn, which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning.

The fruit is a drupe which is about 5 mm in diameter, dark red, and contains a stone which encloses a single pepper seed.

Other Types of Peppers

There are so many types of peppers. Some are easy on the taste buds; others are a mild form of torture. So how hot can you go? Let’s find out with a few selected varieties listed below.

While technically fruits in most cases (and ones with a strong summer season), peppers and chilies don’t exactly bring the sweet, juicy flavors you expect from berries in the summertime. Instead, they challenge our taste buds to live on the edge.

Bell Peppers

Bell peppers are sweet and they can be eaten raw with hummus (or other dips) or cooked into stir-fries. They’re available in red, green, orange, and yellow. Sometimes they’re dried and ground into paprika.

Shishito

These are often roasted and blistered. Once charred and drizzled with oil or sauce, they make a great appetizer on their own. But beware, eating them is a gamble. It’s a mostly tame pepper, but there is usually one spicy shishito in the bunch. You just don’t know which one until you bite into it.

Banana pepper

Also a sweet pepper often used on deli sandwiches. They’re also good in salads (you’ll usually see them in antipasto at Italian joints) and on pizza. They have a little more tang to them than bell peppers.

Cuban Pepper (Or Cubanelle Pepper)

These are popular peppers to fry, but you can also use them instead of bell peppers in various dishes to add a different flavor. Still mild in heat, they’re considered sweet peppers.

Anaheim

When you see canned green chiles, they’re likely Anaheim peppers. They’re lower on the heat scale than habaneros, more comparable to a poblano. But there is a hotter strain of the Anaheim pepper that originates in New Mexico: hatch chiles.

Pasilla

Also a favorite in mole sauce, pasilla peppers are the dried form of a type of pepper known as chilaca peppers. They have a mild heat that falls below jalapenos on the Scoville scale

Just a bump up from Anaheim and poblano peppers, jalapenos start to bring the heat. As one of the more common peppers to cook with, they go great in everything from chilis and soups to salads. A chipotle pepper is simply a smoked jalapeno pepper.

Fresno

Similar to jalapeno peppers, but a bit spicer, and sweeter. They are glossy, firm, and medium thickness in flesh.  Great for Latin dishes like stews, soups, dips, or fire roasted.

Yellow chile

These sweet peppers can range from very mild to hot. They have thick flesh, bright yellow in color, smooth texture, and shiny surface. They can be stuffed and cooked, roasted, seared on the grill, pickled, or chopped up raw for salads and crudites.

Serrano

Serrano peppers are hotter than jalapenos but not as hot as habaneros. Like jalapenos, they’re sometimes minced and used in salsa and guacamole.

Guajillo

The name sounds hot and exotic, but the guajillo pepper won’t burn your tongue off like some of the other peppers on this list. It’s more of a jalapeno hot but sweeter. It’s also one of the most common peppers to dry, and it’s famously used in mole sauce.

Cayenne

Hotter than serranos, cayenne peppers can light your mouth on fire. In addition to red cayenne peppers you’re likely used to seeing, you can also find cayenne gold peppers, which are yellow.

Rocoto

Almost as hot as a habanero, these peppers can be deceiving. They look a lot like bell peppers on the outside, but underneath the sweet skin is serious spice.

Piri Piri

You can still consider these peppers above-average hot, but they’re in the edible territory and often used in African and Portuguese cuisine.

Scotch Bonnet

A popular pepper used in Caribbean cuisine, scotch bonnets are most often compared to habaneros. So, they bring the heat — not a mild pepper by any mean. Eat with caution.

Pepper Nutrition

The exact nutrition of each type of pepper of course varies, but generally speaking, many are a great source of vitamin C. Many also provide a healthy amount of vitamin A. Capsaicin itself, the key element in peppers that makes them spicy, has been used medicinally for ages.

However, peppers are also part of the nightshade family which is associated with inflammation. Those with autoimmune conditions may be advised to avoid them.

How To Use Peppers In Cooking

Peppers are used in everything from sauces and condiments to spices and powders. You’ll use these ingredients in dips, jellies, soups, chili, stews, stir-fries, salsa, and so much more. Some peppers are stuffed or charred and served as appetizers, while others are minced up so fine you might never know they’re there.