If you love flavor, love “healthy”, love saving money, you’ll love this! You can make an easy “infused olive oil”, using dried Chipotle peppers, to add that robust, smokey chipotle pepper flavor to any dish. You might be into paleo recipes, or gluten-free recipes, or traditional or trendy recipes; in any case, this works! We swirl of dash of Chipotle Pepper Oil into our Roasted Vegetable Soup at The New Deli- it goes over real well. But it can also be added to any dish you’re serving up. It’ll add a little heat, and nutrition (antioxidants and all), and flavor- whoo hoo!
I began researching chipotle options when we wanted to feature it on a sandwich special, and discovered many, many products containing chipotle. Of course they were mainly comprised of the cheapest of ingredients: Flour and other additives.
But I discovered that dried chipotles are quite economical (found in the ethnic spice section of many grocery stores, or international markets, or on Amazon). I tried these on Amazon: Chipotle Dried Whole chile Peppers – 8 oz.
But on to that infused oil. Take the hard, crusty little peppers, stem them and chop them coarsely by hand, pouring a bit of boiling water over them, some salt, and a bit of virgin olive oil. Let them soak in a jar in the fridge overnight, processing the softened peppers into a puree the next day. Add more virgin olive oil to them, and some paprika for extra color.
Love that smokey chipotle flavor!
PS I linked to this page from Kelly the Kitchen Kop’s Wednesday blog carnival (here). It took me awhile to post the link, since last time I visited Kelly’s Wednesday blog carnival page, I spent a week or two in follow-up research, after the plethora of good articles I’d found on her page. Good stuff!
This is great, Jennifer! I am going to make some. Soon.
Cool, Melissa! It’s a better value than canned stuff that says it’s chipotle, but has has a bunch of other bum ingredients in it!