My friend Jenn from Bread + Butter put out a call to her Food Blogging friends to participate in a “Blogger Secret Ingredient” Challenge. Everyone had until today to post a recipe using bell peppers. Like the slacker I am I waited until today to make my recipe. But I must say, just because I waited until the last minute doesn’t mean my entry is sad or pathetic. Quite the opposite if I do say so myself. What I present to you and Jenn is a recipe (the winning recipe 
) for “Red Bell Pepper Relish”.
It was very easy to make and fabulous to eat to say the least. I plan on buying some cute canning jars and making a big batch of this relish and give them away as gifts. This sweet and savory relish would be great poured on brie, cream cheese, or straight up served with crackers. Or in my case, pretzels. The addition of red pepper flakes gives this relish a nice little tingly heat burn on the tongue that is not too hot but enough to tantalize your tastebuds. This is so much better than anything you can buy in the store. Enjoy!
Red Bell Pepper Relish Recipe
(yields 3/4 cup of relish)
Ingredients:
1 red bell pepper (or any other type of bell pepper), chopped in small pieces
1/2 onion, chopped in small pieces
2/3 cup of sugar
1/2 cup of white vinegar
1/2 tsp of red pepper flakes (if you like less heat, use 1/4 tsp. If you like more heat, add 1/4 tsp.)
Directions:
Add everything to a small sauce pan and stir all the ingredients until well incorporated. Cook the relish on medium heat for 5 minutes and turn down the heat to medium-low for an additional 20 minutes, stirring occasionally until most of the liquid has reduced. Remove from heat and allow to cool before serving.
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{ 43 comments… read them below or add one }
Nice. I’m glad you were able to submit to the BSI this week. =)I’ll definitely have to try this.
I love red bell peppers and this blood red sweet relish looks amazing
Oh I bet that relish on pretzels was really good. It’s amazing how easy stuff like a red pepper relish is to make. To think that people pay obscene prices for stuff like that in gourmet grocery stores. Yours looks better than anything I have seen available in the store.
This red pepper relish sounds really good!
We’ve been playing with the idea of what to put out on a bruschetta bar (an idea we got from Fine Living). Tapenades. Tomato relish. Red pepper sauce. Fig jam and Manchego. And this would be a great, colorful addition. We love red peppers (mostly roasted), so we’ll have to try this soon. Thanks for a great sounding recipe.
That looks wonderful! I love your picture with the stem from the pepper garnishing the bowl of relish! It sounds like it would be delicious on sandwiches, too… I think I would love it with turkey or chicken!
This looks great! I now have it in my to try pile,Thanks! I am hoping it tastes similar to my favorite Pepper Relish from Harry and David, but cheaper. I might add a chipotle to give it that smoky taste.
YUM – that looks and sounds delicious! I LOVE the step by step pictures too!
What a great idea! Sounds like it’d be great with the cream cheese on crusty bread.
It looks like a winner to me! …and actually something I might try!
I am sooo going to make this, that looks absolutely delectable!
That looks simple and delicious! I love red bell peppers. I can’t wait to try this. I never thought to feature them in a relish…genius!
I’m a huge fan of red pepper and this caramelised version looks like heaven!
So good!!! Great photos and content. Will have to try the recipe out.
I really really love vegetable relishes, and this one looks like an amazing addition to summer hamburgers. Thanks!
Alice, this recipe looks phenomenal. The photos are quite enticing, especially the last one. I can’t wait to make this recipe… Maybe I’ll make it this saturday when we’re having some guests over…
Thanks for sharing!
-Kamran
P.S. I love you blog so much that I added it to “My Favorite Food Blogs” list. Just go to my blog, scroll down a bit, and you should find the picture to go to that section of my blog…
Love these photos. Such a well done post! great idea. We will make this one soon. Thanks, s
excellent photography!! nice blog you have here.. ive got to try this out.. sure it sound delicious
cheers!!
A magical combination of rich fruit flavours, this relish proves the perfect compliment to roast or smoked chicken and grilled cheese dishes.
This looks great, I think I’ll try this next time I make a oven baked Camembert.
Thanks for the inspiration!
// Mike
Oh, nice! I make batches of sweet and hot pepper jellies/jams every year, adore the stuff. The color in yours is beautiful!
it looks so delicious, but how well does it keep in a jar or in the fridge, i’m just askin cuz i got a garden full of bell peppers that are startin to turn red, i gotta do somethin with em
Tex: It actually keeps for a long time similar to jam. You could also can it for a longer shelf life.. but in the refridgerator approx. the same time you would keep store bought jam. Hope that helps!
I tried this three times and each time I ended up with the sugar turning to caramel before all the liquid was evaporated. What am I doing wrong? seems like a lot of sugar for 1 bell pepper?
Rob: I’m not sure what went wrong. Are you preparing this on high heat? I would reduce your heat because it shouldn’t be caramelizing. You may need to stir more often. It is a similar process as making jam. The sugar acts as a preservative and therefore you need it. Feel free to email me with what you’re doing so I can help you further.
Alice
Umm is it suppose to bubble hard core for a while? On top of that mine didn’t work turned into a chunk of caramel with peppers and onions inside! are you sure you don’t have to let it stand for a bit all the other recipe’s i’ve found for this take like 4 hours to make.
Hi Chantelle,
No, its not suppose to bubble hard for a long period of time.. and should definitely not caramelize. I suggest you reduce your cooking time by 5-10 minutes and see if that helps.
I made this for my bookclub. I absoluately ADORED it. So did everyone else. I hoping some would be left over–not! I was practically licking the bowl out at the end of the night. I did use two smallish pepper and reduced the sugar just slightly. I served poured over cream cheese to put on crackers. This will be a new staple for appetizers. LOVE IT!! Don’t know what the others did wrong–incredibly easy!
Oh wow, that looks fantastic! So thick and rich–I can imagine it on all sorts of things. Just beautiful.
Alice, thanks for bringing our attention to this beautiful relish on twitter today. Love the idea of it poured over warm brie
This is DELICIOUS & sooo easy! Thank you!
I tried this wonderful looking relish, too, but not with much luck. I’m curious – you say one bell pepper and half an onion. As these come in multitudes of sizes, could you be more specific? 1 cup chopped bell pepper, 1/2 cup onion? After cooking on med low for 25 minutes, the liquid had not reduced at all. I turned it up a bit and it has finally reduced but doesn’t look anything like yours. Tears!
Thank you for this wonderful recipe. I just made a double batch and it turned out WONDERFUL!! Mine was a little juicier than yours, so I had to simmer it about 15 minutes longer. The end result looks exactly like yours and it is SO Delicious!
This looks phenomenal! I have made red pepper relishes in the past and have ended up with tons of leftovers. I have used it on cream cheese and lamb burgers but do you have any other suggestions of how to use? I will definitely try this recipe next time!
Made it this weekend. Had family over for holidays and had a slider bar. This was one of the toppings. It was redonculous. Seriously – it was fantastic. And when you add it with something that has heat like pickled jalapenos. OH MY. Best burger I ever had – cheeduh cheese, red pepper relish, pickled jalapenos, cream cheese, lettuce, tomato. It was burgasmic.
This is a wonderful, sophisticated use of sweet, delicious red bell peppers! Question though… Would I ruin the end product if I pureed the onion in the vinegar first, then cooked as directed? I’m not a fan of onion, especially when in chunks.
I thought I could make mass quantities of the “relish’;however what I ended up with was pepper jam. I made 7 times the recipe;used both red and green peppers. Total time to cook was around 4 hours. The color is copper;the taste is pure happiness. I am not disappointed in what I got in the end.
OK-today I made red pepper relish. I had 2 1/2 red peppers and used them in combination with all stated ingredients/amounts. I am pleased to say that the recipe turned out as expected.For those desiring to make alot at once-I am not sure you can expect to get the consistency of relish–see my previous comment. Good Luck!
I SO need to make this! Looks absolutely delicious.
I made a double batch to pair with cream cheese. The tast-testing along the way promised great results; I love making tasty food from scratch. Unfortunately, got a late start and it was 2 am before it was done. Pulled it out of the fridge the next day, only to find it hard and unworkable. Got it to room temp, and no change. Ughhhhhhh. It had such promise! Not sure what went wrong. Had to go with the store bought stuff afterall.
Hi Diane,
Sorry to hear about the relish becoming to stiff. When I store this in the fridge it is somewhat hard but what I like to do is microwave it in 30 second intervals until it softens up.
I am in the process of making this now. Everything is going the way it should but it is taking a lot longer to cook down. I am using a small sauce pan and it has now been cooking a total of 55min. Almost done though, and Taste’s Great.
I just made this…. It took about 55 min to get the liquid evaporated…. Looks just like the picture and tastes great. So we will see tomorrow after it cools how it is.
I cooked it on Med Low most of the time.
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