I recently began a search to see what foods other people have combined with hot sauce. It has been a interesting quest, and although a few were borderline insane.
I did find one’s that I think have the potential to be worth trying. These are some that people actually enjoy eating with hot sauce.
So let’s skip the obvious choices you could guess already. Here are 15 foods you wouldn’t think to pair with hot sauce.
1. Salad
Hot sauce can be a healthy alternative to salad dressing. Use a thin sauce that is vinegar based and has a flavor that will compliment lettuce and herbs.
Fruit based hot sauces pair well with even a basic salad. Buffalo sauces I think taste great also. I use franks hot sauce on my salad sometimes, mix in olive oil to help spread the sauce out better.
You could also add both a dressing and hot sauce together. There aren’t any rules for this.
Make your own spicy ranch by combining regular ranch with a hot sauce. Use 1 tablespoon of hot sauce per 8 oz of ranch. Simply stir them together and add to a salad.
2. Popcorn
Add some hot sauce to your next bowl of popcorn to give it a spicy kick. You can microwave a bag of popcorn, then add in some hot sauce. Shake it around to mix in the sauce.
Another way is to add some hot sauce into some melted butter. Pour the butter over your popcorn like you would normally.
Popcorn is also a good way to taste hot sauces. Use the popcorn as a vehicle to taste the hot sauce. Since it won’t change the flavor much, but you will taste the sauce.
One problem is the popcorn can become soggy. To avoid this you can dip each popcorn separately in hot sauce. Also you could pour out a smaller amount of popcorn into a bowl. Add hot sauce just to that bowl, this way the rest doesn’t start to get soggy before you eat it.
3. Macaroni and Cheese
Mac and cheese with hot sauce is really good. I use franks hot sauce and add it in at the end. Rather than cooking it in with the macaroni.
You could do it either way though. Most hot sauces should taste just fine, but I think sriracha or any buffalo flavors work best.
Try adding in some hot sauce when you go to mix in the cheese next time. This is a easy way to spruce up some basic macaroni and cheese.
4. Corn On The Cob
In this post I mention corn on the cob, but you could use hot sauce in a variety of corn styles.
Grilled corn on the cob with hot sauce is the way to try this. Mix in some other toppings with this recipe. Not only to give the corn more flavor but make it look really appealing.
Otherwise you end up with a corn cob splattered in hot sauce. Which doesn’t always look the greatest. You might think differently, but try some herbs like parsley, basil or rosemary.
What works best is to mix the hot sauce with some melted butter. Then rub that onto the corn after it has been grilled.
5. Ice Cream
This one surprised me the most but actually its more popular than you might believe.
I had though this might just be a food challenge, or a funny thing to make a video about on youtube.
People and some cultures actually make spicy ice cream. You can buy spicy syrups as well.
You can add hot sauce on top of ice cream as a syrup, or actually make it from scratch using a pepper sauce. If you want to give this a try start with plain vanilla ice cream.
Hot sauces that aren’t made with vinegar might taste better. A sweet hot sauce with added sugar would pair better with ice cream. Possibly a pepper jelly or a fruit hot sauce.
6. Oatmeal
Hot sauce on oatmeal is another eccentric way to combine hot sauce with ordinary foods.
Maybe you run out of fruit or other toppings for your morning oatmeal. Try stirring in hot sauce to change things up.
Similar to ice cream if you like adding spicy sauce to your oatmeal. You may want to consider trying a sweeter version. Like a spicy maple syrup made with hot peppers.
7. Toast
Hot sauce on toast is so simple, all you need is toasted bread and hot sauce. After toasting a slice of bread you spread hot sauce on the top. You can spread it or just drizzle some drops on the top.
Try this with or without butter. I would say start without butter and see how it goes. One problem is your hot sauce may be kept cold, so if you like warm toast. Then use room temperature sauce or heat some up in the microwave.
Hot sauce pairs well with avocado toast as well. To give it a little more flavor and spice. Another idea is to put hot sauce on a fried egg toast sandwich.
8. Bagels
Similar to toast you can put hot sauce on other toasted breads. A plain bagel (toasted or not) will be better with hot sauce.
Any type of hot sauce can work well or you could mix in some with other bagel toppings. Like cottage or cream cheese with some hot sauce. Add more hot sauce in case the cheese weakens the spice.
You won’t see a lot of people doing this but it might be something you learn to enjoy.
9. Vegetables
Vegetables are another food that you might enjoy with hot sauce. There are some vegetables that might taste better though.
As mentioned earlier hot sauce can be put on a salad. So you can do most any green vegetables.
Any type of fried potato like french fries you can dose with hot sauce. Grilled potatoes, mashed or even baked can be spiced up a bit.
Green vegetables like broccoli or green beans. You might find it easier to eat these healthy foods when you add hot sauce to them.
10. Cottage Cheese
Pour one teaspoon of hot sauce into your cottage cheese. Stir it up well and add more if needed.
This one is probably more rare and the weirdest of the bunch. It could be like a buffalo cheese dip.
You could even mix in the hot sauce, then spread it onto a bagel. Cottage cheese can be a easy snack to eat and adding in hot sauce is worth trying.
11. Quinoa
Pronounced KEEN-wah is a grain dish of seeds. Quinoa is easy to cook but usually requires other ingredients to add in flavor.
Almost anything can be added to quinoa making it a versatile food. Put in any veggies or meats and then mix in your favorite hot sauce.
Hot sauce can be added to quinoa along with many other ingredients. There are many recipes to make with quinoa that you could include hot sauce. Quinoa salad, chili, bowls or Thai versions.
12. Coffee
You don’t need very much hot sauce for coffee. Especially if you are using a special sauce. One or two drops in your cup should do the trick.
This does really alter the flavor of the coffee, so you might need experiment. I would say it would take a special hot sauce flavor. Cayenne or buffalo sauces might not be very good.
Even worse is if you use a dairy creamier in your coffee. Then you should avoid adding any vinegar into your coffee. A lot of hot sauces are vinegar based.
Vinegar and dairy when mixed create this plastic like substance called curds. You don’t want this to happen to your coffee.
There are unique hot sauces out there that have a coffee flavor.
13. Hot Chocolate
Spicy or Mexican hot chocolate is more popular than you might believe. At least it was for me.
Similar to coffee you won’t need to add very much hot sauce. As you don’t want to be drinking the sauce. This is mean’t to spice it up and add a little bit of unique flavor.
Not all Mexican hot chocolate mixes use hot sauce directly. As they are in a powdered form. But even some recipes will just include crushed pepper or flakes.
A hot sauce that is closely related to this is called hot chocolate. There is also many chocolate flavored hot sauces.
14. Ramen Noodles and Soups
Soups or ramen noodles can always use some hot sauce. Just add in however much you feel is right to your bowl.
You can also add in some hot sauce while you are cooking the soups. This way it will heat up refrigerated sauces. Also blends them in nicely and the spice spreads out better.
Serve nice and hot and you get two types of hot, spicy and temperature. Great on a cold day or when your sick.
Any type of hot sauce will work, even the most popular like Franks or Sriracha.
15. Grilled Cheese
Classic grilled cheese sandwiches with hot sauce. Since you can always customize grilled cheeses with a variety of toppings.
Hot sauce can be put onto the sandwich when you add the cheese. Just don’t use too much or it will run off the sides. You wan’t the cheese and sauce to mix well.
Another option is to dip your grilled cheese in hot sauce while eating. Just pour some into a small bowl. Most hot sauces will work for this, a flavor that will go well with cheese.
A alternative way is to add in hot sauce with the butter beforehand. Then spread it onto each slice. That way the outer bread will be lightly coated and cooked with hot sauce.
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