Red Bell Pepper Dip

2 x Red Bell Peppers

Garlic to taste, probably a clove or two.

1 x Tomato

Salt & Pepper to taste

Optional Ingredients

Horseradish

Cayenne pepper

Hot Sauce. I prefer Chipotle Tabasco.

Some people like to add cream cheese or even ricotta cheese. I prefer to use tofu.

Couldn't be simpler. Firstly, roast the red peppers either over a flame or in the oven. Pre-heat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit and bake the peppers for about 30-40 minutes, or until the skin of the peppers turns black and blisters.

While thee peppers are still hot, quickly put them into a plastic sandwich bag and seal it. The steam from the peppers will loosen the skin so that, after about 15 minutes, you will be able to peel it off with relative ease. You can skip this step if you want and it wont change the taste or the consistency of the final dip very much.

After you have peeled the roasted peppers (or not) then combine the peppers, some garlic and a tomato into a blender or food processor. Add salt and pepper and the other, optional ingredients if you wish. Blend it all together and ten leave it to stand for 20 minutes to let the flavors combine.

If you want to thicken the dip you can reduce it in a saucepan over a low heat.

Use As A Spread

You can use this flavorful mixture as a spread on sandwiches, burgers or even hotdogs.

Try It As A Dip

As a dip it is particularly wonderful with vegetables, especially carrots, celery, cucumber (preferably seedless) or even fruits like apples. Baked tofu sticks are also great to enjoy with this dip as are crackers, Pringles, potato chips or corn chips. It is also surprisingly good on cocktail franks or meatballs.

Use It As A Sauce

Tonight we tried this red pepper dip heated and used as a sauce on oven roasted cauliflower, bell peppers, sauteed mushrooms and onions and pierogies. It was fantastic, highly recommend trying it. Dust the pierogies with a little paprika and dress the vegetables with a small amount of lemon or lime juice. Looking forward to trying this red pepper mixture on roasted roasted, garlic potatoes.

As A Filling

While eating the above mentioned pierogies and roasted vegetables it occurred to me that the roasted red pepper mix would be amazing as a filler in pierogies instead of mashed potatoes.

Having made several versions of this dip I was cruising the internet looking for some other inspirations on how to use it and ran across this great cooking blog TheCookingMom. This enthusiastic home-cook made her own version of roasted red pepper dip and then stuffed it inside another bell pepper. I tried the same thing and also topped mine with scallions, however, I roasted the pepper that I stuffed the dip into as well and served it as a hot meal with sauteed onions. (Anyone that knows me knows that I try pretty hard to include mushrooms in just about every meal.) Roasting the pepper softens it slightly and mellows out the sharp taste of it.

I also hollowed out a tomato, stuffed it with the same red pepper dip and roasted that at the same time. These results were also very delicious.

I'm thinking about stuffing other kinds of peppers with the same mixture to see how it goes.

Roasted Red Bell Pepper Sauce also makes a great topping for homemade pizzas. You can use the Pilsbury, pre-made pizza dough if you like but I prefer to use naan bread as the pizza base. You can find tasty naan bread at any good grocery store and the best part is that it also makes delicious wraps! Use the roasted pepper just like you would sue normal pizza sauce and spread it over the base, add toppings and bake in the oven. Toppings like mushrooms, for example ;)

This sauce is a distant cousin to one of my own, favorite recipes. We had some left over pasta so I decided to use this as a pasta sauce substitute and quite enjoyed the results. I 'watered' it down a little with some milk but didn't really need to.

I also used this red pepper sauce as a kind of salsa on a taco and as a garnishment on a burrito, very tasty.