Traditional Mojo Rojo sauce from the Canaries

Today we have a very special recipe for you: our Canary Islands red mojo sauce. Slightly spicy and full of flavour, it is a really simple sauce to prepare, with ingredients that you can easily find in your supermarket. Although originally it is made with peppers from the islands (“piconas”, “palmeras”), you can easily substitute them with other dried chilli peppers.

Although most of the people who know about the mojo sauce might picture it as going with some potatoes form the Canary Islands, the truth is that it is an incredibly versatile sauce. We love it with our cod bites, or with cheese like halloumi, or on a toast with a poached egg and some avocado… the possibilities are endless.

Traditional Spanish Red Mojo Sauce

With just a few ingredients, you will be able to prepare one of the staples of the cuisine of the Canaries. You’ll just need some peppers, garlic, spices, oil and vinegar. Go for it and enjoy your favourite dishes with our delicious red mojo sauce recipe. It’ll become a pillar in your kitchen.

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Cook Time 30 mins

Total Time 30 mins

Course Sauce

Cuisine Canary Islands, Canaryan, Spanish

Servings 1 cup of sauce

Ingredients

  

• 15 g palmera/picona peppers or other type of fried chillies
• 2-3 garlic cloves
• 3/4 cup olive oil the highest the quality, the better
• water to hydrate the peppers
• 1 tablespoon mild Spanish pimentón or paprika
• 1 tablespoon cumin
• salt to taste
• 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

Instructions

 

• Firstly, we need to soften and hydrate the peppers

  In order to do that, we boil them for 20 min in a pot with some water for 20 min.

  After this, we take them out of the water and let them cool down for a bit. Save the water for later.
  
• When the peppers aren’t as warm, remove the stem and seeds and with the help of a knife or spoon, scrap the inner flesh of the pepper. This is what we will use to make our sauce.

  If you peppers are too small to scrap the interior, you can just skip this step (just remove the stems and seeds).
  
• In a tall recipient for an immersion blender, add the cumin, garlic, paprika and some salt.
  
• Incorporate the pepper internal flesh (or the whole peppers if you prefer) into the tall recipient as well as the olive oil, some vinegar and two tablespoons of the pepper cooking water.

  Blend everything and now it is a matter of reaching the desired level of consistency, salt and acidity.

  If you want more quantity of sauce, you can add more olive oil or water. The later will help achieve a more liquid consistency.

  Adjust the salt adding more if you need to and you can pour more vinegar for more acidity if you wish. Do this in small quantities.

  Blend everything very well.
  
• And that’s it! Now you have an amazing sauce you can enjoy in endless possibilities.
  

Notes

• If you want to achieve a deeper flavour, you can firstly use a mortar and a pestle to create a paste with the garlic, some salt, cumin and paprika. Then, you just need to add it to the blender recipient.
• If you use mild peppers, you can add a bit of cayenne in the mix for some heat.

Keyword easy red mojo sauce, mojo rojo recipe, recipe sauce spanish, spanish traditional sauce