fried sweet green peppers

You’ll find this super simple, incredibly tasty meze (or appetizer) everywhere in Greece. These sweet green peppers fried up to a tender, mouth watering state of delicious will fill your kitchen with the most amazing aromas. Honestly, that’s something I look forward to every time I make these!

Pair them with a glass of dry white wine and a big piece of crusty bread for lunch or light dinner. You’ll find that, out of the pan or room temperature, fried sweet green peppers will not disappoint.

Quick and easy, you’ll need 3 ingredients – sweet green peppers, olive oil and salt.

peppers, olive oil and salt

Recipe tip to remember – Poke the Peppers!! Seriously, you must poke each pepper before cooking or they’ll explode in the pan and the results won’t be good. I usually just use a fork to make a few holes in each.

And be very careful when frying, these little guys can spit oil everywhere. I like to use my 3 quart saucepan with sides that are higher than a regular frying pan to minimize how much oil gets out. Just a 1/4 cup of oil is more than enough to fry up a pound of peppers.

sweet peppers in pan

Cook bigger peppers on low-medium heat for 3-4 minutes on each side until peppers are a golden brown and soft. Smaller peppers will take 2-3 minutes per side.

Carefully remove cooked peppers from the pan to a platter. They’ll be soft and can easily split. And so important – Do Not Drain! Make sure not to drain your peppers on paper towel. The oil is so flavorful, you’ll want to save every drop.

cooked to a golden brown

Lightly salt peppers while they’re still hot. You’ll probably want to let them cool just slightly even though the temptation will be great to take a bite right away!

sweet green peppers with white wine

If you make a big batch, store covered in the fridge or better yet store in a glass of olive oil. The peppers will keep for 2-3 weeks and you’ll have delicious pepper flavored oil as a bonus!