This Roasted Red Pepper Sauce is one of my favorite kitchen staples. It is super versatile and keeps well in the freezer, making it a wonderful make-ahead option for dinners on those busy nights.
You might be looking at this thinking, “Okay what do I do with a roasted red pepper sauce?” Well, let me tell you a few ways that you can use it.
- Drizzled on top of grilled fish or chicken. You can either serve the sauce on the side as a dip or drizzle a bit on top. This sauce packs a punch, so start with a light serving.
- Pizza sauce. This makes for a yummy alternative to a traditional pizza sauce. But be sure to use the sauce lightly; it is heavy on the garlic and it gets too strong in a hurry.
- Marinara sauce. This is my favorite way to use this red pepper sauce. I use one box of Pomi strained tomatoes (this brand is my absolute favorite for flavor), 1/2 cup of this Roasted Red Pepper Sauce, a pinch of nutmeg, a splash of red wine vinegar, and about two tablespoons of Frontier brand Pizza Seasoning. By the way, I find this seasoning in the bulk section of my local natural food store, but you can also order it online.
This recipe makes about three cups of sauce, which is way more that I ever use at one time. So when I make this sauce, I portion it out into small snack baggies (1/2 cup per baggie) and then freeze it. This way I can pull out one small baggie at a time and use it on demand. When frozen, the sauce will last for several months.
Making the sauce is really pretty simple. Start with red peppers and roast them. I do this the same way that I roast Anaheim chiles, as described in my Fire Roasted Green Chiles post. Start with clean red peppers, and cook them on the grill or under the broiler on high heat.
Cook the peppers for 20-25 minutes, turning every 5-10 minutes. The more thoroughly blackened the peppers are, the better.
When the peppers are evenly blackened, remove them from the grill and place them in a large bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap to allow them to steam for at least 20 minutes.
When you have steamed the peppers, remove the seeds and stems and scrape off the skin. You do not want to eat the blackened skin, so toss it. Then all you need to do is toss the peppers into a blender with the remaining ingredients and blend until smooth.
Roasted Red Pepper Sauce
SODIUM COUNT: Less than 1 mg sodium per serving; 21 mg sodium in the entire recipe
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 48 1x
Ingredients
- 6 large red bell peppers ((washed and dried))
- ½ cup olive oil
- 2 Tbsp lemon juice ((I have used fresh and bottled and both work fine))
- 2 cloves garlic ((chopped))
- 1.5 tsp sweet Hungarian paprika
- Fresh ground black pepper ((to taste))
Instructions
- Place the peppers on the grill over high heat. Alternately you may broil the peppers on high. Grill for about 5-10 minutes per side. Rotate the peppers as needed so that the peppers are evenly blackened.
- When the peppers are evenly blackened and the skin begins to crack, remove from the grill and place in a large bowl covered with plastic wrap. Let the peppers rest for at least 20 minutes.
- After 20 minutes, remove the peppers from the bowl and scrape the skin off with a knife. Remove the stem and slit the pepper so that it lays flat. Scrape the seeds out of the pepper with the knife.
- Place the peppers into the blender with the olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, paprika, and black pepper. Blend until smooth.
- You may store the sauce in the fridge for several days. You can also freeze the sauce by placing ½ cup in small (snack size) baggies. The frozen sauce will keep for several months.
Notes
NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION – Yield: 3 cups sauce, about 48 servings (1 Tablespoon each)
Sodium: 0.4 mg, Calories: 25.6, Total Fat: 2.4 g, Saturated Fat: 0.3 g, Cholesterol: 0.0 mg, Carbohydrates: 1.4 g, Fiber: 0.4 g, Sugar: 0.9 g, Protein: 0.2 g.
Recipe adapted slightly from Fine Cooking‘s recipe for Roasted Red Pepper Puree.
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