Scotch Bonnet Pepper Hot Sauce (with Roasted Garlic & Carrots)
Recipes | February 27, 2017
This Scotch Bonnet Pepper Hot Sauce is mind blowing! The flavours are phenomenal, it is made with roasted garlic and carrots and goes perfectly with everything!
This Scotch Bonnet Pepper Hot Sauce. Mind-blown. That may be literally from the heat and the amount I’ve consumed, but I’m sure it’s also because this was an outstanding hot sauce recipe. Scotch Bonnet Peppers, of the species capsicum chinense, are local Jamaican/Caribbean hot peppers. For comparison, they are 40 times (actually) hotter than jalapeños on the Scoville scale. Chopped up, it’s a perfect heat source in any meal. These beautiful peppers makes up this entire, mouthwatering, breathtaking Scotch Bonnet Pepper Hot Sauce. You need to try this. Without a doubt, you’ll be making it again and again and again.
This was one of the best weeks/weekends of my life. Apart from twisting my ankle again, and injuring my shin and knee, of course. It started with being a guest lecturer for a group of 4th year (food) hospitality management students to teach me food styling (YES!) which I mentioned earlier here. Then, this Saturday, I did my first ever speech on behalf of Jessica in the Kitchen about my journey of ‘beauty through health’. I’ve done lots of presentations and speeches, but this was so special because it’s been 11 months since I made the big leap to doing this full time, and because I was so passionate on the topic.
The speech went amazingly and the audience was SO receptive. Honestly, pure fun, excitement and a lot of ‘I-won’t-limp-despite-this-excruciating-pain’ smiling. I also know this Scotch Bonnet Pepper Hot Sauce was a big part of this week because I literally put it on EVERYTHING. Savoury. I. Ate.
This Scotch Bonnet Pepper Hot Sauce is for the books. As in, when I come out with a printed cookbook (whenever that is) this is going in my all time favourite recipes section. The Mr. is a pepper addict if you remember, and he has been pouring this baby on everything. I wouldn’t be surprised if I found out he was drinking it from the bottle when I wasn’t looking. It’s that good. Flavour bomb.
It’s also insane how easy the process to make this Scotch Bonnet Pepper Hot Sauce is.
Most hot sauces I see require a two day process of sitting then boiling or some mix of that process. You actually boil this entire recipe together first, and then you blend it together. It saves so much time and can be used immediately. Personally? WAIT two days if you have the patience before using it in a big dish. Have a bit now, enjoy, then wait two days. The difference is EXTRAORDINARY.
I got the recipe from Happyolks and essentially just changed portions to my own preferences. The carrot addition is just pure genius. As I’m learning, carrots are a super versatile ingredient and contributes to the body and gorgeous colour of the sauce. Scotch bonnet peppers actually age from green, to yellow, to bright and dark reds, so you could use red peppers if you’d like or even yellow for a different colour. I used a combination of yellow and dark orange in mine. You can also use habanero peppers, which are the same heat level of scotch bonnet peppers, or even mix. The world is your (veg) oyster. LIVE. IT UP.
We brought this hot sauce to our family dinner with my mom, dad and two brothers. Needless to say, this was a favourite at family dinner. We brought *drumroll* chickpea curry as our contribution and a brand new fried goat cheese salad that I can’t wait to share with you. This tastes absolutely divine in my chickpea curry, so I would suggest there as the perfect starting point.
Or a sandwich. Or a dip. Slathered on bread. Anything your heart desires. Just try this baby.
Scotch Bonnet Pepper Hot Sauce (with Roasted Garlic & Carrots)
Ingredients
Scotch Bonnet Pepper Hot Sauce (with Roasted Garlic & Carrots)
- 1 cup chopped carrots
- 11 scotch bonnet peppers or habanero peppers, stems removed and sliced in half
- 7 garlic cloves
- 1 cup white vinegar
- 1 cups water
- 1.5 tablespoons sea salt
- 1.5 tablespoons coconut sugar
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 1 large lime, juiced
Instructions
Scotch Bonnet Pepper Hot Sauce (with Roasted Garlic & Carrots)
- In a skillet (I use a cast iron skillet) add the garlic, with the skins still on, and allow to blacken on both sides (flipping in between) until roasted, about 10 minutes.
- Once blackened, remove from skillet and peel the skins off the cloves. Add the (now peeled) cloves back to skillet and add all the other ingredients except the lime.
- Stir together. Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer for 25 minutes, stir infrequently.
- Remove from heat and pour into your blender. Squeeze in the lime juice. Blend together in a high powered blender for 3 minutes, or in a regular blender until very, very smooth. If you'd like your sauce thinner, feel free to add more lime juice to thin out and blend again. I liked mine spoonable and not thin.
- Pour into a clean, sterilized jar and screw tight. You can use it immediately, but after 2 days the flavours meld together wonderfully. Add to anything and enjoy!!
NOTES
recipe adapted (portions) from Happyolks Carrot Habanero Hot Sauce
by Jessica
Those peppers are so adorable and I should grow one this year! The sauce sounds really great.
Thanks Angie!! They are so flavourful it’s crazy. The sauce is too!!
1.5 tbsp of salt!!!!
Yes, that’s correct. It’s not a lot of salt given the volume of everything else in the recipe. 🙂
What is the shelf life of this sauce? I bottled it is woozy bottles but did not water bath them? Also do I need to refrigerate? Gannette@tampabay.re.com
Hey Gigi,
Well we finished it in two weeks, and it was still amazing and fresh by then! Homemade hot sauce tends to last up to a month since the vinegar and salt are great preservatives. Hope that helps! I’ll definitely test it out!
Hi! I’ll be making it soon but I can handle too much heat and feel like it’d be a waste if I didn’t try to preserve it somehow. Do
*do you think it’s possible to can the fished product?
Hey Wiktoria,
Yes you can! You can follow the standard canning procedures you’d normally use for this!
Can you use regular sugar instead of coconut sugar?
Hi Krista,
Definitely!!
Hi : I made your scotch bonnet pepper sauce. It certainly is mind blowing. Turned out excellent. I have a question… what is the self life?
Thank you
Susan
Hi Susan,
Aww thank you and I’m so happy to hear! If you can it properly, it should last at least a month!
Did you remove the seeds or is it fine to leave them in?
Hi Omari we didn’t remove the seeds, but if you want it less spicy removing the seeds are recommended. I hope this helps!
Looks delicious! How many 1/2 pint jars did this recipe make?
Hi James,
I’m not sure but it makes 2 ½ cups – I hope that helps!
Hey,
I tried to make the sauce with your recipe but I guess I did something wrong. For some reason it tastes a lot like vinegar even though I am sure I used the right amount. Anyways, to save the sauce I was thinking to do the same amount of sauce again but this time completely without vinegar and mix it with the one I messed up. Now I am wondering how important the right amount of vinegar is for the shelf life of the sauce. If I understood right that’s what the vinegar is for right?
Thank you in advance for your help!
Regards,
Tobi
Based on your recipe and the various reviews, I decided to make a double batch last night. I couldn’t find Scotch Bonnet peppers, so I used Habaneros. I love Scotch Bonnets, so I plan to locate some for a future batch. I didn’t have coconut sugar so I diced sweet dried coconut strips (from Trader Joes). Roasting the garlic in their skins made the house smell great and the soft flesh with charring will add to the sauce. After blending and prior to the addition of the lime juice and zest, I tried some of the warm sauce on tortilla chips. Outstanding! I ended up flaming my mouth because the heat snuck up on me. The lime juice and zest made it even better. I ended up making Eight half-pint jars of the sauce. I’m going to wait Two days before I break into the sauce to compare. Great recipe! Thank you. I think I may warm the sauce up and have it as a chip dip.
First off glen we love scotch bonnet peppers too! We’re glad that you enjoyed this, thank you so much for reading and trying our recipe.
WOW! I made half the recommended amount and have enough to last for a couple of months. Tears are in my eyes as I’m leaving this review due to the heat and my tongues on fire, exactly how I wanted it. The taste is amazing. A simple and very easy recipe to follow. Thank you Jessica!
LOL! We’re so glad you enjoyed it despite the tears Ilya! Thanks for reading!!
I’m wondering if you put tumeric in yours. Also, does anyone add tomotoes? Even one? For our household I doubled the garlic, but I have to say I LOVE this roasting method.
Hi Aaron! We’re happy you enjoyed the recipe! We haven’t used it, but using tumeric isn’t uncommon, you can try it and let us know how it turns out. Same for the tomatoes!
Tumeric adds a lot actually. It makes it earthier and adds a lot of color. I’ve tried several things including beets. Also, adding ginger during the cooking process helps a ton. I’m especially grateful for your garlic roasting method.
Thanks for responding Aaron we’ve added this to our notes. We really do appreciate the feedback! Thanks for being such an active reader it really does help our team.
Ps. The garlic roasting method is a life saver!
Hi, I have just made a batch of this. Im am in Scotland( outside Dunoon) and grew my own scotch bonnets this year, my plant is 2 years old and hailed approx 150 of the wee hot things!! lol What I am wondering is can you freeze this? I have had a lot of folks asking for some and it would make smashing xmas pressys. I dont think this lot would last till chrismtas. Cheers Sooz
Hey Sooz,
Aww I’m so happy that you enjoyed so much and wow – that’s incredible! I need my own plant too! Yes, you can definitely freeze this. When thawing it might separate a bit, so you might want to re-blend before gifting. I would recommend freezing in a reusable freezer bag. I hope that helps and enjoy!!
Call me dumb but can anyone tell me if the garlic cloves ever get peeled? So it’s the whole garlic “ear” goes in and gets toasted and then you split the cloves off or do you toast the cloves and peel them? I’m sure it’s very clear to everyone else but I’m struggling.
Hey Gentry,
No you’re not dumb at all! So in the instructions it says “Once blackened, remove from skillet and peel the cloves off. Add back to skillet and add all the ingredients except the lime.”
So you take off 7 pieces off your whole head of garlic and use those with the skins in. Then after they’re toasted, you remove those garlic cloves and that’s when you removes the skins from the cloves. Then you add them back in to the same skillet for the next step.
So long story short like you said – you toast the cloves then peel them off after! I hope that helps and that you enjoy!!