Homemade Paprika (5 Minutes)
Learn how to make your own Homemade Paprika using only dried red peppers. This recipe is extremely simple and comes together in 5 minutes. It’s a wonderful DIY recipe to use in spice blends, marinades, and so much more.
Paprika is a spice blend I grew up eating regularly in both the Puerto Rican recipes and Moroccan recipes my parents made.
It’s a popular spice blend that’s known as a staple in cuisines around the world. And for good reason, as it’s (sometimes) smoky, mildly sweet, and sometimes spicy flavor profile adds that something special to so many dishes.
Use it as a foundational ingredient in spice blends like ras el hanout or sazon seasoning, or as a classic finishing spice in dishes like this bisarra fava bean soup.
Step by Step Instructions
Make Your Own Dried Peppers
If you’re feeling like doing the whole process from scratch, you can buy fresh peppers and dry them yourself using a dehydrator.
Rinse and dry your peppers before stemming and removing the seeds (optional). Dehydrate your peppers at 145 degrees F until all the moisture has evaporated.
The exact time will depend on the size of your peppers, but it will take at least an hour.
Types of Peppers & Their Result
Obviously the more traditional paprika made by professional producers have their own signature blend or variety of peppers that they cultivate for this exact purpose.
When making paprika at home, it’s really up to you what kind of flavor profiles and peppers you want to use. I like to use a mix of spicy, smoky, and sweet peppers in my blend.
Here are some options and their results:
- Capsium (bell) peppers: this is likely the most accessible and similar pepper for making paprika.
- Pimento: these smaller red peppers are sweet in flavor and help produce that sweet and slightly smoky flavor profile.
- Arbol: this smoky pepper is spicier than a jalapeño, so keep that in mind when incorporating it into your paprika.
TIP: I don’t recommend using chili peppers as the result will be chili powder, not paprika.
Enjoy,
Homemade Paprika (5 Minutes)
- Prep Time: 0 minutes
- Total Time: 5 minutes
- Yield: ¼ cup
- Category: Spice Blend
- Method: Ground
- Cuisine: Moroccan, Puerto Rican
- Diet: Vegan
Description
Learn how to make your own Homemade Paprika using only dried red peppers. This recipe is extremely simple and comes together in 5 minutes. It’s a wonderful DIY recipe to use in spice blends, marinades, and so much more.
Ingredients
- 2 cups dried peppers (can be a blend of capsium, bell, aleppo, etc.)
Instructions
- Grind dried peppers. Remove seeds and stems from the peppers, roughly chop the peppers if they are too large to fit in your grinder. In a spice grinder or mortar & pestle, grind the dried peppers in batches until a ground powder is formed. Store in an air tight jar. Keeps up to 6 months.
