The Hardest Recipe to Taste-Test: Homemade Jalapeño Hot Sauce

In the last two years, I have consumed about 100 times the amount of hot sauce I have over my entire lifetime. The amount has increased even more in the last few months while adjusting to my heart-wrenching break-up with ketchup. Sometimes ketchup was my sole reason for eating food. French fries, for example, or raw tofu - these were, in fact, just vessels for ketchup. I also have a persistent craving at all times to dip things.

Sometimes I will admit this backfires, because when I am excited and treat hot sauce like ketchup I risk numbing my taste buds for the rest of the meal. In this recipe, I used jalapeños, but removed the seeds to allow for a more moderate degree of heat. I told my guinea pig I thought it needed more seeds. He asked if I thought it should be hotter. My response was that I couldn't tell- my mouth was on fire.

I still stand by the fact that it is on the medium side of spicy, and the lime and mango give it a really nice, refreshing taste. As refreshing as hot sauce can be, anyway.

Homemade Jalapeño Hot Sauce with Mango and Lime   
   
Ingredients   

1 cup grated carrot

1 yellow onion, chopped

15-20 jalapeño peppers, chopped and seeded

1/2 tbsp olive oil

3 cloves garlic

1/3 cup water

1 mango, peeled, cored and chopped

1/3 cup vinegar

3 tbsp lime juice

1/2 tsp coarse ground sea salt

1 tsp fresh ground pepper

Directions

Heat a saucepan on medium heat. Add olive oil, onions and garlic. Cook for 3 minutes, then add carrot, jalapeños and water.

Simmer for 5-10 minutes, until onion and jalapeños have softened. Remove from heat, and combine in a food processor with remaining ingredients. Blend until completely smooth. Add more vinegar if you prefer a thinner consistency.

Transfer mixture into jars, let cool, and refrigerate. Yields about 3 cups.