Sweet Pepper Hot Sauce has become a favorite of those who like their food with a little kick. But it doesn’t just stop in the kitchen, the secret ingredient behind Sweet Pepper Hot Sauce is also helping educate active duty military students and skills they need to get off their deployment.
Red Pepper Sweet Chilli Sauce
A simple red pepper sweet chilli sauce that has so many uses including a topping for veggie burgers, a drizzle for salad wraps and a marinade for tofu. Sweet, smoky and delicious! It’s fat-free, very low in sodium and a good source of Vitamin A & C. Only 44 calories per tablespoon.
HOMEMADE CHILLI SAUCE
Do you ever make your own sauce?
Too often we reach for the ready made versions in the supermarket, but it’s actually easy to make sauce at home and you can tweak the flavour to suit yourself.
My latest batch is a red pepper sweet chilli sauce.
I’ve made a sweet chilli sauce before, but this time I decided to add red pepper for a fuller flavour and a pinch of paprika for a smoky edge.
BLEND IT
I usually chop my ingredients finely when I make sauce as I quite like some texture, but this time I decided my power blender would do all the work as I was going for a smoother sauce.
It was wonderful. I just threw everything in and hit the button. Smooth sauce, ready to be heated and to thickened n in a pot before being jarred.
HOW TO STERILISE JAM JARS
The modern method
It’s always best to sterilize jars before adding a freshly made sauce, chutney or jam.
I sterilize my jam jars and lids in the dishwasher just before I’m about to use them and only take them out when I’m ready to pour, being careful not to touch the inside of the jar or lid.
The traditional method
You can also sterilize them the traditional way by washing the jars and lids in hot soapy water then placing them on a baking sheet and popping them in a hot oven until they are completely dry.
Once again carefully use the jars while still hot.
5 Uses for Red Pepper Sweet Chilli Sauce
- Marinate pressed tofu in the sauce, grill it, then drizzle with more sauce.
- Pour sauce over a veggie burger.
- Use sauce as a dip with crunchy vegetables, nachos and breadsticks.
- Fill a pitta with lots of salad and falafel and drizzle over some sauce.
- Mix sauce through stir-fried vegetables and noodles.
Homemade Sweet Chili Pepper Sauce
Sweet chili peppers sauce is one of our family’s favorite sauces that we are using in the majority of the foods when we want to eat something spicy. It’s sweet, it’s spicy and it’s very easy to make at home. Even if you are not a fan of spicy dressings, you should try this fantastic recipe.
The biggest advantage is that you can make it as spicy as your family prefers to eat.
As we know, Sweet Chili sauce is one of the most popular sauces in Thai cuisine. In its homeland, this dressing is traditionally served with various fried chicken dishes. Sweet chili pepper sauce in Thai means “chicken dipping sauce”. As the name of the dressing suggests, it has a sweet-pungent balanced flavor.
Personally, we are using this sauce along with the meat but you can also use it with some vegetables or when you’re making some quick sandwiches, glazes, or marinades.
All over the world, you will not find a single Asian restaurant where you will not find a sweet chili sauce in the dishes.
Even though you can easily buy ready-made sauce from the supermarkets, I bet that you will get in love with this one, and you will prefer to make your own delicious homemade sweet chili pepper sauce from scratch.
What ingredients will we need for that?
- 1.1 lbs (500 g.) of Chili Peppers
- 2 Bell Peppers
- 8 fl. oz (235 ml.) of White vinegar
- ¾ lbs (340 g.) of Sugar
- ⅔ cup of Honey
- 1 teaspoon of Salt
- 2 cloves of garlic
How to make a homemade chili pepper sauce:
First of all, we will start with the bell peppers. Cut them into small cubes.
I cut them with a knife, but if you want, you can also cut them using a kitchen robot.
After you are done with bell peppers, wrap a pair of gloves to protect your hands from burns (and of course be careful not to touch your face or other parts of the skin with your hands because it will cause burns).
Remove the stems from the peppers and prepare them for chopping.
If you have found very hot peppers, remove the seeds from them. Or if you like spicy food, or if the peppers are not too hot, then you can leave the seeds in them.
If the peppers are hot, you can control the spicy level by the number of seeds that you will decide to keep. The more seeds you will leave in the sauce, the more piquant chili sauce you will obtain as a result. I used a robot to chop the hot peppers, and I decided to leave almost all the seeds because my family prefers spicy sauces but also and the chili peppers this time wasn’t too spicy.
Now, peel the garlic and crush it a little bit.
After that, put all the ingredients in a large bowl (except honey).
Quick Note: Use a stainless steel pan because this hot pepper sauce will color your utensils. If you are going to use a ceramic vessel, there is a high risk that you will not be able to clean it after that.
Put the pan on low heat, and let it boil for 30-45 minutes. Our goal is to soften all the ingredients a little and to make it more comfortable for us to blend them later.
Now we can prepare the jars where we will keep the sauce. I recommend using small pots, as this product is not consumed in large quantities. There is no need to sterilize jars and lids. It is enough to wash them well and to let them dry.
After the vegetables have cooked enough, take the pan from the heat. Using a manual blender, we pass the composition well until we get the desired consistency.
Put the pan back on the fire, and continue to cook everything on a small heat until you get the consistency of the sauce similar to honey.
Finally, add the honey into the sauce.
Leave the product on the stove until it starts to boil again. Immediately after it starts to boil, stop the hob and pour the product into the jars, and close them tightly.
Put the jars upside down and let them cool down.
After they are cooled, the product is ready to be served or to be stored.
Grilled Hot-Pepper Sauce
If your summer garden is producing more spicy peppers than you can even pick, let alone eat, this is the recipe you need. Homemade hot sauce is a cinch to make, lasts for weeks in the refrigerator, makes a fun gift, and most importantly, tastes amazing. This recipe for Grilled Hot-Pepper Sauce comes together in less than 30 minutes and is flexible enough that you can use whatever types of chiles you have on hand. (Obviously, the hotter the pepper, the hotter your sauce will be.) Before they are blended into a liquid, the peppers are grilled, which makes the texture of the sauce smoother and adds rich smoky notes. Our favorite blend contains jalapeños and serranos, and a bell pepper, which offsets the heat and adds sweetness. When combined with red wine vinegar, light brown sugar, salt, and a little garlic, you’ll be amazed by how much flavor can come from a few simple ingredients. Grilled Hot-Pepper Sauce is delicious on Mexican and Cajun dishes of course, but it’s a fantastic addition to eggs, pizza, chili, and even fried chicken.
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Recipe Summary
Active:
10 mins
Total:
20 mins
Yield:
About 1 cup
Ingredients
Ingredient Checklist
- 2 medium jalapeño chiles
- 2 medium serrano chiles
- 1 medium-size red bell pepper, stemmed and seeded
- 1/3 cup red wine vinegar
- 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 small garlic clove
Directions
Instructions Checklist
- Step 1Preheat grill to medium-high (400°F to 450°F). Place jalapeño chiles, serrano chiles, and bell pepper on oiled grates. Grill, uncovered, turning occasionally, 7 minutes.Transfer chiles and bell pepper to a heavy-duty ziplock plastic bag; seal and let stand 10 minutes.
- Step 2Remove and discard skins from chiles and bell pepper. Place chiles and bell pepper, red wine vinegar, light brown sugar, 2 Tbsp. water, kosher salt, and garlic clove in a blender or food processor. Process until smooth, 1 to 2 minutes. Use immediately, or store pepper sauce in an airtight container in refrigerator up to 2 weeks.
Chef’s Notes
Substitute these pepper combos in the recipe to make a new blend.
For a Green Sauce: 2 jalapeño chiles, 2 serrano chiles, and 1 poblano chile
For a Red Sauce: 2 red Fresno chiles, 1 habanero chile, and 1 red bell pepper
How to Make Your Own Hot Sauce – Non-Fermented
It is so easy to make your own hot sauce. Give this recipe a try if you have access to fresh hot peppers and love a good hot sauce.
With this easy homemade hot sauce, you chop, cook, add vinegar, blend, strain and bottle your hot sauce. You’ll be done within an hour or less. The result is a thin, smooth Louisiana style hot sauce that is similar to Frank’s Hot Sauce or Sriracha.
Difference Between Fermented and Non-Fermented Hot Sauce
Fermented hot sauce requires a longer process and can take 7 days to several weeks. Basically, you mix hot peppers and a salt brine and then wait for naturally occurring yeast and bacteria to transform the peppers. It’s relatively easy, it just takes time. There are many different ways to make fermented hot sauce which may or may not use commercial vinegar at some point. As a result, the taste profile can vary greatly, but most agree that fermented hot sauce has a little more complex taste.
Fermented food also has the benefit of providing healthy probiotics, but unless you’re using spoonfuls of sauce daily, I don’t think that’s a major advantage when it comes to hot sauce.
I’ve made fermented hot sauce several times and haven’t found the flavour of the end product to be worth the extra time. I would rather get the added complexity by experimenting by using different ingredients in my quick cooking sauce – adding cumin, onions, sweet peppers, fruit, etc.
What Kind of Peppers to Use
Use whatever hot peppers you have easy access to and that you enjoy the most. Better yet, use a combination of peppers to build complexity of flavour. You can even replace some of the hot peppers with sweet peppers. Personally, I love a blend of red jalapeno, serrano and cayenne peppers.
If you have green hot peppers – use those and make a green sauce!
PRO TIP: For the best looking sauce, stick to all green or all red peppers when making a batch. If you mix green and red peppers you’ll end up with a less attractive brown coloured sauce.
Adjusting the Heat in Your Hot Sauce
Want to increase or decrease how hot your hot sauce is? Try one or a combination of these strategies.
- Use a combination of sweet and hot peppers. Keep the overall amount in the recipe the same, but add in some red bell peppers for a milder sauce.
- Check the Scoville chart to determine where your peppers rank on the scale from mild to hot and choose accordingly.
- Remove the ribs and seeds for less heat. The highest concentration of capsaicin (the compound that makes hot peppers hot) is in the white ribs or membranes inside peppers. Because the seeds cling to these membranes, they’re often hot too, but the heat is really in those white ribs! You can choose whether to keep them or remove them.
- Adding the onions builds flavour and helps tame the heat just a little.
- Add a little sweetness. While it won’t change the actual heat level, it makes our taste buds think there’s less heat.
- Add a little more acid. More vinegar, wine, lemon or lime juice will help.
- Add a little tomato paste.