Fermented Hot Sauce
This simple fermented hot sauce recipe is designed to help you create your own signature hot sauce flavor. Add fruit, vegetables, or spices. Make it as hot or not as you want!
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 15 minutes
- Yield: 1/4 to 1/2 cup 1x
- Category: Condiment
- Method: Fermented
- Cuisine: Mexican
- Diet: Vegan
Ingredients
Units
Scale
- 1 1/2 lb (750g) cup of coarsely chopped hot peppers, other vegetables, and/or fruit (about 3 1/2 cups)
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 1 Tbsp salt (non-iodized)
- 2 Tbsp of water, as needed, to cover (chlorine-free)
Instructions
- Usually, hot sauce is just made with hot peppers or a combination of hot peppers, garlic, and onions. However, it’s OK to use whatever flavors you want. See the section above for a few of my favorite combinations.
- Finely chop all the vegetables and garlic in a food processor. Add the salt and continue to pulse until it’s as smooth as possible.
- Scrape the hot sauce puree into a quart-sized (1L) jar for fermenting. Depending on the combination of vegetables, you may need to add a bit of water to keep everything under the liquid. To keep everything below the liquid for fermenting, use a ziptop bag filled with water as a weight. Generally, I don’t recommend using plastic bags for fermenting, but in this case, it’s the best option.
- Store the jar in a dark location for fermenting and let it ferment for 5-7 days.
- When you have finished fermenting, strain the pulp through a fine-mesh sieve, squeezing out all the liquid. Store the hot sauce in a jar for serving and discard the pulp (or see notes for a suggestion on how to reuse the pulp).
- If you want to add additional flavors like lime juice, vinegar, or sugar, add them at this point.
- Store in the fridge and use within 6 months (for hot sauce) or 1 month (for not-so-hot sauce).
Notes
- The combination of hot peppers and salt will help prevent your hot sauce from going off. However, hot sauce is prone to kahm yeast. Kahm yeast isn’t an issue, just make sure it’s not mold.
- I don’t like throwing out my leftover hot sauce pulp. It’s packed full of flavor, perfect for adding to chili or tortilla soup.
Keywords: chili, spicy, sweet, fruit, summer, fall, traditional, gluten free, vegan, sugar-free, keto, paleo, onion, garlic, mango, not-hot sauce
Find it online: https://www.fermentingforfoodies.com/fermented-hot-sauce/