Dehydrated Roasted Red Pepper Spread

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With things coming to a slow down the last few weeks, we have a little more time to get creative with a few of our favorite recipes. This dehydrated Roasted Red Pepper Spread recipe was adapted from the original Ball Roasted Red Pepper Spread.

Since I just happened to have some peppers in the freezer from last fall, I decided to try a version of the recipe that we can easily take with us camping. This spread is sooo delicious on sandwiches and burgers.

To make the Dehydrated Roasted Red Pepper Spread, you just need a few simple ingredients. It is a great way to use up extra produce from your garden. You will need Roma type tomatoes, red peppers, garlic, and onion.

Slow Roasting the Veggies

Since we are in love with smokey roasted flavors that pellet grills infuse into our food, we decided to roast all the veggies on our Country Smokers Traveler Pellet Grill. We roasted the tomatoes, onions, garlic, and peppers on low for about 30 minutes, then turned up the temperature to slightly blacken the skins. The aroma from these are roasting on the pellet grill was heavenly!

Peel & Prepare the Ingredients

After your veggies start to blacken, remove them from the grill and place the tomatoes & peppers in a paper bag for about 10-20 minutes to cool. By placing them in the bag, they will steam a little more and make it easier to remove the skins.

The next step will be removing the tomato cores, pepper tops and seeds.

As you peel the peppers and tomatoes, slightly chop them and add to a large pot. Add 1/4 cup of chopped roasted onion and peeled garlic.

Finishing Touches

Once you have finished processing the veggies, you can add some fresh or dried basil, salt, red wine vinegar, and sugar.

Mix the ingredients well and put on the stove over medium-high heat. Once the mixture starts to boil, turn the stove down and simmer for 10-20 minutes or until the tomatoes and peppers are soft and mushy.

Let the mixture cool for a few minutes then use an immersion blender like this one to blend the ingredients to your desired consistency. If you love to cook and do not own one of these, I highly recommend looking into getting one.

You can also use a blender or food processor for this step. Just be careful if you are working with the mixture while it is still hot.

Eat it, Freeze it or Dehydrate?

Now you have a choice. After smelling this delicious mixture cooking, it is hard not to try it right away. At this point, you can put the mixture in the fridge for 2-3 days, freeze it in small qualities to though in soups, stews and spaghetti sauce, can it (using Balls exact recipe), or dehydrate it for camping hiking, and easy use.

Today I am going to show you how to dehydrate this wonderful mix. If you are new to dehydrating, here is a wonderful article that explains how to choose the right dehydrator: Yardibles -Dehydrating Strawberries – Includes Tips and Tricks to Purchasing a Dehydrator

This is the dehydrator that I just love! It is stainless steel, not plastic, easy to clean and goes up to 165 degrees for making jerky.

This is a COSORI Premium Food Dehydrator Machine, 6 Stainless Steel Trays with Digital Timer and Temperature Control. I love the size of this one. It fits perfectly on my kitchen counter and the trays fit in the dishwasher.

In order to dehydrate liquids, pastes, fruit leathers, and spreads, you will need to line your trays with either parchment paper, dehydrator liners, or my favorite new trick, non-stick BBQ grill liners. I just cut these down to size to fit my dehydrator. The food almost slides off of these after it is dry. They are almost life changing – almost!

Here are a few of favorite products for dehydrator tray liners:

Load Your Dehydrator Trays

Using a spatula or cake icing took, scoop some of the Roasted Red Pepper Spread onto your dehydrator liner. Put the tray in the dehydrator and set the time for 135 for 4-8 hours. Times and temperatures may vary depending on the dehydrator you are using.

After 8-14 hours, your spread should look like this, a dry leather. You can break up the leather into pieces for storage in jars.

Dehydrated Roasted Red Pepper Spread

This recipe makes about 2 dehydrator trays. You can double and triple this recipe to fill your dehydrator.

Ingredients:

• 6 red bell peppers
• 8 Roma Type tomatoes
• 2 cloves garlic, unpeeled
• 1 small white onion, unpeeled
• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
• 1 Tbsp finely chopped fresh basil
• 1/2 Tbsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt

Directions:

1. Roast tomatoes, onions, and garlic on a grill, or oven for 10-20minutes depending on your temperature settings. (If oven roasting: roast at 425 degrees) flipping them halfway through. Once they begin to blacken and are soft, remove from grill.
2. Place veggies in a paper bag and roll over the top to seal, and create steam inside. Allow cooling for 10-20 minutes
3. Repeat above step with the Red Peppers.
4. Peel the skins off all veggies (1/4 cup of the onion), slightly dice and add to a large pot.
5. Add basil, vinegar, salt, and sugar. Mix well.
6. Place the pot on the stove on medium-high heat, once it starts to boil, reduce heat and simmer for 20-30 minutes until well blended and soft. Cool slightly.
7. Using an immersion blender, blend ingredients until it resembles a thick sauce/spread.
8. Line your dehydrator trays with Grill Mats, Parchment or tray liners. Spread the mixture on the trays no deeper than 1/4″.
9. Set your dehydrator to 135 degrees. Dry for 8-14 hours or until the leather is dry and no moisture visible.

Download the recipe card here:

How to Rehydrate your Roasted Red Pepper Spread:

It is easy to rehydrate your spread. Put a piece of the leather in a bowl and add boiling water, cover and let sit for 10 minutes or until it is completely rehydrated. It is really that simple. Let me know if you try this recipe and how you like it in the comments below.