On the look for not Mexican spicy sauces, I came across peri peri sauce, and I fell in love ❤️. This worked perfect on burritos and tofu scramble! I will be making batches of this delicious sauce quite often!
Once I tried the peri-peri sauce in Nando’s and to be honest, although it was good, I found it a bit sweet. So I decided to investigate how to make this traditional (Portuguese? African?) sauce and I was really delighted by the combination of flavors which is very different from sauces made in my home country. This was the perfect excuse to use the food processor of my Ninja blender lol
Do you enjoy sauces? have a look at: salsa verde, Mexican red sauce, and red pepper coulis!
Let’s make peri peri sauce!
Get your ingredients!
- 2 African red bird’s eye chilies
- 2 Bell peppers I tend to combine some sweet chilies to give it more flavor
- 1/3 cup Basil
- 1/3 cup Coriander
- 5 g Tarragon leaves Too minty! more eclipse the flavors of the other ingredients
- 1/3 cup Apple cider vinegar
- 1/3 cup Lemon juice
- 1 tbsp Paprika
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- 4 Cloves of garlic
- Chop the peppers and the garlic
- Mince the african chilies
Chop the peppers and the garlic, and mince the African chilies.
Add everything to the food processor:
Blend at low to get things going on your food processor, and then at high. Scrape the sides and blend again. I prefer to use a food processor as I don’t want this to turn into a completely liquid sauce, but rather I want it to have texture!
Enjoy!
What is peri peri sauce?
It is a sauce that gets its spicy characteristic flavour from African bird chilies. But I would say that all the ingredients make it taste so special. The basil, coriander and tarragon definitely make it taste very herby, and the peppers give this sauce a very fresh round flavour.
This sauce is also known as piri piri, or pili pili sauce.
Peri peri sauce uses
Pretty much everything… If you are looking for recipes that can use it have a look at our , tofu scramble and vegan steak. I have tried it with burritos, beans, crackers (yep! crackers), salads… you name it!
I am going to try it with soups and pasta and report back at some point… 😛
Where can you find african bird’s eye chilies?
If you live in the UK, I have found them in Sainsbury’s (not 100 % sure they are always African, though!).
Friends from Holland and Paris have told me that they sometimes find them on local markets. If you can’t find them I would say that you can also try any spicy chili that you have at hand. I have tried this with chile serrano (Mexican chili) and it tastes very good as well. Careful with the amount! I use 2-3 small chilies only because they are too spicy!
We hope you love this recipe as much as we do ❤️, it’s:
- Spicy, garlicky, tangy, herby, flavourful
- Made from mostly whole foods
- Skip vinegar, oil, paprika, and salt for a whole foods version
- Feel free to include this as part of your whole30 plan!
If you try this recipe, let us know! leave a comment, rate the recipe or tag a photo on our Instagram or Facebook with the tag #naturalGoodness! Get creative and make it unique, I love to see what you get up to when trying our recipes 🙂
Peri Peri sauce
Equipment
- Food processor or Blender
Ingredients
- 2 African red bird's eye chilies
- 2 Bell peppers I tend to combine some sweet chilies to give it more flavor
- 1/3 cup Basil
- 1/3 cup Coriander
- 5 g Tarragon leaves Too minty! more eclipse the flavors of the other ingredients
- 1/3 cup Apple cider vinegar
- 1/3 cup Lemon juice
- 1 tbsp Paprika
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- 4 Cloves of garlic
Instructions
- Make sure you have all the ingredients
- Chop the peppers and the garlic
- Mince the african chilies
- Add everything to the food processor
- Blend at slow speed, then at high speed for about 30 seconds. Scrape the sides and blend again for another 20 seconds or until everything is well integrated
- Enjoy!
Video
Notes
- Be careful with the heat of bird’s eye chilies! I add only 2 or maximum 3, because they are really spicy
- I like to combine sweet chilies and peppers, it gives this sauce a great taste!
- Tarragon is the only herb that I use only a little for this sauce. Why? because it is a bit too minty for a spicy sauce :). If you don’t mind that, feel free to add more!
- If you use a very powerful blender or bullet blender, you are likely going to end with a “juice” instead of the whole sauce you see in the pictures
- If you don’t like vinegar, do not add it, but then it will spoil sooner in the fridge
- If you don’t like raw sauces, you can blend the sauce in a blender instead of a food processor until it is quite liquid and then cook it
- If you are looking for something like the Nando’s sauce, this is not it :D. Nando’s sauce has some sugar and it is a very liquid and cooked sauce!