Cannabis Hot Sauce Recipe: Roasted Chile Salsa Made With Cannabutter

To make cannabis hot sauce, you roast chiles, tomatoes, garlic and onion, blend them with vinegar, sugar, salt, water and melted cannabutter, which is what carries the THC. It takes about 45 minutes, keeps in the fridge for a month, and lets you pick exactly how much heat you want. If you're the type who puts hot sauce on everything, this one's for you.

Now picture something that might sound out there: mixing that kind of recipe with weed. Didn't know you could? It might seem like a stretch, but with this cannabis hot sauce recipe, it's totally doable.

Hot sauce is a go-to condiment in a ton of cultures around the world, famous for its punchy flavor and its knack for adding heat to just about any dish. Plenty of people are always on the hunt for a good hot sauce to go with their tacos, nachos and wings, or just to give everyday meals an extra kick.

Cooking with weed at home can be seriously rewarding, especially if you grew all the ingredients yourself.

Why make your own weed-infused hot sauce?

There are plenty of perks to making your own hot sauce, but one stands above the rest: you can customize it to your taste and your heat tolerance. Your cannabis recipe can go anywhere from a mild sauce with a gentle kick for folks who like subtle flavors to a blow-your-head-off sauce for the fire-breathers. That's the beauty of it: you're the flavor boss, and you decide how hot it gets.

Making hot sauce at home also lets you experiment with different ingredients and come up with unique combos and flavors that carry your own personality — the kind of thing you won't find on a store shelf. And if you want to infuse it a different way, a cannabis-infused olive oil works too.

Is hot sauce good for you?

Besides the perks of making your own hot sauce — and it's a genuinely creative, fun process — you get to play around with a huge range of ingredients, like fresh chiles, spices, herbs, onion, garlic, lime and vinegar, to build a sauce that fits your taste perfectly.

A lot has been said about the benefits of cooking for yourself, and for some people, time in the kitchen is exactly the kind of downtime that takes the edge off stress. Beyond the fun of experimenting, though, homemade hot sauce may have some health upsides too.

Hot peppers, or chiles, the key ingredient in most hot sauces, contain capsaicin, a compound that research suggests has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Some studies have also linked capsaicin to better digestion, a slight metabolism boost and the release of endorphins, which may lift your mood.

How to make cannabis hot sauce: ingredients and steps

For the hot sauce:

• 300–500 g (about 10–18 oz) of your favorite chiles, stems removed — red jalapeños work great
• 1 whole head of garlic
• 5 large tomatoes, halved
• 1 onion, halved (optional)
• ½ cup apple cider vinegar
• ½ cup water
• 2 tablespoons cane sugar
• 1 tablespoon sea salt
• 60 g (about ¼ cup) cannabutter
• A splash of olive oil

Step by step: making your weed hot sauce

• Preheat the oven to 200 °C (400 °F).
• Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Lay out the garlic cloves, the onion, the tomatoes (cut side down) and the chiles. Drizzle with a little olive oil and sprinkle with the salt.
• Roast for 30 minutes.
• Pull the tray out of the oven and let it cool. Once it's cool, peel the garlic cloves.
• Gently melt the cannabutter over low heat (don't let it boil), then put it in a blender with the onion, tomatoes, garlic, chiles, sugar, salt, water and vinegar.
• Blend until smooth and the butter is fully emulsified. If you like it thinner, strain it through cheesecloth to get rid of the bits of veggies.
• Your hot sauce is ready!
• Store it in the fridge, where it keeps for a month. The butter firms up when cold, so shake or stir it before each use to spread the THC evenly, and label the jar so nobody drowns their eggs in it by accident.

The perfect match: chicken wings

• Chicken wings
• Olive oil
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder

What to eat with cannabis hot sauce

Here are a few dishes that pair well with the sauce you just made, so you can work it into your easy weed recipes and add some flavor and heat to your meals.

Tacos and nachos:

Tacos are famous worldwide as one of the best matches for this kind of weed food, and so are their trusty sidekick, nachos. Go with carne asada, chicken, fish or veggie tacos — just go easy when you spoon on the tomato hot sauce to bring out the flavor.

The tomato's acidity and the sauce's heat round out the flavors of the taco fillings perfectly, giving them a tasty, spicy kick. And if you want a proper Mexican taco, don't forget the guac.

Eggs:

Eggs are one of the best foods around: not only are they super nutritious, they're also versatile enough to eat any time of day. So next time you make them, add some tomato hot sauce on the side of your scrambled eggs, fried eggs or omelet.

Burgers:

If you love burgers and all the combos you can pull off with them, tomato hot sauce might become one of those condiments you never skip, thanks to how much flavor it adds. Just spoon some hot sauce on your burger — beef, chicken or turkey — and enjoy the contrast.

Soups and stews:

If you're into comfort food, tomato hot sauce is also a great addition to soups and stews. Stir a spoonful into lentil soup, chili con carne or beef stew to give it some heat and add depth of flavor.

Pizza:

This one's a bit of a gamble, but if you're a pizza fiend, tomato hot sauce can be a fun way to add some heat. Don't overdo it: spread a thin layer of hot sauce over the crust and you'll get a bold, spicy pizza that'll have you drooling.

Rice dishes:

Rice dishes like fried rice, arroz con pollo or veggie rice can always benefit from a hit of tomato hot sauce. Mix the hot sauce into the rice or use it as a dipping sauce.