When most people think about peppers, their minds tend to go straight to the classic stuffed pepper as a hearty fall or winter meal idea, but what else can you do with peppers? While they are great to snack on and add to salads, there aren’t too many recipes out there where this colorful veggie is the star, so when our friend Mary Harp from Healthy Christian Home shared this recipe for Creamy Garlic Mini Peppers with us, we knew we had to pass it along to you!
Our Aurora Bites Mini Sweet Peppers are bright, colorful and incredibly versatile. Their warm, sunny colors will brighten up even the coldest day and their sweet flavor and amazing crunch makes them fun to eat straight out of the bag. While they are similar to our Sweet Bell Peppers, the smaller size and sweeter flavor sets them apart as the perfect, most convenient snacking pepper and are easy to pack into lunches or as an on-the-go snack. That being said, they are also a lot of fun to cook with!
Aurora Bites Mini Sweet Peppers are so versatile – you can pretty much eat them with anything! They are great for dunking into your favorite dip, like ranch or hummus, but they also make fantastic cooked appetizers like these Healthy Mini Pepper Nachos, Mini Pepper Tacotizers or Mini Pepper Pizzas. When you cook mini peppers, it enhances their sweetness and adds a lovely depth of flavor to just about any dish.
Not only do our Aurora Bites taste great, but they are also loaded with amazing health benefits too! These peppers are an excellent source of Vitamin C – nearly triple what is found in citrus fruit. Plus, the pigment that gives Aurora Bites their vibrant colors, called carotenoids, may also play a role in preventing certain cancers and heart disease. They are low in calories, with no cholesterol or sodium and can fit into just about any healthy diet.
There are many great ways of incorporating these delicious little peppers into your meals, but are they really the hero of the recipe there? Our friend Mary created this Creamy Garlic Mini Peppers recipe that elevates our Aurora Bites to their super star status. The combination of the sweet flavor of the peppers with a garlicky, buttery, cheesy sauce is the ultimate decadent experience.
She starts out by piercing the peppers with a knife to keep them from bursting while cooking. Then she heats the butter in a large skillet and adds the peppers, moving them around the pan so they get browned all over. Then she reduces the heat and adds the garlic, red pepper flakes and a pinch of salt – cooking them together for a minute or two until they are fragrant. Add a splash of water, then cover the pan to allow the peppers to soften up.
While the peppers are slowly cooking until they are softened, put the broth, sour cream, half and half cream and flour into a jar and shake it up until it becomes a slurry. Pour the mixture from the jar into the skillet with the peppers, sprinkle the Parmesan cheese over the mixture and stir until the sauce is smooth and melted.
You can garnish the peppers with fresh or dried parsley and serve it on its own as a side dish. Or you can get creative! This can be a great appetizer or snack served with a delicious crusty bread. Or you can serve it over pasta, like a mini pepper alfredo sauce. Or you can add your favorite protein to it and make it a meal. The possibilities are endless!
For Mary’s full Creamy Garlic Mini Peppers recipe, click here. For more healthy snacking advice and tasty recipes, make sure to sign up for Pure Flavor’s® monthly newsletter.
