Peppers are a great ingredient and it has opened up doors for the culinary world. While it is true that most peppers are used for spice, there are many peppers used more for taste than spiciness. If you are looking for some mild peppers, then look no further than the humble shishito peppers.

The science of peppers

When you look at why peppers are spicy, the answer is a chemical called capsaicin. It is responsible for the feeling you have eating the pepper and based on the amount present in the pepper, you feel the degree of spiciness. But, to get a better understanding of how spicy a pepper is, we use the Scoville heat units. Shishito has a range of 50 to 200 SHU. To understand how spicy it is let us consider jalapenos. This mild pepper has an average SHU of 5000, which is more than enough to let you understand how mild shishito is.

What is it?

It is a green pepper with thin skin and mild spiciness. Originating from Japan, it is used as a savory snack. Due to its thin skin, the pepper can be easily roasted with most of its flavor still packed inside the small green husk.

The other feature is that the spiciness is not uniform for all the peppers. Based on how each plant reacts to the environment, the flavor profile of the pepper changes.

Flavor

They are beloved because each pepper has a different spiciness which makes it a fun game for people who love spicy things to try different peppers and get a kick. Even though it is small, slight roasting is more than enough to bring the entire flavor out. After that dip it in sauce, add some salt, or even stir fry them in olive oil – there are a thousand ways to prepare the pepper.

Store

You can easily grow these peppers in your home garden. Just plant the seed where it can get a lot of sunlight. They don’t need much water but require heat. Thus, it is important to grow them only during summer and never during winter or rainy seasons.

After you have grown your own or bought these magnificent little flavor bombs, you can store them in the fridge, provided it is dry. Don’t worry if the color has turned red or orange as it still retains the taste.

Just buy some shishito peppers and cook them with some cilantro cream and olive oil for a magnificent feast.