Pepper Caviar: Sweet and Hot Pepper Spread
Homemade pepper caviar is a classic cold appetizer, very light and easy to make. It can be a salad of fairly large pieces, similar to most kinds of salsa or pico de gallo, or the ingredients can be puréed until smooth. You can use any peppers you can get, from mild to as hot as you like. The appetizer keeps in the fridge, or in sealed jars after sterilizing.
A simple, tasty vegetable spread made from fried peppers of different kinds.
Ingredients
4 servings
- Fresh peppers (sweet and hot) up to 1 kg
- Garlic 3-4 cloves
- Lime (or wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar) 1 (1-2 tbsp juice)
- Cilantro 1 bunch
- Olive oil for frying + 1 tbsp
- Salt to taste
Step-by-step recipe
Frying the peppers
Unlike similar appetizers made from zucchini, beets or eggplant, pepper caviar is made from this one vegetable only: we add no onion, carrot or tomato. The only extras are garlic and cilantro, with lime juice for acidity, though wine vinegar works too. A spread of nothing but peppers is rare: even the famous Balkan ajvar and Bulgarian lyutenitsa, as a rule, contain other vegetables.
Take several large, fleshy bell peppers and plenty of other peppers of varying heat: cayenne, jalapeño, whatever “chili” you can find, and some mildly hot varieties.
All the peppers need to be roasted or fried. At home in the kitchen, frying is more convenient.
Remove the seeds and stem from the sweet bell peppers and cut the flesh into several pieces.
Heat a frying pan and grease it with olive oil, just a little. Fry the bell peppers until soft and lightly browned.
Transfer the peppers to a plate.
If needed, grease the pan with oil again and fry the smaller peppers, which are usually mildly hot or hot. Small peppers don’t need to be peeled before frying, it’s easier to do that afterwards. Stir them as they fry until soft and lightly browned, then transfer to the plate.
Peeling and chopping
Let all the fried peppers cool to room temperature.
Carefully remove the seeds and stems from the whole pods. You don’t have to peel off the outer skin. But if you roasted the peppers over a flame or in an electric oven, the skin comes off easily with your fingers.
By the way, frying takes some of the heat out of hot peppers, but it’s still worth washing your hands after handling them, to avoid any “pleasant” surprises.
In the end, pepper caviar can be served as a salad.
Chop all the fried flesh with a knife.
Peel the garlic and chop it finely.
Add the garlic and finely chopped cilantro to the peppers and salt generously.
Squeeze 1-2 tbsp of lime juice into the caviar; you can replace it with wine or balsamic vinegar. Mix well.
Add 1 tbsp of olive oil and mix once more.
Caviar and preserving for later
For something closer to the typical idea of vegetable caviar, blend the finished salad with an immersion blender until smooth. You can add a little more olive oil and blend a bit longer so the mixture thickens.
Serve the appetizer cold with fresh bread, or as a sauce for grilled meat.
If you want to put the caviar away for later, increase the acid a little, then bring the mixture to a boil and pack it into jars. Or, more simply, sterilize it in any way you can, then seal.
Calories and macros
110 kcal
Serving ≈ 280 g
- Protein3 g12% of kcal
- Fat4 g39% of kcal
- Carbs12 g48% of kcal
100 g39 kcalProtein 1.1 gFat 1.6 gCarbs 4.3 g
Calculated from the recipe ingredients, excluding salt and spices. Data: USDA and Matvaretabellen.
To Get It Right
Sweet or hot: it’s up to you
Any peppers you can get will work for caviar, from mild to as hot as it gets. For a mild caviar of sweet peppers, use more fleshy bell peppers. Chili loses some of its heat when fried.
Salad or caviar
Flesh chopped with a knife is a salad of fairly large pieces, similar to salsa or pico de gallo. Blended, it becomes a smooth caviar; the more oil and the longer you blend, the thicker it gets.
Have your own trick for this recipe?
Pull chopper for garlic and onionAliExpress
Oil sprayerAliExpress
Kitchen scale up to 5 kgAliExpress
Vegetable chopper with handleAliExpress
Measuring cups and spoonsAliExpress
Peeler with wooden handleAliExpressQuestions and answers
How do you make bell pepper caviar?
Fry bell peppers and hot peppers in a pan until soft, let cool, remove the seeds and chop finely. Mix with garlic, cilantro, salt, lime juice and olive oil, and for a smooth caviar, blend until puréed.
What is bell pepper caviar called?
Similar appetizers are Balkan ajvar and Bulgarian lyutenitsa. But they usually contain other vegetables, while this caviar is only peppers with garlic and cilantro.
Can pepper caviar be made with a meat grinder?
Yes, a meat grinder can replace the immersion blender: grind the fried, peeled flesh, then mix with garlic, cilantro, lime juice and oil.
Can bell pepper caviar be made for winter without sterilizing?
It can: increase the acid a little, bring the caviar to a boil and pack it into jars. But it’s simpler and safer to sterilize the jars of caviar in any way you can and then seal them. Without that, keep the caviar in the fridge.
Can the peppers for caviar be baked in the oven?
Yes, you don’t have to fry all the peppers, you can roast them instead. After roasting over a flame or in an electric oven, the skin comes off easily with your fingers.