Now that you’ve grown some beautiful puma peppers, you can use them to make hot sauce!

Puma hot peppers can be used to replace habaneros in most any recipe, keeping in mind that pumas tend to be a bit hotter than habaneros, so the finished product may be spicier.

This sauce was created to be somewhat mild though, so that it has a heat level similar to popular cayenne based commercial hot sauces. Check our recipe tips below for ways to make the recipe hotter, or milder.

This flavorful hot sauce can be made with puma peppers, or habaneros. — *Now that you’ve grown some beautiful puma peppers, you can use them to make hot sauce! (Don’t have puma peppers? Use habaneros instead.)*

Safety first!

The fumes from cooking hot peppers will fill the air and may cause irritation to your sinuses and lungs.

When cooking hot peppers, you should have your oven fan on and a few windows open to provide plenty of ventilation. When opening the oven to stir, keep your head turned away and hold your breath for a few seconds, so you don’t get a face full of pepper fumes!

You could also choose to grill the peppers and onion outdoors to minimize the spicy air problem.

basket of puma peppers — *a basket of fresh puma hot peppers from the garden*

You will need:

gloves, nitrile or latex
6 fresh puma peppers, tops and seeds/ribs removed – OR leave the seeds (along with the ribs and white material surrounding the seeds) in, if you want a hotter sauce (habaneros can be used as a replacement if you don’t have enough puma peppers)
2 bell peppers, tops and seeds removed
1/2 medium onion
1/2 tbsp olive oil
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup water
2 tsp honey, to taste
1/2 tsp salt
optional: 1 tbsp lime juice, tames down the heat level
blender (or Ninja/Magic Bullet)

cutting board with puma peppers, blot peppers, garlic, onion, vinegar, and honey — The type of bell pepper we used for this recipe is called Blot Pepper – picked in the yellow/orange stage, but any kind of orange or yellow bell pepper would work just as well.

How to make:

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.

Prepare the peppers. Make sure that you’re wearing gloves – hot pepper juice will burn! Cut the puma peppers in half, and the bell peppers and onion pieces in similar sizes.

Place the peppers and onion pieces in a square baking dish and toss with the olive oil. Roast in the hot oven for about 20 to 25 minutes, checking and stirring every 10 minutes. Add the minced garlic and roast for another 5 minutes.

The peppers should be tender and the edges will show some light browning; if not, try broiling for a minute or two. Turn off the oven, crack the door, and leave the pan in the oven to cool for 5 minutes.

roast the vegetables until lightly browned — *roasted puma hot peppers, yellow/orange bell peppers, onion, and garlic*

Pepper hands?

Decided not to wear gloves when chopping hot peppers, and now you’re full of pain and regret? (We’ve done that too!)

To remove the hot pepper burn: Try pouring rubbing alcohol or vodka over your hands, rubbing it in, then washing with dish soap and tepid/cool water. Repeat a few times if needed. You can also soak your hands in a bowl of cold milk to help calm down the burning. That hands-on-fire sensation usually subsides within 12 to 24 hours.

Remove the pan from the oven. Put the hot peppers, onion, garlic mixture into a blender, Ninja, Magic Bullet, or whatever machine you have that works best to get a nice smooth puree.

To the peppers, add the apple cider vinegar, water, honey, and salt then process until smooth. If your hot sauce is too thick, your peppers were probably larger than ours, but you can add more vinegar, a tablespoon at a time to thin it out.

Optionally, you can add lime juice. This thins out your sauce, but also has the added bonus of taming down the heat level. We like to add lime juice to our hot sauces since we don’t eat things TOO spicy around here.

Pour the hot sauce into a glass jar, and store in the refrigerator. Leave to sit in the refrigerator overnight before using, to allow the flavors to develop and mingle with one another.

bottle of puma pepper hot sauce — *Try making your own homemade hot sauce with your garden bounty of peppers!*

Recipe Notes

This hot sauce should be stored in the fridge and used up about 2 to 3 months after making. If you see any signs of mold, strange coloring or smells, or notice it has a bad taste, it’s past its prime and should be discarded.

After letting the hot sauce sit overnight, give it a try! Heat tolerances and preferences vary among people, but we would classify this as a mild sauce, with a complex fruity overlay. Side by side taste comparisons with Frank’s Hot Sauce showed they had similar heat levels.

Give it a try and see what you think of the taste!

FAQS & Tips

To make your hot sauce extra hot:

leave the ribs, seeds, and the white material surrounding the seeds in the puma peppers
replace some or all of the bell peppers with more puma peppers, or another hot pepper such as cayenne or jalepeno
don’t add the honey at first, instead taste test, then add honey if you feel like it needs it

To make your hot sauce milder:

be sure to remove the ribs, seeds, and the white material surrounding the seeds from your hot peppers before roasting
add extra honey, or you could also add sugar, maple sugar, or maple syrup to taste
add lime juice, a couple teaspoons at a time, until the heat level is more tolerable
dilute it with melted butter (or water, depending on the dish) right before using, to create a milder serving of hot sauce

How to use this hot sauce:

Use in dishes wherever you want to add an extra spicy kick, such as chili, soups, stir fries, and scrambled eggs.

We love to make grilled chicken breasts with our puma pepper hot sauce by melting a few tablespoons of salted butter, then adding a couple teaspoons of Worcestershire sauce, plus a few generous dashes of onion powder and a generous amount of this hot sauce, to taste. Pour most of it over the chicken before cooking, reserving some to use as a dipping sauce, if you’d like.