The guy at the taco cart told me his secret was a $5 bag of dried peppers

I was grabbing lunch from a cart in Austin and asked how his salsa got that deep red color. He pointed to a big bag of guajillo peppers from a local market and said 'most folks use fresh, but these give it the soul'. Has anyone else had a vendor share a surprisingly simple trick like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

olivia2481mo ago

Honestly that is such a real moment. Tbh the best cooking tips always come from people just doing their thing every day. My local pho place once told me the key was just charring a whole onion and some ginger under the broiler before the broth, nothing fancy. It totally changed my home attempts. That dried pepper trick makes so much sense for getting that deep flavor without it being too sharp.

calebb571mo ago

Wait you just char the whole onion... like skin and everything? That's wild but I guess it makes sense for broth. Olivia248 you might have just saved my next soup attempt.

ninasingh1mo ago

Yeah the pho place trick is charring the onion AND ginger, not just the onion.