THE CHILE CRISP: FLAVOR ENHANCER

The holidays approach, and I love to eat! Instead of the usual “healthy holiday recipe,” I’m posting about a recent food discovery I’ve made. The Chile Crisp.

I’ve tried some weird stuff: chocolate-covered crickets (crunchy), a cow’s eye (gross, tastes like it sounds). But this Chile Crisp stuff is awesome. It’s a flavor enhancer with a nice crunch and is just hot enough for this native Pennsylvanian.

But What is Chile Crisp?

Basically, it’s vegetable oil with dried minced onion, crushed dried red chiles, salt, sugar and sesame seeds.

You can add one or two tablespoons of crisp to pasta, eggs, or veggies.

My Recipe

I made this recipe by mixing a few tablespoons of butter with 1-2 tablespoons of crisp, adding a cup of cream and simmering/stirring while the noodles cooked. Add the pasta directly from the pot with tongs, fold in 5 oz spinach (or kale as I did here cause that’s what I had), then a cup of grated Parmesan. It took 10 minutes and was delicious!

You can add more of the crisp if you like the spice!

Try out this versatile flavor enhancer. You can make it yourself or find it in the grocery store.