Simple Living With Nature

Grow Forage Cook Ferment logo
  • Grow
  • Forage
  • Cook
  • Ferment
  • Herbalism
  • Homestead
  • Start Here
  • Resources
  • Books
    • Healing Herbal Infusions
    • Wildcrafting Weeds
    • Simple Mead Making
    • Healing Kitchen Herbs
    • The Backyard Forest Garden
  • About
    • About Me
    • Contact
  • Foraging Course
  • Subscribe!
  • Nav Social Menu

    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Home » Ferment » Vegetable Ferments » Fermented Pepperoncini Hot Sauce

Fermented Pepperoncini Hot Sauce

May contain affiliate links or sponsored content. Please see my privacy policy and affiliate disclosure.

Originally published on September 23, 2016. Last updated on August 17, 2021

2.2K shares
  • 747
  • 2
Jump to Recipe Print Recipe
Fermented pepperoncini in a glass jar, and a jar of homemade fermented hot sauce.

This fermented pepperoncini hot sauce is an easy and delicious summer fermented food recipe. It’s perfect for preserving the summer harvest, packed with tons of flavor, and not quite as spicy as traditional hot sauce.

A jar of fermented pepperoncini hot sauce.

Pepperoncini Peppers for Hot Sauce

For some reason this year, most of our pepper plants didn’t do very well. We only got one or two bell peppers total, and a few hot peppers here and there.

Then we have this one pepperoncini plant which has produced so many peppers that I don’t even know what to do with all of them!

I turned a bunch of them into pepperoncini refrigerator pickles to put on sandwiches and pizza.

The plant then had a second flush of peppers, so I decided to ferment them this time around. Then I got the great idea of turning them into fermented pepperoncini hot sauce!

Pepperoncini’s are such great peppers because they are a little bit spicy, but not overly so. They also have an excellent flavor that is more than just “hot.”

I absolutely love fermented hot sauce and generally make it a couple of times a year to make sure that we always have some around.

I usually make it with hot red peppers, or sometimes jalapeno peppers, but when we had an excess of pepperoncini peppers I knew I had to give it a try with them.

a bowl of pepperoncini peppers

Fermented Pepperoncini Hot Sauce Recipe

It’s actually a pretty simple process, and I basically followed my general recipe for how to make fermented hot sauce.

Cut the pepperoncini peppers in half (you can leave the stems on), and layer them in a quart sized jar with the chopped onion and garlic cloves.

You can remove some of the pepper seeds if you’d like it to be a little less hot.

pepperoncini peppers in a quart jar

Add the salt to the jar, and fill with filtered water to cover the veggies. Cover and shake the jar a few times to help dissolve the salt.

salting the pepperoncini peppers

Weigh the veggies down with a fermentation weight to keep them under the brine (you can also use a zip top baggie filled with water as a weight).

fermenting pepperoncini peppers

Cover the jar with a cloth secured with a rubber band, and let it ferment in a dark corner for 1-2 weeks.

When the veggies are done fermenting, put the contents of the jar and the apple cider vinegar into a blender. You may not want to use all of the brine, depending on how thick you want the hot sauce to be.

fermented pepperoncini peppers in blender

Blend into hot sauce, and store in the refrigerator.

If you use all of the brine it will be fairly liquidy. I am ok with that, because then it can readily go into a squeeze bottle that is easy to use.

If you’d like a thicker hot sauce, or even something more like fermented chili paste, use less of the brine when you blend.

quart jar of fermented pepperoncini hot sauce

These peppers smelled so good after fermenting! They would be really good just on their own as well, even if you didn’t want to turn them into hot sauce.

They lost a bit of their green color during the fermentation process, which is normal.

fermented pepperoncini hot sauce in a jar

I am so happy with how this fermented pepperoncini hot sauce turned out, the taste is incredible! It has just enough heat to be classified as a hot sauce, but is not so hot so many people can still enjoy it.

It’s definitely going to become a new staple in this household!

Have you ever made fermented hot sauce? What did you think of it?


Fermented Hot Sauce Recipes

Love a good fermented sauce recipe as much as I do? Here are a few others for you to try!

  • Fermented Hot Sauce
  • Fermented Jalapeno Hot Sauce
  • Fermented Chili Paste

Print Recipe Pin Recipe
4.84 from 6 votes

Fermented Pepperoncini Hot Sauce Recipe

This fermented pepperoncini hot sauce is an easy and delicious summer ferment. It's perfect for canning and preserving the summer harvest, packed with tons of flavor, and not quite as hot as traditional hot sauce.
Course Condiment
Cuisine American
Prep Time 15 minutes
Fermenting Time 7 days
Total Time 15 minutes
Servings 32 servings
Calories 2kcal
Author Colleen @ Grow Forage Cook Ferment

Equipment

  • Quart Mason Jar
  • Fermenting Weight
  • Tea Towel
  • Rubber Band
  • Blender

Ingredients

US Customary - Metric
  • 1 quart pepperoncini peppers
  • 1 small onion sliced
  • 4-6 cloves garlic
  • 2 Tbsp kosher, pickling, or sea salt kosher or sea salt works best
  • 1 Tbsp raw apple cider vinegar

Instructions

  • Slice the pepperoncinis in half. Remove some of the seeds to adjust the heat to taste. Layer the halved peppers, onions, and garlic into a quart sized jar, alternating the vegetables as your fill the jar.
  • Add the salt to the jar, then fill with filtered water to cover the vegetables. Cover and shake the jar a few times to help dissolve the salt.
  • Place a fermentation weight over the vegetables to keep them under the brine. Cover the jar with a cloth secured with a rubberband.
  • Place the jar into a dark corner and ferment for 1-2 weeks. 
  • When the vegetables are done fermenting, place the contents of the jar as well as the apple cider vinegar into a blender. Blender until the vegetables are pulverized. For a thicker sauce, reserve half the brine before blending, adding more to reach your desired texture/thickness.
  • Store the sauce in a lidded jar in the refrigerator. 

Notes

  • Total Time does not reflect 1-2 weeks fermentation

Nutrition

Serving: 2Tablespoons | Calories: 2kcal
  • Join My Free Foraging & Herbalism Email Course!

  • This will also subscribe you to the Grow Forage Cook Ferment newsletter. You can unsubscribe at any time. Please see my Privacy Policy.

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Previous Post: « Fermented Cherry Tomatoes
Next Post: How to Save Tomato Seeds by Fermenting »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Nenad Croatia says

    July 19, 2021 at 2:38 am

    5 stars
    This is a wonderful idea, dear Colleen. Thank God you shared this recipe with us.

    Reply
    • Grow Forage Cook Ferment says

      July 19, 2021 at 9:54 am

      Thank you!

      Reply
  2. Mary says

    July 7, 2020 at 10:04 am

    I gave this a try, and after one week have noticed mould form on the top. What am I doing wrong? Followed everything accordingly, except I didn’t have non-iodized salt so used regular salt. Is that the issue??

    Reply
    • Grow Forage Cook Ferment says

      July 9, 2020 at 10:30 am

      Hi, Mary. Iodine can prevent good bacteria from growing in vegetable ferments, so that may be what caused your mold.

      Reply
  3. Andrea says

    August 18, 2018 at 6:00 am

    How long does the sauce last in the refrigerator once made?

    Reply
  4. Linda says

    September 25, 2016 at 4:59 pm

    I have lots of different peppers so this sounds like a fun thing to do. After you ferment, do you have to refrigerate the sauce or not?

    Reply
    • Grow Forage Cook Ferment says

      October 4, 2016 at 11:59 am

      Yes, you will need to refrigerate it once it’s finished.

      Reply
  5. Toni says

    September 24, 2016 at 8:29 am

    Love pepperoncini peppers and this method of preserving. Sadly, I didn’t consider hot sauce when I needed to do something with my banana peppers. Argh, lol.
    Maybe next year.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Primary Sidebar

Hello there! I’m Colleen.

I want to inspire you to live seasonally, become more self sufficient, and protect your health. I share information on foraging and wildcrafting, fermenting and preserving, cooking whole foods from scratch, permaculture gardening, and making herbal products. And that’s just the beginning! Learn more.

CBD

Browse my homemade CBD recipes & how-tos

My Books

Spring Favorites

purple dead nettle uses benefits look alike

Foraging for Purple Dead Nettle: an edible backyard weed

50+ Dandelion Recipes: Drinks, Sweets, Soap, Remedies + More!

Lilac Flower Infused Honey

Dandelion Mead Recipe (Dandelion Wine Made With Honey)

Popular Posts

How to Make Soap For Beginners + Calendula Soap Recipe

5 Easy to Identify Edible Mushrooms

10 Reasons to Grow Mint (Without Fear)

How to Make and Use Dandelion Salve

What to Forage in Spring: 20 Edible and Medicinal Plants and Fungi

how to make mead

How to Make a Gallon of Mead: A Simple Mead Recipe

How to Make Hard Cider: Homebrew it!

Fermented Honey Garlic

Mountain Rose Herbs
×

Join list.

More info

Footer

Explore

  • Grow
  • Forage
  • Cook
  • Ferment
  • Herbalism
  • Homestead

Learn To Forage

The gather + root online foraging course will help you to safely identify, harvest, and use common edible and medicinal plants with confidence.

Enroll Now

As Featured On

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • Privacy Policy
  • Affiliate Disclosure
  • Amazon Affiliate

Copyright © 2023 Grow Forage Cook Ferment & Cocos Creations LLC.

2.2K shares
  • 747
  • 2