Homegrown Cayenne Pepper Hot Sauce | Plant Based

Cayenne pepper is one of the easiest peppers to grow and cayenne pepper hot sauce is even easier to make. We planted two seedlings in our garden last spring and these plants produced beautiful fire engine red peppers for nearly seven months. It probably would have kept going had I not cut it back before the first frost (32° F overnight temperature). With more peppers than I could rotate through the dehydrator and with no more room in the kitchen for hang dry, I had to find an alternative use for these peppers.


One condiment that we can't live without is hot sauce. Having never made our own hot sauce before, we decided this was a good time to try. After looking at the ingredients of one of our hot sauces we realized we had all the ingredients we needed to make our own homemade hot sauce.

What you'll need:
Mason jar with lid and band
Blender
A lot of cayenne pepper (dry or fresh)
Garlic cloves
White vinegar
Salt

We made all our sauces in a 1 pint Ball mason jar. You can easily make it in a bigger or smaller jar. 

For 1 pint mason jar:

- Add 1-4 cloves of peeled garlic to the bottom of the mason jar.
- Stuff as many fresh or dry cayenne peppers as you can into the mason jar. The more peppers you have the thicker the sauce will be. 
- Sprinkle 1 teaspoon of table salt in the mason jar.
- Fill 3/4 of the mason jar with white vinegar. 
- Fill the rest of the jar with water.
- Close the jar with the lid and band. Turn the jar a few times to mix the ingredients.
- Leave the jar in a cool place for a few weeks. We started with two weeks and have gone as long as six weeks. The longer the jar was left to sit, the more potent the sauce became. 
- When you're ready to turn your jar of goodness into hot sauce, open the jar and pour all the ingredients into a blender. Blend until desired consistency. Pour back into mason jar top it with a storage lid and put it in the refrigerator. 

Our first jar of homegrown cayenne pepper sauce in the making. We didn't stuff the jar with peppers which left us with a very watery jar of hot sauce.

A few ways to enjoy your homemade hot sauce:

- Top your tofu scramble
- Incorporate into stir fry sauces
- Mix into guacamole 
- Spice up your dipping sauce
- Add to anything that needs a little heat

To increase the heat level, harvest a few green peppers and include them in your jar. Whether you grown your own cayenne peppers or buy them at the store, I hope you get a chance to make this cayenne pepper hot sauce.