The Best Way To Cut Bell Pepper For Perfect Kabobs

Not to be controversial, but we don't think that bell peppers look anything like bells. We wish they were more bell-shaped; that would make for smoother, more uniform cuts. Instead, what we get is a misshapen blob with a circumference full of deep ridges. Most bell pepper recipes don't require precise slices, but if you're gearing up to sandwich your bell peppers between other veggies and meat on a delicious kabob skewer, you'll want to be a bit more intentional with your cuts.

The key to a perfect, kabob-ready bell pepper cut is leaving enough pepper to soak up all those good marinade juices, even though it will shrink as moisture evaporates over the flame. Because a bell pepper isn't actually shaped like a bell, it can be very hard to stabilize on the cutting board. We recommend cutting off the top (the end with the stem) to provide a flat base for cutting off more than you can chew.

Once you've sliced off the top, you can reach in and pluck out the seedy core all in one go. Give the inside a rinse to get rid of any more pesky, sticky seeds. Finally, flip the opening of your bell pepper so that it is sitting firmly on the cutting board. Cut around the circumference, from top to bottom, to get 4 to 5 bell pepper petals that you can then cut in half. What's left should be perfectly sized pieces to skewer onto your wood or metal rod.

If possible, we recommend grilling veggies and meat kabobs separately. With their vastly different cooking points, separating your meat and veggies — and then reassembling your desired kabob pairings when everything is grilled — will ensure that everything is cooked perfectly. Although dicing up some veggitables for your kabobs seems simple enough, it does require a little thoughtfulness. For example, you want your veggies large enough to have a good grip on the skewer, but you don't want them to be so big that they overwhelm other ingredients and make it hard to rotate your skewer on the grill. A good rule of thumb is to keep them as close to 1x1-inch cubes as possible.

For onions, we recommend slicing the onion in half lengthwise before cutting off the dried top and root. Cut your onion halves in half again, and then slice from top to bottom three times, resulting in six uniform pieces. Depending on how much onion you prefer, you can either peel off one layer or three to pierce through your skewer. If your mushrooms are bigger than an inch and a half, cut them in two; conversely, smaller mushrooms can be used whole. Zucchini also makes for a great kabob veggie and is the easiest to dice up into 1-inch pieces. Just cut your zucchini lengthwise first before cutting horizontally into individual 1-inch pieces — they should look like half-circles. Uniformity is key when it comes to kabob stacking, so try to keep your veggitables looking as if they are all from the same-sized family.