Wednesday, October 24, 2012

vegan mofo :: DIY hot sauce!

I made my own hot sauce, which I named "Hot Vegan Chicks," in honor of my hot vegan amigas.
I was looking through Bon Appétit magazine and spied an article on how to make your own hot sauce. I was intrigued. Spicy foods foods make life worth living and bland food worth eating; I drizzle hot sauce on many dishes.

I modified the instructions slightly. I didn't want to make such a large quantity because it's just me; the amounts below make a normal-size batch. If you like hot sauce, you need to try this. It's really easy, fun, and it's frugal, too. 


I used red Thai chilis. Use any hot pepper; just stick to one color.
I would just caution you to wear rubber gloves when handling the chilis. I forgot, accidentally scratched my eye, and the entire right side of my face was on fire from the pain. Yowza! Also, stick to one color chili [eg, red, yellow or green] or else you will end up with an ugly brown hot sauce.

DIY Hot Sauce [Modified from Bon Appétit]

  • 2 cups chilis, stemmed [I used Thai red chili peppers]
  • 2 T coarse salt
  • 2 cups white vinegar
Makes a scant cup

First. place the chilis and salt in the food processor.

Process to a course, salsa-like mixture. The spicy kick might knock you back – it's very powerful!


Place the paste in a jar or a dish, cover and let sit for 12 hours  or overnight to ferment slightly.


Add vinegar, cover, and let sit from 1-7 days. Taste each day. It will get a bit stronger as it ages. 


When it's as ass-kickingly hot as you like it, it's time to blend in the food processor again.

Strain out all the seeds by pouring mixture into a sieve over a glass container or bowl. You will need to push the liquid through with a spatula. Keep pushing; there's more liquid in there than you think. Don't forget to wear rubber gloves for this step [I wish I had!].

Using a funnel, decant to a glass container. This supposedly keeps for about 4 months in the refrigerator. I don't think mine will last that long. It's fiery good!


Contest: I've extended the contest to win a free copy of hot vegan chick, Dreena Burton's Let Them Eat Vegan! Some of you reported an issue with commenting and the captcha codes. Should be all fixed now [ah, the joys of redesigning your blog!] so please enter the giveaway contest, comment away and spread the word. I'll announce the winner tomorrow or Friday. 

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7 comments:

Dianne said...

Veggieguy will love this! I must surprise him with it soon!

Theresa said...

How cool! I can't wait for our chilli plants to produce excessive amounts of chillis so we can make piles of this sauce and give it away to other spice-lovers :)

Amey said...

holy moly dynise, this stuff looks INTENSE. I commend your fortitude! I like spicy food, but I am also still working on my tolerance capacity. It's improving, but I don't think I'm ready for this fiery intensity! :)

Julie Hasson said...

Yay, clearing the cache worked! Now I can comment; )

Love this hot sauce idea Dynise. I'm going to give it a try very soon (with gloves).

urban vegan said...

Oh hooray! Maybe I won't need to change templates after all. Yes, wear gloves for sure.

Andrea said...

Something's definitely changed because the comment box just showed up for me! The hot sauce would be perfect for my heat-loving family. Nothing is too hot for them.

Anonymous said...

ZOMG! Can't wait to make this. The process sounds dangerous... but I like danger.