Plenty of peppers to spice up your recipes

Peppers of all kinds are one of summer’s favorite vegetables. Versatile and easy to work with, peppers come in flavors mild and sweet to five-alarm hot and spicy. Peppers were domesticated in Mexico. As early as 6000 years ago, red peppers were used in tropical South America as a spice to disguise the taste of bland or unpalatable food. An antioxidant, chile is also useful in preserving food. Chile peppers are called ‘chile’ in Mexico and Central America and ‘aji’ in South America and the West Indies. You’ll notice that we spell chile peppers with an “e,” not with an “i.” Chile refers to hot peppers, whereas chili refers to the stew/soup-like bean and meat concoction.