Spicy Red Pepper and Chilli Dip

Holy Guacamole! This is good stuff, and (I know I may have said this before) perhaps the easiest dip, ever! No, not guacamole, not an avocado in sight. This bowl of deliciousness is a fiery red pepper and chilli sauce/dip, made with ready-to-eat grilled red peppers in a jar…you know the ones!

A slight variation on a Nigella recipe. Instead of two chillis and two limes, one of each was enough for me. If you are a full-on chilli fiend then you can go hot, hot, hot! Nigella also recommends flavourless oil, sorry Nige, I’m too much of an extra virgin olive oil fan not to use it so for me that’s a must, but any oil will do.

There’s very little room for error with this recipe, absolutely no need to be exact with any element in this one, really. It’s definitely the dip you can figure out as you go along and adjust the spicy to suit, especially!

Use it as you would use any chilli sauce, I like it best as a dip with toasted pitta, or potato wedges - a guaranteed crowd pleaser!

Ingredients

1 x 290 grams jar roasted peppers.
I red chilli.
1 clove garlic (peeled)
Zest and juice of 1 lime
1 large (100g) bunch of fresh coriander.
Seasoning
3, 4 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil.

Method

Take the stalks off the red chillies, and deseed them if you don’t like it too hot. Add a garlic clove, lime zest and juice. Cut the stalks off the fresh coriander and add these, too. Process until paste-like.
Drain the jar of roasted peppers, add to the chilli paste mix, along with the fresh coriander leaves, salt, and whizz again, but only lightly!
Then stir in some oil, enough to make a sauce that is more liquid than salsa, but still chunky and spoonable.

My notes and tips

Hmmm, what are my tips? Don’t let it get too watery or smooth by over blending, this one is nicest with a bit of chunk. Having said that it’s a personal preference so go with the flow.

Taste, taste and taste again, to get the chilli levels just right!