Kitchen Pepper
Criolla de Cocina brings a pronounced pepper flavour to salsa, rice and simmered sauces. This Nicaraguan sweet pepper has wrinkled fruit and thin walls that are easy to chop into everyday cooking.
CASA VERDE · HEAT PROFILE
Sweet
- Sweet — this variety
- Mild
- Medium
- Hot
- Super hot
Scoville range awaiting confirmation.
Understanding the heat
A diamond marks the midpoint of a listed range, or the listed value when only one number is given. An arrow marks a stated limit. These are variety guides, not measurements of our seed lot. This guide uses unequal numerical bands: sweet 0; mild up to 10,000; medium 10,000–50,000; hot 50,000–800,000; super hot from 800,000 SHU (display capped at 3 million). Heat varies between fruits and with growing conditions.
No numeric marker is shown without a sufficiently clear range. For bundles, the highlighted categories refer to the different varieties.
A Scoville range has not been listed for this variety.
Shop all pepper seeds in Canada
- Origin
- Nicaragua
FROM GARDEN TO KITCHEN
Criolla de Cocina, from seed to supper.
Bring its aromatic sweet-pepper flavour to fresh salsa, rice and beans, or a warm breakfast.
01 / CHOP A FRESH SALSA
Sweet pepper, bright lime.
Finely chop ripe peppers with tomato and white onion. Add lime juice and serve with tortilla chips or spoon over tacos.
02 / COOK WITH RICE
A colourful bowl of rice and beans.
Soften chopped peppers and onion in a little oil. Fold through cooked rice and black beans, then warm together for an easy side or lunch.
03 / FOLD INTO AN OMELETTE
Sweet pepper for a savoury breakfast.
Sauté thin pepper strips and onion until tender. Tuck into an omelette and cook until the egg is set, keeping the filling soft and juicy.
AI-generated culinary illustrations. Serving inspiration, not photographs of our harvest. Select a photo to enlarge.
CASA VERDE · GROWER’S NOTES
Get to know your pepper.
Aromatic sweet pepper
Criolla de Cocina pepper seeds
Criolla de Cocina brings a pronounced pepper flavour to salsa, rice and simmered sauces. This Nicaraguan sweet pepper has wrinkled fruit and thin walls that are easy to chop into everyday cooking.
At a glance
Crop
Capsicum annuum
Flavour
Aromatic sweet pepper
Fruit
Wrinkled, thin-walled
Kitchen role
Salsa, rice and sauces
Why grow it?
Grow it for seasoning a dish rather than filling a large bell-pepper cup. Finely chopped pieces distribute pepper flavour through beans, vegetables or a tomato sauce.
In the kitchen
- Fresh salsa: Combine chopped pepper with tomato, onion and a little lime juice. Serve freshly made.
- Rice and beans: Soften chopped pepper with onion before adding it to your rice or bean dish.
- Roast or fry: Cook strips in a little oil, then fold into a warm vegetable salad or sandwich.
Growing and harvesting
- Start indoors: Provide warm seed-starting conditions and bright light after emergence.
- Transplant: Harden plants off and wait until frost risk has passed and the soil and nights are warm.
- Site: Choose full sun, well-drained soil and steady moisture.
- Harvest: Pick firm fruit at a useful size. Allow more time if you want fully coloured ripe peppers; weather and growing conditions affect the harvest.
Explore the catalogue
Pepper seeds CanadaPepper germination guideCommon questions
Is this a hot pepper?
It is catalogued as a sweet seasoning pepper. Its strong pepper flavour should not be confused with chili heat.
What makes the fruit useful in the kitchen?
The thin walls and wrinkled shape work well chopped into sauces and seasoning mixtures.
Can it grow in a Canadian garden?
Start plants indoors and transplant into a warm, sunny site after frost. Harvest timing depends on your local season.
Seed note: cultivar descriptions are a growing guide, not a guarantee of fruit size or harvest date.
Cook your harvest
Use your harvest in these recipes. Check the variety notes and substitutions in each recipe.
Start indoors 8–10 weeks before last frost. Germinate at 26–30 °C on a heat mat; peppers stall below 22 °C. Pot up to 10–15 cm before hardening off outside after nights stay above 12 °C.
Feed balanced through bloom, then bump potassium for fruiting. Stake taller varieties. More detail in our full Canadian growing guide.
Match the pepper to the technique: thin-walled varieties blister fast in a hot pan; thick-walled ones roast or stuff beautifully; fruit-forward ones make balanced sauces and pickles. The variety's flavour profile is your shortcut — see Choosing the right pepper for a use-case guide.
