Vegan pepper sauce

I think almost everyone knows pepper sauce: it’s a fairly classic recipe for sauces to accompany meat.
But let’s not say no to pepper sauce because we don’t eat meat anymore! It is delicious with imitation meat but also vegetables.

Pepper Sauce Ingredients

The pepper sauce obviously contains pepper, but it is also a question of giving it a pleasant and slightly spicy flavor apart from the sensation of heat and the recognizable taste of pepper.
For this, I used shallots, but also armagnac and vegetable broth. You can use cognac, as for the white wine versions, I don’t really have any feedback because I haven’t tried it: I more often have an open bottle of spirits than wine (we drink very little ). We can obviously remove this alcohol part if we do not consume it (for whatever reason), but it also removes a little taste.
To compensate, you can force the broth, provided you do not go into excess salt.

I let you admire my magnificent earth iron sauce boat paid for less than one euro in a house sale.

This sauce is cream-based, thickened with cornstarch, and as usual, I’m going to recommend the one and only vegetable cream: soy cream! It is the only one to have the right texture for me, not gelled, not liquid, not two-phase, just cream! You can also use another vegetable cream, but always keep in mind that the less fat and protein, the less you are close to the idea of ​​a cream (goodbye rice cream).

Regarding the sauce, I added a little brown miso: this is an ingredient that I used shortly before, but that I find more and more interesting because it brings a lot of depth and a flavor that is difficult to find otherwise in the exciting world of plants. It has a salty touch, so take this into account when seasoning. The aim here is to bring a little full-bodied flavor to this sauce, which is often prepared on a veal stock.

Finally, as for the pepper, I took a mixture of several peppers from the one that shreds, not wanting to go too far in my stock of organic pepper carefully brought back from my trip by my mother-in-law. I think we can consider working with “grand cru” peppers, but keeping in mind that the flavors will be different depending on the pepper used, and therefore not necessarily always appropriate. In the spirit of this recipe, let’s say that a classic black pepper with a simple “pepper” flavor will be perfect! I told you about peppers (in the plural) in my article on appetizer petit fours with pepper, last year. It is an exciting and very rich world. For my part, I like the addition of a few pink peppercorns, which bring a little sweeter and fresher side to the preparation!

Prepare pepper sauce

We start by finely cutting the shallot, browning it in some fat: here I used margarine, because it has an easier time giving a creamy and non-liquid finish when it freezes slightly, compared to margarine. oil.
Then, we add the broth, the armagnac, and the brown miso that we will dilute. Everything will reduce slightly, then we will add the cream, the cornstarch that we will have taken the sin to dilute in a little water (cornstarch in a hot liquid without dilution, will tend to agglomerate and create lumps, I advise against it if you are not used to acting quickly!), and pepper.
For my part, I like to find small pieces of pepper, I find that in this specific case, the mill is not necessarily suitable, I used my rolling pin as a spice pestle and I stopped when I found the beans to be the right grind. It’s up to you to do according to your preferences!
Finally, let it reduce well, salt if necessary (but always taste first, even if it’s a sauce, miso and some broths are already salty), and serve hot.

What to serve pepper sauce with?

It is a sauce with the hot and spicy aromas of pepper: it will not necessarily please everyone because once in the palate, pepper in these quantities can develop a little bitterness in the back of the mouth.
For amateurs, it is an excellent accompaniment to a roast tofupan-fried vegetables with chestnuts, but also mashed dishes, and sweet flavors like that of fried apple.
In short, a sauce that goes very well with imitation meat, seitan, but also baked vegetables and mashed potatoes.