If you haven't experienced creamy green chili sauce, you are in for a treat! This recipe has 5 ingredients and takes less than 10 minutes to make. Vegan sauce has never tasted so good!
As many of you know, I love sauce. So when I transitioned to a plant-based diet, I obsessed with creating healthy, homemade vegan sauces that were easy and tasted fabulous. My creamy green chili sauce is my new favorite dressing, dip, and all-around sauce to pour on everything! Not only is this creamy green chili sauce recipe easy to make, but it also has very few ingredients.
Jump to:
Recently, my husband, Paul, and I were invited to a hatch green chili party! What's that, you may ask? It's a party where the host roasts 80 pounds of green chilis, and people gather to deseed and prepare them to take home and freeze for various meals.
It's like a batch freezing party, but with green chilis! We all brought our favorite Mexican dishes to share, shucked green chilis, and drank margaritas! It was quite the party.
Of course, we came prepared with aprons, gloves, and goggles to prepare for our task. So here is my husband, ready for green chili pepper duty!
Each couple took home pounds of mild and hot green chilis packed in freezer bags. So, of course, my mind started whirling about ways to use these great roasted green chilis.
Since I planned on making a healthy burrito bowl this week for dinner, I decided to make a creamy green chili sauce.
Creamy Green Chili Sauce Ingredients
- Hatch Green Chili: I chose a mild hatch green chili range in heat level from mild – for those seeking just the smoky flavor – to extra hot, which rivals the New Mexico sun on the Scoville scale. Let's say the ones we deseeded were really hot, so I intend to use those in smaller amounts later.
- Garlic: I chose fresh garlic because it has a more robust flavor.
- Raw Cashews: Raw cashews provide the creaminess of the creamy green chili sauce recipe.
- Pink Salt: Himalayan pink salt contains less sodium per serving than ordinary table salt. Table salt contains 2360 milligrams of sodium per teaspoon, whereas a teaspoon of Himalayan pink salt contains 1680 milligrams of sodium — a reduction of about one-third.
- Water: The water thins the sauce.
- Lime Juice/Zest: Fresh lime juice is often more complex than bottled, so it's best to use it when you can. Lime juice and zest work well in the sauce to provide some acidity and soften the bold taste of the green chili.
Green Chili Sauce Ingredients Substitutions
- Use a 4-ounce can of hatch green chilis instead of a fresh, roasted green chili.
- Choose a different type of chili to roast and substitute for teh green hatch chili in the recipe.
- One clove of fresh garlic equals ¼ teaspoon of granulated garlic powder. The exact conversion applies to dehydrated or freeze-dried garlic or even minced refrigerated garlic.
- Choose any salt you prefer and salt to taste rather than adding if sensitive to sodium.
- Try bottled lime juice; however, to make up for the lack of lime zest from bottled lime juice, increase the amount by ½ teaspoon.
- Use a 4-ounce can of hatch green chilis instead of a fresh, roasted green chili.
- Choose a different type of chili to roast and substitute for teh green hatch chili in the recipe.
- One clove of fresh garlic equals ¼ teaspoon of granulated garlic powder. The exact conversion applies to dehydrated or freeze-dried garlic or even minced refrigerated garlic.
- Choose any salt you prefer and salt to taste rather than adding if sensitive to sodium.
- Try bottled lime juice; however, to make up for the lack of lime zest from bottled lime juice, increase the amount by ½ teaspoon.
- So if a recipe calls for the juice of 1 lime, you can substitute 2 tablespoons of bottled juice.
How to Roast/Prepare Hatch Green Chilis
Oven Roasting
- Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
- Roast in an oven to 450° for 5-8 minutes or until the skin has started to brown.
- Then flip peppers and roast them again for 5-8 minutes more or until the skins are charred brown all over.
- Remove and place a bowl over the top of the peppers to steam them for 15 minutes so the skins are easy to remove.
- Wear gloves when removing the cooked peppers' stems, veins, and seeds.
Oven Broil
- Set the oven broiler to a high temperature.
- Broil the pepper in the oven for 3 minutes on high, flip it over, and cook the other side for another 3 minutes until the pepper is blistered.
- Remove from the oven, and cover with a bowl for 15 minutes, so the skins loosen in the steaming process.
- Remove the skins.
- Don't forget to wear gloves when removing the skins, veins, and seeds from the peppers.
Grill
- Preheat the grill to medium heat and place peppers directly on the clean grill grates.
- After a few minutes, you'll notice the skin blister and char. Then, using tongs, carefully flip the peppers allowing the flames/heat to hit all sides.
- Immediately transfer the peppers to a heat-safe dish and cover them with plastic wrap.
- That plastic wrap helps 'sweat' the peppers to remove any last bit of skin that may still be attached to the pepper.
- Allow the peppers to sweat for 15 minutes before attempting the remove the skin.
- Always wear gloves when removing skins, veins, seeds, or peppers.
How to Make Creamy Green Chili Sauce/Variations
Remove the seeds and veins once they are roasted and skinned, allowing the peppers to cool completely.
- Add all the ingredients to a blender and blend until smooth.
- Transfer the creamy green chili sauce to the refrigerator to chill until ready to serve.
- If you prefer a nut-free option for this sauce, substitute ¼ cup raw cashews with plain unsweetened vegan yogurt and omit the water.
- Another nut-free option is to substitute ¼ cup silken tofu and ⅛ cup water for the raw cashews and water in the recipe.
- Or, substitute ¼ cup white beans for the cashews and reduce the water to ⅛ cup.
- If you prefer a thicker dip rather than a sauce, reduce the water by one-half.
- Conversely, if you want a thinner dressing for a Mexican salad recipe, add ⅛-1/4 cup more water.
- Also, adding a little cilantro can add flavor to the creamy green chili sauce recipe if desired.
Recipe FAQs
Hatch chile is a unique pepper grown in the Hatch Valley of New Mexico. While other people may say they have better chile, there is no chile like that produced in the Hatch Valley.
Cooks from the Land of Enchantment typically roast their Hatch chiles and add them to salads, stews, soups, sandwiches, vegan mac & cheese, corn fritters, biscuits, and dips -- or they'll process them into a versatile sauce for topping tofu scrambles, enchiladas, chile Rellenos, and much, much more.
One medium Hatch chile pepper has as much vitamin C as six oranges and contains high amounts of calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorous, potassium, niacin, folate, and other essential vitamins.
Tips
- Always wear gloves whenever working with chilis of any kind. The seeds and hot elements can burn the skin and eyes and cause damage.
- The roasted hatch chiles should be covered (with foil, plastic wrap, or a plate) while hot to let them steam, making peeling a lot easier.
- Once the skin is evenly charred, place hot roasted chiles in a paper or plastic bag or a bowl covered with plastic wrap or a towel. Let the chiles "sweat" for 15 minutes. The steam will help loosen the skin.
- In a hurry? Use canned green chilies. Anaheim chilies are the variety usually found in a can. They are milder, so you can use a 4 oz. can in the sauce.
- Pay attention to the green chiles you use. Green chiles can range in spiciness depending on their access to water during their growing time. I suggest buying mild to medium. Hot is REALLY hot!
Check out this creamy green chili sauce recipe if you're looking for a new favorite sauce for salads, bowls, tacos, or your tofu scramble. I know I'm hooked!
If you love creamy green chili sauce recipe, give us a 5-star review and comment below. We would love to hear from you.
📖 Recipe
Creamy Green Chili Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 hatch green chili pepper, roasted, deseeded or 4 ounce can of roasted green chilis
- 1 clove garlic
- ¼ cup raw cashews or substitute with plan vegan yogurt, silken tofu or white beans
- ½ teaspoon pink salt
- ¼ cup water
- 1 lime, juiced and zested
Instructions
Roasting the Hatch Green Chili
Oven Roasting
- Preheat the oven to 450 degrees
- Roast in a 450° oven for 5-8 minutes or until the skin has started to brown.
- Then flip peppers and roast them again for 5-8 minutes more or until the skins are charred brown all over
- Remove and place a bowl over the top of the peppers to steam them for 15 minutes, so the skins are easy to remove.
- Wear gloves when removing the stems, veins, and seeds of the cooked peppers.
Oven Broiling
- Set the oven broiler to a high temperature.
- Broil the pepper in the oven for 3 minutes on high, and flip it over and cook the other side for another 3 minutes until the pepper is blistered.
- Remove from the oven, and cover with a bowl for 15 minutes so the skins loosen in the steaming process.
- Remove the skins.
- Don't forget to wear gloves when removing the skins, veins, and seeds from the peppers.
Grill
- Preheat the grill to medium heat and place peppers directly on the clean grill grates.
- After a few minutes, you’ll notice the skin starting to blister and char.
- Using tongs, carefully flip the peppers allowing the flames/heat to hit all sides.
- After all of the sides have been charred, immediately transfer the peppers to a heat-safe dish and cover them with plastic wrap.
- That plastic wrap will now help ‘sweat’ the peppers to remove any last bit of skin that may still be attached to the pepper.
- Allow the peppers to sweat for 15 minutes before attempting the remove the skin.
- Always wear gloves when removing the skins, veins, and seeds or peppers.
Creamy Green Chili Sauce
- Combine all the ingredients in a blender cup.
- Blend until smooth.
- Tranfer to the refrigerator to chill until ready to serve.
Notes
- If you prefer a nut-free option for this sauce, substitute ¼ cup raw cashews with plain unsweetened, vegan yogurt and omit the water.
- Another nut-free option is to substitute ¼ cup silken tofu and ⅛ cup water for the raw cashews and water in the recipe.
- Or, substitute ¼ cup white beans for the cashews and reduce the water to ⅛ cup.
- If you prefer a thicker dip rather than a sauce, reduce the water by one-half.
- Conversely, if you want a thinner dressing, for a Mexican salad recipe, add ⅛-1/4 cup more water.
- Also, adding a little cilantro is a way to add additional flavor to the creamy green chili sauce if desired.
- Always wear gloves whenever working with chilis of any kind. The seeds and hot elements can burn the skin, and eyes, and cause damage.
- The roasted hatch chiles should be covered (with foil, plastic wrap, or a plate) while hot, this is to let them steam which makes peeling a lot easier.
- Once the skin is evenly charred, place hot roasted chiles in a paper or plastic bag, or a bowl covered with plastic wrap or a towel. Let the chiles "sweat" for 15 minutes. The steam will help loosen the skin.
- In a hurry? Use canned green chilies. Anaheim chilies are the variety usually found in a can. They are milder, so you can use a whole 4 oz. can in the sauce.
- Pay attention to the green chiles you use. Depending on their access to water during their growing time, green chiles can range in spiciness. If the level of hotness isn’t listed with the green chiles when you buy them, I would suggest buying mild to medium. Hot is REALLY hot!
- The sauce will last up to 5 days in the refrigerator.
Nutrition
Hi! My name is Kathy, I am a retired high school English teacher & vegan enthusiast and blogger. My entire blog is fully plant-based vegan. I truly believe what we eat & how we live determines our health & the preservation of our planet! 🙂
Alice
I couldn't wait to go to the store to make this, so I used what I had. I used 1\2 a large, roasted poblano, white beans, a Tbs. of cashew powder and a little lemon juice with the rest of the ingredients. It is amazing. Can't wait to make it using the right ingredients!! Wonderful website, so glad I found you!
Kathy Carmichael
Alice, I love those substitutions. I have yet to try cashew powder, but it's on my list. Thank you for the feedback and awesome substitutions.
Shellie
This is fantastic, Kathy. We love it. The flavor is just great. I did use the canned chiles. The fresh peppers around here are all labeled as assorted peppers except for jalapenos and those bins are filled with habaneros not jalapenos. 🙂
Kathy Carmichael
Hi Shellie...yay! I'm so glad you liked it. I have a lot of green chilis, so I try out new recipes daily. Unfortunately, today was a flop, so I returned to the drawing board. Thank you for the feedback. If you try any other recipes, let me know. I'd love to hear from you!
Dave Reams
How do you know whether a Hatch Chile is hot or mild? Obviously by tasting it, but I mean when selecting them at point of purchase.
Kathy Carmichael
Hi Dave, when you buy them, they should be labeled in the product area. I used mild in the recipe, because the hot ones I bought, are really hot.