These worked almost as well as the onion crisps in our stockpile of road food, and as an added bonus, don’t need to be kept cool, because they don’t have any fat in them. (Tho I highly recommend adding fat to them when eating!) They were also less time-intensive to make, and added important vegetable material to our jerky-heavy road consumption!
To make:
- Put washed bell peppers on a pan in the oven about 1-2” away from a broiler set to high (I suppose you could probably use hot peppers, if you normally eat these roasted as well; me, I prefer red, orange, or yellow bell peppers.)
- Monitor peppers, and as they develop black puffy spots on their skin, rotate to expose additional sides to the heat. This whole process may take 30 minutes until done.
- Once all sides of a pepper have black spots (the whole pepper doesn’t have to be black, but all the skin should be loosened and crisp up from the flesh), remove and place in a heat-proof bowl, and place a plate on top. Continue to remove peppers and place in this bowl as they finish up – I never have a whole batch of peppers finish roasting all at the same time, some of them always take longer than others.
- Allow to cool. Having burnt myself on pepper steam before, I assure you, this is a crucial step!
- Once cooled, remove skin, stem, and seeds from each pepper. I usually end up rinsing the seeds off with a little water at the end of this process.
- Tear the pepper flesh into cracker-sized portions or strips, according to your preference, and place them on the mesh of dehydrator trays. Again, as with the onion crisps, I think you could also do this on parchment paper-lined cookie sheets in the oven on a low setting; you might have to turn the pepper strips mid-drying to ensure the bottoms dried out as well as the tops.
- Dehydrate until leathery. I also used the highest setting on my dehydrator for this, since the peppers have already been cooked. They were finished overnight.
These made for a nice combo with strips of jerky. I suppose one could think of a pepper-jerky “sandwich”, with a little cheese, as a “cheesesteak”, altho that whole combination didn’t really meet up to the expectations of the greasiness of a cheesesteak. But they were still quite yummy, and worked well as a base for chevre and other spreadable things. Probably would work great for tuna salad too… hmm … I do have some leftovers from the trip still – maybe that will be lunch tomorrow!
This post is part of Fight Back Friday, FreshBites Friday, Paleo Rodeo, and Go Ahead Honey It’s Gluten Free August Roundup.
15 Responses to Roasted Red Pepper Leather
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They look so innocent…
And sweet … just like you?
… alas, I think you might be better off with the onion crisps 
They won’t bite you back.
This is GOLDEN! I’m always looking for chip-like alternatives for my kiddos, who LOVE dipping things for snacks. THANK YOU.
You’re welcome! They are fantastic for dipping, they’ve got nice firmness to them, but they’re still easily bite-able. And thank you for the compliment! I love your blog!
I’ve been experimenting with kale chips. They probably won’t travel well but are yummy! I especially like them made with beet greens. Drip a tiny bit of olive oil on each leaf and then gently spread it over the whole leaf with your hands. Place on parchment paper and sprinkle with salt. Bake at 250 for 20 minutes, turn over and bake another 20 minutes. This may work in a dehydrator without enzyme damaging heat but I don’t have one to try it. I’ve been making a batch in the morning for piecing during the day. Whatever is left goes in a bag in the freezer before I go to bed. Should be GREAT in soups in the winter.
We tried those once — they were yummy! I think you need the heat to make them, I don’t think they’d work well in the dehydrator — altho I could be wrong. Since we’re avoiding brassicas, we haven’t made them since that first experiment, but I have heard lots of good buzz about kale chips!!
Try beet greens–not brassicas, I think.
True! I’ll have to try that next time we get the greens attached — I never know what to do with them, since I don’t usually like them sauteed. Maybe I’ll like them crisped!
[...] up was another veggie entry, and an ingenious one at that—Roasted Red Pepper Leather. This recipe comes from Megh of Yolks, Kefir, and Gristle. She says that these dehydrated red [...]
These look great! I would love giving these a try instead of crackers!
Thanks! They work so well — my husband just dug into my most recent batch of them for a snack last night, and spread chevre on them. He was a happy camper.
Hi Megh,
I’m so glad you added these to this month’s amazing Go Ahead Honey carnival. Your red pepper “crackers” are such a terrific non-recipe treat! I think I’ll buy a dehydrator just to make them. And I love the thought of them topped with goat chevre–yum!
Shirley
Cool! Thanks! You can make them in the oven too, just on its lowest setting and with the door cracked — but I won’t discourage you from getting a dehydrator, they’re really useful kitchen tools!
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