Vegetarian – Page 34

Spicy Glazed Carrots

A sweet and spicy side…

Matching the earthy sweetness of carrots with butter and brown sugar is already a delicious pairing. But when you add in some chili powder and a pinch of cayenne powder? Now we’re talking a spicy side delight.

This is a great side dish for roasted turkey, ham, or even steak, so keep it at hand during holiday season or for dinner parties. It’s a quick recipe to make that has a lot of flavor for the effort. The cayenne pepper powder is optional, but just a little pinch brings a nice warmth to the carrots.

Moroccan Pumpkin Soup

by Matt Bray

Exotic spices mixed with hearty pumpkin…

Do you enjoy soups with some spiciness and a flair for the exotic? Moroccan pumpkin soup will be right up your alley. It’s well-spiced with the likes of Moroccan sweet paprika, turmeric, cumin, coriander, and cinnamon with a little hint of spicy kick from a touch of cayenne pepper. This is the kind of soup that will warm you up from head to toe.

If you like the idea of exotic spiciness mixed with pumpkin, check out our Thai pumpkin soup too. It uses curry as its base with a cayenne kick.

Huancaina Sauce

by Matt Bray

A delicious Peruvian cheese sauce…

Peruvian huancaina sauce is a must for the delicious traditional potato dish papas a la huancaina. But this mix of queso fresco, sunny aji amarillo peppers, and onions has more culinary options that that. Use it as a veggie dip, as a side to salsa for Mexican and Peruvian meals, or pour it over cooked veggies as you would any cheese sauce.

Aji amarillo peppers provide a cayenne pepper level heat and a tropical-sweet undertone to the sauce. It’s a unique, summery taste making for one terrific alternative to typical (and often boring) cheese sauces.

Harissa Tomato Sauce

by Matt Bray

Spiced bite…

Harissa tomato sauce is more than spicy ketchup. There’s a real robust spice here – a mix of cumin, coriander, and caraway provide an earthy and fresh zing. We use sambal oelek as a base for the sauce instead of going with freshly ground dried chilies like a a typical homemade harissa. It provides the needed tomato sauce base while packing plenty of heat. You can pick up sambal oelek in most grocery stores or online.

Use harissa tomato sauce as a dipper – it’s delicious with fresh or toasted pita, fried foods (like mozzarella sticks), and French fries. It’s also an interesting option as a pasta sauce for those that enjoy spicier fair.

Cheese Stuffed Cherry Peppers

by Matt Bray

Creamy, sweet, and tangy – with a touch of heat…

It’s often these simple recipes that bring the most pleasure. This cheese stuffed cherry peppers recipe takes a handful of ingredients, but delivers a delicious creamy tang that friends and family will love.

Cherry peppers (a.k.a. pimento peppers) have only a mild heat, 100 to 500 Scoville heat units. That’s at minimum five times milder than a jalapeño pepper, so this is a very family friendly chili pepper appetizer. They are deliciously sweet which pairs very well with the tang from the pickling and the herbed goat cheese.

Spicy Plum Sauce

by Matt Bray

A boldly fruity fiery dipping sauce…

Plum sauce is a delicious side to Chinese food, particularly anything that’s fried. Sweet, sour, and – in our case – fiery, this bold condiment really provides a real punch to fried egg rolls in particular.

Beyond Chinese, try this spicy plum sauce as a chicken tender dipper. The heat comes comes simply from common cayenne pepper powder, so it’s easy to control and adjust. This is an excellent alternative to your typical barbecue dipping sauce.

Spicy Sour Cream

by Matt Bray

A simple sour cream hack…

Sour cream and Mexican food often goes hand in hand. Sometimes there’s plenty of spice already in that Mexican meal, and other times…well you need a little something extra to amp things up a bit. It’s very simple to turn that sour cream you’re scooping right from the container into a topping that’s a little more fun. Our spicy sour cream recipe is as easy as it gets: just a little chipotle powder and salt and you have a delicious topper for those mild tacos or enchiladas.

We love using chipotle pepper because it’s not only spicy, it also has a delicious smokiness to it. But if smoky isn’t your thing, you can adjust the recipe using various levels of paprika and cayenne pepper powder. They can still bring some heat without that smoky undertone.

Homemade Sambar Powder

by Matt Bray

An exotic Indian seasoning…

There are a few lightly fiery seasonings that are musts for authentic Indian cuisine, and sambar powder is among one of the most important. It’s used to make sambar, a delicious lentil-based soup that’s often a precursor (or a side) to the main Indian meal. Sambar powder, too, can be a substitute to rasam powder for making rasam – a thin soup that’s typically served atop rice.

In both cases, it’s the popular Indian kashmiri chili that provides a light simmer of heat. These are mild peppers (1,000 to 2,000 Scoville heat units), but enough are called for in the recipe that you’ll feel the spiciness.

Tomato Rasam

by Matt Bray

A “spice-potent” Indian tomato soup…

If you love Indian spices, tomato rasam is a must dish for an authentic night of Southern Indian food. It’s simply served over rice as a filling meal on its own or as a side dish to a larger meal. This is spice-filled comfort food at its best. Tangy, earthy, aromatic, and – yes of course – spicy!

The recipe calls for kashmiri chilies as the heat source. You can increase the heat by using rasam powder – either as a replacement to the cumin and coriander (see the notes) or as an additive at the end of the steps. Rasam powder (see our recipe here or buy it here) is spicy in its own right, so it adds additional kick.

Fiery Mexican Bean Salad

by Matt Bray

A bean salad with attitude…

As a barbecue side, Mexican bean salad is top of the line. Not only is it tasty, it also brings colorful life to the table. It’s an explosion of yellows, reds, and greens that looks fresh and fun.

And then there’s the other “f” in this recipe: fire. Jalapeño pepper provides a fresh bright pop while cayenne pepper powder layers a heat undertone through the entire spicy side dish. This most definitely is a bean salad with attitude – which works real well with bolder meat rubs and sweet BBQ sauces.