Creamy Roasted Red Pepper Sauce – For Pastas, Dips, and More!

Hi, vegetarian carnivores! Welcome back to my blog! Today we’re going to learn how to make the tastiest roasted red pepper sauce ever. It is vegan, creamy, and thick enough to use as both pasta sauce as well as dip for tortilla chips. It is totally versatile and I know you are going to love it.

Praise for my red pepper sauce

I made this out of curiosity one night in my apartment and it turned out really well, so I took it to work the next day for lunch. As always, my incredibly curious and food loving coworkers took bites of the pasta and loved it! One of them said they would pay big money at a restaurant for it. Imagine that self confidence boost! So I knew I had to share this gem with all of you.

Roasted red pepper

The name sounds so fancy. But really it is very simple. All you need is some aluminum foil and an oven safe pan. Heat up your oven, dry roast your peppers, take them out, cover them with the foil to sweat them, and then the skin peels right off. It is a pretty messy job so prepare to go all in, but the actual process is not that difficult.

The creaminess comes from the plant milk I used. I chose my favorite pea protein milk by Ripple, which doesn’t have the gross chalky texture I usually get from other vegan milks. This one is so creamy that I haved used it in all sorts of recipes as a thickening vegan cream. I use the unsweetened 0 grams of sugar version of it, but they have a few different varieties for you to choose from.

The magic!

We’re going to start by pre heating our oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Place your red peppers and garlic cloves on the oven safe tray. Start by sauteeing your onions on medium high heat and add in the nutritional yeast and spices. When the oven preheats dry roast your ingredients for 20-25 minutes until the skin blackens. Take the tray out of the oven and very carefully wrap the peppers while they are still hot in aluminum foil. This will sweat the peppers and make the skin easy to peel off. After about 10 minutes, you will be able to peel the skin away and get rid of the seeds in the middle. The garlic should be fragrant and easy to squeeze out of their pods after roasting. Throw everything together in a food processor or hand blend until no lumps remain. Add salt to taste.

Ingredients

1. 2 large red bell peppers
2. 3-4 garlic cloves
3. 1/3 cup nutritional yeast
4. 2 tbsp olive oil
5. 1 small white onion
6. 1/2 cup plant based milk
7. 1 tsp Smoked paprika, to taste
8. 1-2 tsp red chili flakes, depending on spice tolerance
9. Salt, to taste

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Roast red peppers and garlic pods for 20-25 minutes, until they blacken.
2. Saute onions and spices with olive oil and nutritional yeast until translucent. Set aside.
3. Take red peppers and garlic out of oven. Carefully wrap peppers in aluminum foil for 10 minutes.
4. Peel skin and get rid of seeds in red peppers.
5. Blend all ingredients with plant milk, as needed for thickness, until smooth and creamy. No lumps should remain.
6. Pour over your favorite pasta or use as a party dip and enjoy!!!

The results!

This is, by far, one of my favorite pasta sauces ever. Roasting red peppers from scratch is definitely way tastier than buying canned. The paprika takes this recipe the extra mile in terms of flavor. The red pepper gives it a welcome kick, and the creamy plant based milk gives it depth and texture. I can’t wait to make this again soon!

I want all of you to try this one and let me know how you like it! Like my coworker said: “I would buy this at a restaurant instead of mac and cheese.” Keep that in mind and get cooking!

See you soon!

Janani <3 <3