Why You Should Be Cooking with Pimento Peppers (2024)

FAQs

Why You Should Be Cooking with Pimento Peppers? ›

Unlike traditional grocery-store bell peppers, which are bred for size, resulting in watered-down flavor, the pimentos have a concentrated sweetness and mild pepperiness.

Pimentos are sweet peppers most closely associated with Spain, and they can be stuffed into the olive in a martini glass, pureed in cheese dips, or dried and made into paprika. Pimentos work as a garnish, an ingredient and a spice.

The antioxidants present in pimento also have anti-inflammatory qualities that may ease cramps and aid digestion. Pimento also has anesthetic and analgesic properties that helps to relieve pain and relax muscles. It can be used also as a poultice made from the spice or as an essential oil.

For fresh pimentos, bell peppers are probably the easiest to find as a substitute, but any sweeter red pepper variety will do, such as the piquillo pepper, corno di toro pepper, or any Italian sweet pepper.

Traditionally pimento is used to manage high blood pressure and obesity, as well as diabetes. It is widely used to treat digestive problems, abdominal pain, gas and diarrhoea. Pimento is also used for respiratory congestion.

Bell peppers also provide the antioxidant quercetin, which may reduce inflammation associated with chronic diseases like diabetes ( 36 , 37 ). Chili peppers contain sinapic acid and ferulic acid, which may reduce inflammation and support healthier aging ( 38 , 39 ).

Pimentos are sweeter than bell peppers. Some varieties of pimentos are hot. They're enjoyed raw, pickled, roasted, and stuffed. "I love it when I call people in and the table is decked with food that seduces you and makes you feel welcome.

The active ingredients in the spice have chemical compounds that eliminate inflammation, making it an ideal spice to give you some relief from arthritis, gout and muscle aches. It also has certain analgesic components that allow for pain reduction in the case of injury or surgical recovery.

Also known as a Jamaica pepper, myrtle pepper, or pimento, allspice is the unripe fruit of the Pimenta dioica, an evergreen tree in the Myrtle family native to the West Indies, Southern Mexico, and Central America.

What Do They Taste Like? Pimentos are sweet and mild, and unlikely to cause trouble if you cannot tolerate spicy peppers. They register between 100 and 500 heat units on the Scoville scale, making them one of the mildest of all the chile peppers. Think of them as a sweeter and more aromatic red bell pepper.

What spice is made from pimento? ›

Allspice, also known as Jamaica pepper, myrtle pepper, pimenta, or pimento, is the dried unripe berry of Pimenta dioica, a midcanopy tree native to the Greater Antilles, southern Mexico, and Central America, now cultivated in many warm parts of the world.

Name. Spanish pimiento and Portuguese pimento both come from Latin pigmentum ("pigment; coloring") and came to be used for bell peppers. The English borrowed "pimiento" and "pimento" as loanwords for what is distinguished in Spanish as pimentón and in Portuguese as pimentão.

You can use pimientos the same way you would roasted red bell peppers. They add a sweet pepper flavor and a pop of color to anything from rice dishes to pasta salad.

Pimiento, also pimento, is a type of pepper somewhat similar to the bell pepper. Instead of blocky, the fruit (pod) is smooth, conical, or heart-shaped, up to 3- to 4-inches-long and 2- to 2½-inches-wide at the shoulder. The flesh is very thick, sweet and red to reddish yellow at maturity.

Stuffing. "Sweet" (i.e., neither sour nor savory) pimiento peppers are the familiar red stuffing found in prepared Spanish or Greek green olives. Originally, the pimiento was hand-cut into tiny pieces, then hand-stuffed into each olive to balance out the olive's otherwise strong, salty flavor.

Sweet peppers are most flavorful when mature; that's usually signaled, but not always, by color change. Bell peppers can mature green as well as red, orange, yellow, or maroon; pimientos ripen red; wax types go from yellow to orange or red. Learn two handy techniques for harvesting your garden greens.