🌶️ Homemade “hot” sauce 🌶️
Due to digestive issues I can’t really tolerate much spice, however I do like to add a bit of heat to dishes and as much flavour as I can manage.
This “hot” sauce can be made as hot, or not, as you like. I’ve kept it very mild and gone for a variation on a Piri-piri style.
Ingredients
Chilli peppers 4 mild-medium
Sweet peppers 4
Spring onions 50g
Lemons 3
Vinegar 3 tablespoons
Garlic oil 4 tablespoons
Rosemary 1 teaspoon
Thyme 1-2 teaspoon
Paprika 1 tablespoon
1 Bay leaf
Birds eye chilli flakes 1-2 teaspoon
Salt 1-2 tablespoons
Method
Prepare the vegetables
Chop the peppers and spring onion in to small chunks ready for the blender. Remove seeds from sweet peppers and if you want to keep your sauce mild then remove or reduce seeds from the chilli peppers, it is a good idea to wear disposable gloves when you are doing this to avoid burning sensitive areas!
Blend peppers (chilli and sweet), spring onion and herbs along with the juice from the lemons, vinegar, salt.
Add peel from the lemons, paprika, chilli flakes and a bay leaf to saucepan, allow to become heated through and fragrant. This will be very quick, don’t walk away from the pan or you risk burning the spices.
Once the spices are warmed, add in the blended mixture and bring everything to a simmer.
Cook for approximately 10 minutes to reduce the grassy flavours, you will need to ensure your kitchen is well ventilated during this stage!
Allow mixture to cool then blend with garlic oil, check for seasoning and acidity then move mixture in to an appropriate storage vessel.
FODMAPs
Red peppers do not contain any detectable FODMAPS but capsaicin (which is found in all peppers) can trigger IBS for some people so you might want to make the sauce mild the first time. Red chillies are low in FODMAP to 35g when they are moderate in Fructans. Lemon juice is low up until 187g when it is also moderate in Fructans.
Alterations
This recipe was made with low FODMAP in mind, if you are able to digest food without an issue or you can’t but feel like rolling the dice then here are some changes you can make:
Swap out garlic oil for 2-3 cloves of garlic and the same amount of olive oil.
Swap out spring onions for half of an onion.
For a taste closer to Piri-piri then double the vinegar.
Some recipes also call for the addition of 1 tablespoon of sugar, I felt this was unnecessary but you might prefer a slightly sweeter sauce.
Uses
You can use this anywhere you would usually have a chilli sauce, I like to add it to stir fry sauces and to marinade meat and veg that is going on to the BBQ or under the grill.
It is good for brightening up an otherwise boring dish, adding a little heat and plenty of flavour to your meal.
