How to Cut a Bell Pepper: Strips, Dice and Rings

To cut a bell pepper into strips, remove the top and bottom, open one side of the pepper wall, then lay the wall flat and slice it lengthwise. This keeps the uneven seed core separate from the pieces you want to cook. For dice, turn the strips and cut across them.

Green bell pepper cut into small pieces on a plate. — Finished green bell-pepper pieces ready for cooking. Photo: KISUMAR123, Wikimedia Commons, CC0 1.0.

Open the pepper wall

Rinse the pepper under running water and dry it. Set it on a stable board. Cut a thin slice from the stem end and the bottom so you can see inside and create flat cut surfaces.
Make one lengthwise cut through the side wall. Open the pepper like a book and lay the wall skin-side down. Pull away the seed core and loose ribs by hand. If a rib remains, keep the wall skin-side down and trim toward the board with your fingers clear of the blade path; discard the stem and seeds.
Square off a curved edge only if it prevents the wall from lying flat. Cut the pepper into strips from the inside toward the skin. Choose the width for your dish: narrow strips for a quick sauté, wider strips for roasting or sandwiches.

Alabama Extension’s knife-skills lesson uses the same wall-opening approach: remove the ends, cut down the side, open the pepper and slice the flat sections. It also shows rotating strips crosswise for a dice. Read the Alabama Cooperative Extension knife-skills lesson.

Turn strips into dice

Gather a few strips into a stable group, line up their ends and make crosscuts at the size your recipe needs. A coarse dice needs fewer cuts; a fine dice needs closer, even spacing. Keep the guiding fingertips curled back, and stop when the remaining piece is too small to hold securely.

If you need rings instead, lay the pepper on its side and cut crosswise through the wall; remove any seeds from the rings afterward. This works well when the shape matters for stuffing or presentation, while opened flat walls are easier to turn into even strips.

Use a board large enough to hold the opened pepper and the cut strips without crowding the knife. Our cutting-board size guide explains how to check usable space before choosing a board.

Source: Alabama Cooperative Extension, “Knife Skills, Three Ways” (pepper-wall preparation and strips-to-dice sequence).