- Season
- Sold all year from imports and greenhouses. Central European field-grown peppers are at their best and cheapest from about July to September, which is also the main time for making lečo and preserving peppers.
- Price
- Low
- Nutrition per 100 g
- 27 kcal
- 0.8 g protein
- 0.1 g fat
- 6.6 g carbs
White Bell Pepper
Vegetables
White Bell Pepper
Paprika bílá is the pale, creamy-white to light yellow-green sweet pepper (Capsicum annuum) sold fresh as a vegetable in Czech shops. It is not the spice white pepper.
In practice
How to store
- On the counter
Keep at room temperature for 1–2 days only, out of direct sun. The thin skin makes white peppers wilt faster than thick-walled bell peppers.
- In the fridge
Store whole and unwashed in the vegetable drawer, loosely wrapped or in a perforated bag, for about 5–7 days. Peppers are sensitive to cold: below about 7 °C they can develop soft, pitted spots over time, so the warmest part of the fridge is best. Once cut, keep covered and use within 2–3 days.
- In the freezer
Wash, remove the stalk and seeds, then slice or dice and freeze flat in bags. They keep well for about 6–12 months at −18 °C. Blanching is not needed. Thawed peppers lose their crunch, so use them in lečo, sauces, soups and stews rather than raw.
How to choose
Choose peppers that feel firm and heavy for their size. The skin should be tight and glossy, and the stalk should be green and fresh. A creamy white to pale yellow-green colour is normal. A slight yellow blush only means the pepper has ripened a little further and will taste a bit sweeter. Avoid peppers with soft or wrinkled patches, dark watery spots, mould around the stalk, or cracks. Czech shops label fresh vegetables with the country of origin and the quality class (for example "jakost I" / Class I). Packed peppers may also show the variety and size grade. Peppers sold as "na lečo" (for lečo) are often slightly irregular or smaller and are cheaper. They are perfectly fine for cooking.
What to swap in
Best swap
Other thin-walled sweet peppers, such as pale yellow-green Hungarian-type or light green tapered peppers. They have a similar texture and mild flavour and work the same way in lečo and stuffing.
In a pinch
Yellow or red bell peppers. They are sweeter, thicker-walled and fruitier, and they take a little longer to soften. Green bell peppers work too but taste more bitter and grassy.
Preparation
Wash under running water and dry. Cut around the stalk, then pull it out with the seed core. Slice the pepper open and scrape out the remaining seeds and pale ribs. For stuffing, cut off the top as a lid and hollow the pepper out whole, leaving the walls intact. For lečo, cut the peppers into strips or rings. Add them to onions softened in fat, then add tomatoes, and cook only until tender. Because the skin is so thin, white peppers almost never need peeling. If you do want to skin them, roast or grill them until blistered and leave them covered for a few minutes, after which the skin slips off.
Don't toss it
Very soft or wrinkled peppers are ideal for lečo, soups or blended pepper sauce. Scraps and trimmings (not the seeds or mouldy parts) can go into vegetable stock. Leftover lečo freezes well and can be turned into a quick meal with scrambled eggs or sausage.
In the kitchen
Cooking
Raw: sliced into strips for salads, open sandwiches (obložené chlebíčky), snack plates or eaten whole next to bread and cheese. Stewed: the core use in Czech cooking. Lečo is made from peppers, onions and tomatoes, often finished with egg or sausage. White peppers also go into goulash-style stews and sauces. Stuffed and baked: hollowed peppers filled with seasoned minced meat and rice, simmered in tomato sauce (plněné papriky v rajské omáčce). They can also be baked with fillings. Minced meat used in stuffing must be cooked through to at least 70 °C in the centre. Grilled or roasted: they char quickly because the walls are thin. Grill whole or halved until blistered and soft. Preserved: pickled in sweet-sour brine (sterilované papriky) or bottled as lečo for winter, a long-standing home-preserving tradition.
Goes well with
- Onion
- Tomato
- Egg
- Smoked Sausage
- Bacon
- Minced Pork And Beef
- Rice
- Sweet Paprika
- Caraway
- Garlic
- Fresh Cheese
- Bread And Butter
- Cucumber
- Dill
What it is
Paprika bílá is the pale, creamy-white to light yellow-green sweet pepper (Capsicum annuum) sold fresh as a vegetable in Czech shops. It is not the spice white pepper. Czech retailers sell it loose, by the piece or in trays and bags, often labelled "paprika zeleninová bílá" (white vegetable pepper). It is usually a tapered or blocky pepper with thin, tender skin and juicy flesh. It comes from varieties whose unripe fruit carries very little green pigment, and it is picked at what Czech growers call technical maturity (technická zralost), before it turns yellow or red, which is why it is so pale. White peppers are the classic choice in Czech homes for lečo (a stew of peppers, onions and tomatoes), for plněné papriky (peppers stuffed with minced meat in tomato sauce), and for eating raw with bread, cheese or cold cuts.
How it tastes
Mild and gently sweet with a fresh, slightly grassy taste. It has none of the heat of chilli, because the varieties sold as vegetable peppers contain no capsaicin. Next to green peppers it is less bitter, and next to fully ripe red peppers it is lighter and less sugary. The thin skin and juicy flesh soften quickly when cooked. That makes a silky lečo, but the pepper will turn to mush if it is stewed for too long.
Common questions
Is bílá paprika the same as white pepper?
Is white paprika spicy?
Why are these peppers white?
Which peppers are best for lečo?
Can I freeze white peppers?
How should I store white peppers?
Deep dive
3 min read
Varieties
Tapered white peppers
: the most common form in Czech shops. They are elongated, pointed, creamy white to light green, with thin walls. Much of the supply is imported from Southern and South-Eastern Europe and Turkey, depending on the season.
Blocky and apple-shaped white peppers
: shorter, squarer or rounded fruits with thicker walls. Czech seed catalogues offer creamy-white varieties and hybrids of this type for garden and greenhouse growing. They are well suited to stuffing.
"Na lečo" packs
: mixed or irregular white peppers, sometimes sold together with red ones, sold cheaply for cooking.
Related but different products
: red, yellow and orange bell peppers are fully ripe fruits of other sweet varieties. They are sweeter and thicker-walled. Hot peppers such as feferonky and most chillies (chilli papričky) belong to the same plant species, or in some cases closely related Capsicum species, but contain capsaicin and are pungent. Ground paprika (mletá paprika) is a dried spice made from red peppers. White pepper (bílý pepř), the spice from Piper nigrum, is an entirely different plant.
History
Peppers (Capsicum) came to Europe from the Americas after the late fifteenth century and became firmly established in Hungarian and Balkan cooking. Pale, thin-walled sweet peppers are typical of that Central and South-Eastern European tradition, and Czech cooking adopted them along with dishes such as lečo, a close relative of Hungarian lecsó. Today white peppers are a standard vegetable in Czech supermarkets and gardens, and plněné papriky in tomato sauce is a familiar dish from home and school canteens.
Science
The pale colour comes from two things: these varieties make very little chlorophyll in the unripe fruit, and they are harvested at technical maturity, when the fruit has reached full size but has not yet built up the yellow or red pigments (carotenoids) that develop as it ripens fully. If left on the plant, many white varieties turn yellow and then sometimes orange or red, becoming sweeter as they do.
Sweet vegetable peppers lack the capsaicinoids that make chillies hot. The thin fruit wall and delicate skin explain why white peppers soften and collapse faster when heated than thick-walled bell peppers. In lečo, adding them later in cooking, or cooking on moderate heat, helps the strips keep their shape.
Sourcing and ethics
Outside summer, most white peppers in Czech shops are imported, often from Southern Europe or Turkey, or grown in heated greenhouses. In late summer, Czech and other Central European produce is easier to find at markets and farm shops. Choosing seasonal, locally grown peppers shortens transport. White peppers are also easy to grow in Czech gardens and polytunnels, and Czech seed suppliers offer several creamy-white varieties.
As with other fresh produce sold in the EU, pesticide residues are regulated by EU maximum residue limits. Washing peppers before eating them raw is good practice. Peppers are a nightshade (Solanaceae), so people who avoid nightshades should note this. They are not among the 14 EU-listed allergens.