When I was a kid, I remember we had a small garden out back behind our house. Ok. Actually it wasn’t that small. It was probably like 1/2 an acre. And we grew a huge amount of peppers – mostly green chiles.

We would pick them all off the plants and my dad would set them up on some wire mesh grates and then pull out an enormous butane torch. He would roast the crap out of all of them.

This of course led me to have a serious love for two things during my childhood: Fire. And roasted peppers.

Turns out that it’s not really realistic to set up a butane torch in a DC apartment, but you can get pretty close with a gas stove or really hot oven.

And if you like roasted peppers, well, this dip is for you my friend.

Roasted Pepper Dip

Yield: Makes 4 Cups

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:

4-5 assorted roasted peppers. If I did this again, I think I would skip normal bell peppers. They don't add much flavor when roasted. Go with red peppers, banana peppers, green chiles, etc.
2 Jalapenos, roasted
1/2 onion, roasted (optional)
2 Cups yogurt (Greek yogurt would work also)
1/2 Cup sour cream
Salt and pepper

Directions:

1) Roast peppers in a 450 degree oven for 30 minutes, turning occasionally, until peppers are charred all around.

2) Add peppers to a bowl and cover with plastic wrap to steam for a few minutes.

3) Don't wash the peppers, but rub them with your hands to remove as much skin as possible. No need to be completely thorough here.

4) Slice peppers and remove most of the seeds.

5) Dice peppers (dice the jalapenos very small) and add to a bowl. Let cool to room temperature before mixing in other ingredients.

6) Mix in sour cream, yogurt, and any other spices you are using. Taste for salt and pepper.

7) Serve with tortilla chips, pita chips, or anything that you can dip!

The Peppers

I kind of just grabbed some peppers for this dip but if I were to make it again I’d be a bit more thoughtful about it I think. For starters, roasted bell peppers don’t add much in the flavor department. I’d skip those entirely and maybe substitute some green chiles or something.

Also, you could also roast up half an onion. The caramelized onion would go great with all the other flavors.

Roasting the Peppers

Unless you happen to have a huge butane torch laying around, you’re gonna have to get creative about roasting these guys.

I’ve used my gas burners for roasting before, but I was roasting so many peppers this time around I decided to just do it in the oven. Lay out all the peppers (including the jalapenos) on a baking sheet and roast at 450 degrees for about 30 minutes. Turn the peppers every few minutes.

Charred skin is what you’re looking for. When most of the skins are charred and shriveled, remove the peppers and add them to a big bowl.

Cover this bowl tightly with plastic wrap so the peppers can steam for a few minutes. This will make the skins really easy to peel off.

Peeling and chopping

Since this is all going in a dip, there’s really no need to be completely thorough about the peeling process here. I wouldn’t recommend rinsing the peppers either because that washes off a lot of the flavorful juices.

Instead just use your fingers to rub or peel off as much of the charred skin as you can. Then slice the peppers in half and discard the seeds. Again, it doesn’t have to be a perfect job.

Dice up all your peppers and add them to a bowl!

One tip: If you’re using the jalapenos, dice them very small. I made the mistake of dicing them the same size as all the other peppers and when you got a jalapeno, it was a bit over-powering because of the size of the pieces.

Once you have your peppers chopped, let them cool to room temperature and then stir in all your other ingredients!

Taste it as you go and adjust the seasonings to your liking. You can obviously add salt and pepper, but feel free to experiment with other spices as well like maybe oregano, basil, chives, or parsley.

Also, you might need a bit more yogurt or sour cream based on how many peppers you end up using. Just eyeball it here people.

Add this to a bowl and serve it with tortilla chips, pita, or really anything that allows you to scoop a maximum amount of dip and put it in your mouth.

So while this may not be as fun as playing with a butane torch on a nice Fall day, the flavors are great and it’s pretty versatile. You can also make it spicy or just savory.

This would be awesome for a football game and as you might imagine, if you let it sit for a day or so in the fridge, the flavors get even better as the meld together.