Pepper jelly is an ingredient pretty readily available in grocery stores and it’s exactly what it sounds like- jelly made from peppers! It’s a great ingredient to use in all sorts of dishes in the kitchen. We love it slathered over brie or spread over cream cheese with crackers. It’s great in sauces and glazes on pork and chicken. And its sweet, spicy, tangy flavor is amazing in a salad dressing. Look for pepper jelly near the other jams and jellies, but you can also try places like farmer’s markets and local grocers for hometown specialties. There are a wide variety of peppers (including different colors) used in pepper jellies so your dressing will taste (and look) different according to the one you use! In addition to the vinaigrette recipe, I’m also including a great salad to try it on, but feel free to be creative and make any type of salad you like.
Ingredients Needed
- Pepper Jelly
- Apple Cider Vinegar – I recommend Braggs, it really does make a difference
- Coarse grain mustard – or dijon
- Kosher salt
- Black pepper
- Fresh garlic
- Onion Powder
- Olive oil – I’ve also made this with avocado oil with success
How to Make Pepper Jelly Vinaigrette
- Place all the ingredients except the oil in the jar of a blender and blend until smooth.
- While the blender is running, add the oil in a steady stream.
- Allow to stand for at least 1 hour before serving.
Make it a Salad!
I first had a pepper jelly vinaigrette at a restaurant and this is a recreation of some of those flavors, but feel free to be creative! In my salad I have:
- Spinach
- Sliced red onion
- Diced avocado
- Orange segments (I was out of oranges so I used cuties!)
- Feta cheese
- Candied walnuts – you can candy your own, or just buy a bag of glazed walnuts
Pepper Jelly Vinaigrette
Ingredients
- ½ cup pepper jelly
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar preferably Bragg's
- ¾ teaspoon coarse grain mustard or dijon
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- a few cracks black pepper
- 1 clove garlic finely minced or pressed
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ⅓ cup olive oil or vegetable oil of choice
Optional Salad
- 10 oz fresh spinach
- 1 avocado diced
- 1-2 navel oranges segmented
- thinly sliced red onion to taste
- ½ cup candied walnuts
- ⅓ cup crumbled feta cheese
- grilled steak, shrimp or chicken optional
Instructions
- Place all the ingredients except the oil in the jar of a blender. Blend until smooth.
- While the blender is running, add the oil in a steady stream. Allow to stand for at least 1 hour before serving.
Salad
- Toss salad ingredients in a bowl and drizzle with Pepper Jelly Vinaigrette to taste!
Questions & Reviews
I use pepper jelly as a finishing glaze on ribs and chicken, trust me it’s delicious. I also add it to BBQ sauce to “kick it up”. I always use Texas Pepper Jelly. It’s only available online and there are several flavors as well as heat levels. I will definitely try your vinaigrette out!!!!
Thanks, Kate. Now I’m gonna have “I’m so fancy” in my head all day.
My grandma makes a jalapeno jelly that is to die for! We eat it with crackers and whipped cream cheese, or regular cream cheese too. We live in good ol’ Idaho but my family is Southern, so maybe that’s why I knew what it is. Seriously, I have her recipe, so one of these days I need to attempt it! This dressing would be yummy with that I think!
I came here looking for a green salad that will complement the tacos we are having for dinner and this looks perfect. Awesome. But more importantly this sentence: “Be a pepper jelly-making pioneer. Share the good news of pepper jelly with those who may not yet understand,” made me DIE laughing. HAHAHA Oh man. I’m still laughing!
This sounds wonderful! I Spicy Pepper Jelly – but is red, not green like yours – Do you think that would work?
The best pepper jelly is found in Bath, IN. It is called vicious Vic’s habernero blackberry pepper jelly! It is amazing on anything!
I’m so with you on the whole spider thing. Bugs in the south are something else! I never want to visit Australia because of the giant bugs. I do, however, want to make this salad! What a great idea!
DId it pass the husband test, or did he have to make a sandwich after the salad?
Just a note on pepper jelly. I was looking for mint jelly one Easter for the lamb roast and picked up pepper jelly by mistake. It was great on the lamb.
I love pepper jelly. I never thought of it connection to salad. But obviously that has been an oversight on my part. Thank you for giving e a course correction.
I love pepper jelly and would never have thought of putting it on my salad – sounds amazing! Pinned 🙂
You’ve got to try pepper jelly as a glaze on baked ham. I mix in a little brown mustard & bake it on in the last bit of baking (uncovered). It get sticky & fabulous. With a just little kick from the peppers. Yumm-a-liscious! (I’m a southern girl; now a Utah girl – pepper jelly is all things southern!) 🙂
Pepper jelly with cream cheese on crackers has been one of my pregnancy cravings, which is weird because I never bought pepper jelly before I was pregnant but one day I realized that was what I just had to have. 🙂 anyway, this salad sounds great!
I visited a new restaurant near me last night and one of the specials was a salad with pepper jelly vinagrette! so good. this is perfect!
Yummmmm why have I never thought of this! Eating salad EVERY night in this heat so thank you. My mom has always made jalapeño jelly, and as a kid I loved having stoned wheat crackers and cream cheese with a dab of it. Now I’m more into Brie and other strong cheeses with it. Yum!!!! You’re right that the farmers market is the best place to find it! That’s where my mom sells hers!
I make Jalapeno and blueberry. I make mine mild and it is delicious
I can eat a whole jar of pepper jelly by myself with cream cheese and crackers. I was actually introduced in a little tiny Utah town called Holden. One of my little young women made sure I knew it does NOT go well with PB. She tried it. Yuck! Anyway, my neighbor always makes her own and its crazy easy! Probably the cheapest jelly I’ve made to since you don’t need many peppers. I liked all the seeds out, chunks left in and green food coloring. Honestly, the weird yellow green natural color is a little off putting. But this is SOO good. My little family of 4 (read 2 since my babies don’t eat it) consumed 12 pints in one year. Try it! Your life will never be the same…
Pepper jelly is crazy easy to make (I use my little food processor instead of chopping all the peppers),tastes so much better than store versions, and you can control the heat level (we are wimps and like it very, very mild). Seriously, anybody can make this! This is paula deen’s recipe, which is very close to the one I use. (I use the Certo liquid pectin that actually has a picture of pepper jelly on it.) You also don’t have to can them, you could just pop them in the fridge.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/pepper-jelly-recipe.html
I love pepper jelly on a turkey or roast beef sandwich. I’ve been able to buy it at the Costco in West Bountiful, Utah. Good stuff, though homemade is my favorite. 🙂
We had the same reaction to pepper jelly when my family moved to New Orleans — sounded crazy at first but turned out to be delicious. Actually we had that reaction to a lot of new foods when we moved there! I’ve been needing a new salad and this one sounds A.Maz.Ing. I’m totally making it tonight, and maybe tomorrow, and definitely on Sunday when we’re having company. Thanks for a post that makes me want to eat more salad!
Oops! Looks like the spinach pic posted twice.
Fixed!! Thank you!
It’s amazing how life plans can change your opinion about food. I’ve always lived in Buffalo but when I visit my uncle in Texas he knows how to throw a feast! We don’t have a Cosco but when the strawberries are ripe we pick a lot! This pepper jelly is stretching my comfort zone but you’ve never let me down before. So here we go.
Tom, as a Syracuse girl, I had never heard of pepper jelly until a coworker served some up at a holiday party the same way that Sue W describes above…OMG, so good. Soooo…now I use all of the leftover hot peppers from my garden to make a big batch of hot pepper jelly every year. The first year, I served it at a family party and got the WEIRDEST looks….now I give jars of it out as Christmas gifts because they can’t get enough! I’m not a sweets with my meats kind of girl, so I haven’t tried this…but a coworker said it was really good as a glaze on pork chops as well.
Pepper jelly on top of cream cheese and served with your favorite crackers is amazing. Or, better yet. Take a log of goat cheese and roll it in curry powder, then put in a bowl and top with pepper jelly. Here’s the hard part. Let it come to room temperature and serve with your favorite crackers. People will think you are a Goat Cheese Miracle Worker!