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Substitutions · 33 dishes here use it
Sweetness and water. Raw it is crunch, blistered under a broiler it goes silky and smoky and stops tasting like a salad bar — that char is most of the reason to buy them.
Everything below is judged against that job. A swap that covers it is a swap; one that only looks similar is not.
2 of the 33 dishes here that mention bell pepper list it as optional — 6% of them. In those, the correct substitution is nothing.
Functional substitution system
For bell pepper, the page's working definition is: Sweetness and water. Raw it is crunch, blistered under a broiler it goes silky and smoky and stops tasting like a salad bar — that char is most of the reason to buy them. The swap cards below are judged against that job rather than visual resemblance.
Job → candidate → side effects → small test → correct.
1 · Job
What is the missing ingredient doing?
2 · Candidate
Choose the shelf item that replaces that function.
3 · Side effects
Check water, fat, salt, acid, sweetness, and texture.
4 · Small test
Change a spoonful or small portion first when possible.
5 · Correct
Taste again and move only the axis that is still wrong.
Instead · 1
one jarred pepper per fresh one
Instead · 2
one for one
Instead · 3
one stalk and one carrot per pepper
These dishes list bell pepper as optional. They were written to work without it, so no ratio is needed and nothing has to be bought.
These need it and are short enough that nothing hides: 4 required ingredients or fewer. Make the swap a decision rather than a repair.
The company bell pepper keeps in this library, counted off required ingredients. A swap that argues with the top two is the wrong swap, whatever a chart says.