This really useful roasted red pepper sauce is a luscious sweet, savoury and a little smokey red pepper sauce only takes about 20 minutes. It also happens to be the perfect stand in for any tomato or "red sauce" that you could need.
Hey everyone! Hope your week is off the a flying start. I'm going to be keeping this post short and sweet today (bit like this sauce!). I'm off to London for the week working at Taste of London. So, with that in mind there's a lot of pre event work that's been piling up. But have no fear... the recipes will keep comin all week long.
But let's talk about this sauce real quick. It's exactly as the name suggests. It's soooo really very useful. Perfect for topping on pizza, using as a quick pasta sauce and even using instead of ketchup. Use it for a pasta bake of to bake chicken in.
Okay. You get it. But just to be clear...
The top 3 reasons you need to make roasted red pepper sauce
- It's the perfect alternative to tomato based sauces
- It's a vegan sauce loaded with veggie to make sure you get enough nutrients
- That hint of caramelised brown sugar and sweet balsamic that is so delicious it'll make your toes curl.
You need to make this red pepper sauce and stash it in the freezer and save for an emergency dinner. It's loaded with basic ingredients like red pepper, shallots and garlic. Toss it all with olive oil and brown sugar with some balsamic and it turns into a deep and rich roasted pepper sauce with hints of caramelised brown sugar and an undertone of earthy thyme.
And tomorrow... I'm gonna show you the first thing you should make using this red pepper sauce!
Really Useful Roasted Red Pepper Sauce
Ingredients
- 3 red peppers cut into chunks
- 3 small banana shallots sliced
- 2 cloves garlic sliced
- 1 Tablespoon brown sugar
- 1 Tablespoon balsamic vinegar
- 6 sprigs thyme
- salt and pepper
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180c
- Cut the red pepper into large chunks along with the shallots and garlic. Place in a large roasting tray.
- Sprinkle the brown sugar and balsamic vinegar over the peppers.
- Pull the thyme leaves from their stalks and toss over the peppers.
- Roast in the preheated oven for 20 minutes until the peppers are just starting to charr and the brown sugar and balsamic are starting to caramelise and bubble.
- Toss into a blender and blend until smooth.
Janet Dyer says
You will get even more flavor from the thyme if you will simply place the sprigs of fresh thyme in the pan with the vegetables. After roasting (and before blending) simply use tongs to remove the stems. I find most of the leaves are already fallen from the stem, but you can easily rub them off into the mixture after they cool a few moments.
Debs says
That is true, Janet. But when you add thyme in that fashion (without it roasting) it tastes like you've just added a bunch of thyme, rather than having the thyme appear as a note in the whole dish. It's like adding salt at the end of cooking. The dish doesn't taste seasoned, it just tastes salty. In the case of this pepper sauce I didn't want to the thyme tasting to "green and grassy" as uncooked thyme often can. When thyme is cooked with a dish it pushes the other flavours to the front and encourages them to "be all they can be". But if you simply add thyme after the cooking process it always wants to fight for first place. Which in this case was not what I wanted. I've been so fortunate to work with some amazing chefs in my career and learned very early on that there has to be intention and a reason behind every decision in a recipe. That's what I love about cooking and recipes. Everything is adaptable to every style and taste.
Marli says
Any chance you meant to say 3 CUPS of chopped red bell pepper? I did just the 3 bell peppers and am currently staring at not even a cup of puree.
Debs says
Hi Marli. For this recipe I used 3 bell peppers. But I realise that not all bell peppers are made equally and that I didn't account for the wildly varying sizes of peppers that people have access to. If the peppers you used were on the smaller side then, yes, it would totally make sense that you didn't end up with enough puree. I'll remake the recipe and measure out in cups how much it works out to and amend accordingly. Thanks for reminding me that, when cooking, specifics rule the day! Sorry this recipe didn't make as much as you were hoping for. I hope it made up for it in terms of flavour!
Karen Mahlke says
Debs, it's refreshing to have a totally 'professional' point of view. You're input regarding the specific reasoning for when and where to add spices was enlightening, and Ive been cooking for more years than I care to recount here.
Thanks for the great advice! Karen
Debs says
Thanks so much, Karen!!!! Your words have made my day! I so glad you found it helpful!
Brent says
I'm one of those people who would rather see trees than paper. When I printed your little recipe it took 3 pages of paper which costs me money and impacts the environment. Most sites have changed this waste. I will soon try this recipe.
Debs says
Thanks so much for the comment Brent. I, too am a bit of a tree hugger, so your comment gave me a mild heart attack. When I hit the print recipe button on this little recipe page, I can assure you only one page was used. Not sure what you did there to get it to need three pages. Maybe you printed the whole post? Not sure. But the "print recipe" button works just fine and only uses one sheet of paper. Thanks so much. Happy cooking.