Mild habaneros with poblano and padron peppers and heirloom tomatoes
The garden’s a mess, but I’m still picking the very mild habanero peppers. They’re beautiful – lime green with shiny, pleated skin. The plant’s lovely, too — about thigh-high with lime-kelly green flouncy leaves that tend to hide the many peppers they produce. The peppers are delicious. Aromatic with a distinct flavor that shines in salads, fritattas, omelets, salsa, soups, and more. Unlike habaneros from which they are derived, they have very little heat – about 500 Scoville units, the measurement of capsacin in a hot pepper, whereas a ‘regular’ habanero is about 300,000. (Jalapeno is about 5,000 Scoville units just to give you an idea of the degree of heat).
They were developed by Texas A&M breeder,Kevin Crosby, who crossed a searing Yucatan habanero with wild cousins from Bolivia and Colombia to develop the mild chile. Zavory, sold by Cook’s Garden seeds, is similar, though it doesn’t have that distinct habanero flavor. Renee’s Garden Seeds sells something they call Suave, which is what I planted last year and this year, and love. By way of comparison, the chili reputed to be the hottest scientifically tested variety in the world, the ‘Red Savina habanero,’ rates 577,000 Scoville, the unit used to measure heat in chiles. The institute’s new mild ‘NuMex Suave Orange’ habanero measures 835 Scoville and the new mild ‘NuMex Suave Red’ limps in with 580 units.
This time of year, I’m getting so many, I share them. And although I use lots of them fresh in a host of things, but while I pickle the lemon peppers and other hot peppers I grow, I don’t do it with these mild habaneros. Instead, I roast some in a slow oven with salt and olive oil, then stuff them in a freezer bag ( and when I’m ambitious, I actually haul out the vacuum sealer my husband uses for his geese) and freeze them. In winter, I can just take a couple out and put them into soup or stew for a little hit of flavor and heat that doesn’t come any other way.
Habaneros added to satueed cauliflower and curry
But they are superb in crab salad, in sandwiches, soups – I made soup with curried lamb stock, a batch of sliced mild habaneros, and a leek and loved it.
I grew up sailing and building boats with my dad, married a tugboat captain, (who I'm still happily married to) and embarked on a life of adventure, challenge and fun. My first book, Woman in the Wheelhouse, told the sometimes harrowing story of working on an old coastal tugboat as cook/deckhand then worked in Mexico in the Campeche oil fields on a supply boat. I was one of the first women in the country to earn a tug operator's license. I'm the author of three other books, Course of the Waterman, which won the Fred Bonnie Prize for the novel, the historical novel, A Love Like No Other: Abigail and John Adams, A Modern Love Story, and OK Now What? A Caregiver's Guide to What Matters, which I wrote with longtime RN and hospice nurse, Sue Collins during the time my mother-in-law was moving to the end of her life.
My second, Course of the Waterman, the coming of age novel of a young Eastern Shore waterman, won the Fred Bonnie award in 2004. My third book, second novel, A Love Like No Other: Abigail and John Adams, A Modern Love Story, takes readers into the lives of the new nation's strong-willed second First Lady and her stubborn, often-absent and adored husband, John, our second US President. I wrote the book because I'd spent big chunks of time raising children alone while my husband was at sea and felt an affinity for Abigail, but also looked to her life as a MUCH bigger challenge that informed and encouraged my own. My fourth book, OK Now What? A Caregiver's Guide to What Matters (Head to Wind Publishing, 2014) was written in collaboration with Sue Collins, RN and longtime hospice nurse and has received heartwarming feedback on how helpful it's been to many caregivers.
A freelance writer for many years, I've published personal essays, features, maritime reporting and analysis, travel, garden and more for such places as The Washington Post, Yachting, House Beautiful, The Baltimore Sun, the Christian Science Monitor, Southern Living, Sailing, and more. I'm also a University of Maryland Master Gardener who grows and cans the family's fruits and vegetables, and a Bay-Wise program certifier. I write, sail, race sailboats (occasionally), walk the German Shepherd dogs, and cook for friends and family.
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2 thoughts on “Mild Habanero Hot Peppers”
“Mild habaneros” is a bit of an oxymoron, huh? Wish I could give my hot habaneros to someone!
How about taking them to your local farmers’ market and handing them over to one of the vendors? There are a few people who actually enjoy them (the flavor, I’m told, is the same lovely FLAVOR of these mild hybrids). And some recipes call for a habanero or two — if you have enough bulk of stuff compared to the peppers, you may get the flavor without the seared innards.
Nancy Taylor Robson 
“Mild habaneros” is a bit of an oxymoron, huh? Wish I could give my hot habaneros to someone!
How about taking them to your local farmers’ market and handing them over to one of the vendors? There are a few people who actually enjoy them (the flavor, I’m told, is the same lovely FLAVOR of these mild hybrids). And some recipes call for a habanero or two — if you have enough bulk of stuff compared to the peppers, you may get the flavor without the seared innards.