A few days ago I made a hot pepper sauce from a bunch of dried peppers I’ve been collecting – anaheim. guajillo, chiles de árbol, ancho – and bottled it up. It’s fiery-hot but with lots of flavor.

I used it as a BBQ sauce last night, and tonight it was mixed into ground beef with bell peppers and onions. I made patties and stuffed them with monterey jack cheese, and onto the grill, they went.

As man does not live by burger alone, I grabbed some vegetables out of the vegetable bin and went to work.

I started with half of a small bulb of fennel, several radishes, a couple of white mushrooms, and a zucchini. I love how fennel goes from licorice to sweet when cooked and radishes go from peppery to the same. Mushrooms and zucchini just absorb flavor.

With a fairly spicy burger, I wanted the veggies to compliment it, but wasn’t sure what to do. I opened the cupboard for inspiration and found a bottle of Trader Joe’s Jalapeño Sauce I had picked up last week as an impulse buy. I don’t often buy sauces like this, but… every now and again, they’re not bad to have around.

Tonight was one of those times. I cooked off the veggies and added a hefty splash of jalapeño sauce at the last minute to pull everything together. It worked well!

It tied the veggies together while allowing each to retain their own unique flavor., and it was just spicy enough to be interesting without being overpowering.

The burgers were fun, as well. Lots of spice but they were mellowed by the monterey jack cheese. The veggies picked up the flavors of the burger while being stand-alone great without them.

All-in-all, a very successful meal!

I can see the sauce being stirred into an avocado for a 10-second guacamole… or even as a dipping sauce for quesadillas.

I’ll figure out something. Waste not, want not…