This past long weekend was so nice and super relaxing – we really didn’t do much except shopping, brunching, and grilling a ton. In fact, we made pizza’s for the first time on the grill and they turned out awesome! I also made this grilled corn/kale salad with a cilantro vinaigrette that was killer. But alas, we didn’t take pictures of any of these delicious meals so I can’t post them. I am going to try and remake in the coming weeks so I can share!

I did want to post something from this weekend and last night I decided to try something fun and new for a snack that could also be a good go-to appetizer option for when we have people over. These fried bell pepper rings tasted like onion rings but with a sweeter taste. They were tiny, so it is a perfect finger food.

My husband grilled some jalapeños over the weekend and made a sauce with it so I used that to make the dipping sauce by adding some sour cream to cut out the heat. It was a perfect sauce for these rings!

I start by getting the mini sweet-bell peppers ready by cutting them into 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick rings.

Then I set up my dredging stations including egg, all-purpose flour/corn meal and bread crumbs.

I dip each of the rings into the mixtures so that they are ready for frying.

I fry them for about 3-4 minutes in hot oil. Its important the oil is hot so they fry quickly and you don’t lose the breading!

For the dipping sauce, I take out our pre-made jalapeño sauce.

I combine the jalapeño sauce with some sour cream and its ready for the rings to dip!

Prep Time: 25 minutes    Cook time: 5 minutes

Serves: Makes about 20-25 rings, 2 cups of jalapeño sauce

Ingredients

For sweet pepper rings:

• 8 mini sweet bell peppers, cut into 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick rings
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons of water
• 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup corn meal
• 1/3 cup bread crumbs
• Vegetable oil for frying

For jalapeño-sour cream dipping sauce: 

• 8 jalapeños
• 2 cloves garlic
• half of a vidalia onion, roughly chopped
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tablespoons of honey
• 1/4 cup of white vinegar
• 1/4 cup of olive oil
• sour cream to combine (amount depends on how much you want to make)

Recipe

For sweet pepper rings: 

1. Get your dredging stations ready by combining the eggs with water in a bowl. Combine the all purpose flour and corn meal in another bowl, and the bread crumbs in a final bowl.
2. First place the rings in the egg mixture, then in the flour/corn meal mixture, and then again in the egg mixture. Then finally, place in the bread crumbs to coat. Set aside.
3. Heat up a pan with oil (enough oil so that the little rings will be covered).  Wait for the pan to be very hot.
4. Place the rings in the pan and fry until they turn dark brown (about 3 minutes).

For jalapeño-sour cream dipping sauce: 

1. Grill the jalapeños until they are charred all over. If you are not grilling, you could also roast them in the oven. Also grill the onion (or cook it on the stovetop).
2. Roughly chop up the jalapeños and place them, along with the garlic, onions, garlic, salt, pepper, honey, vinegar, and olive oil in the blender. Blend.
3. Taste (it will be spicy!).  Add any more seasonings as you see fit.
4. Combine sour cream with the jalapeño sauce. For my dip, I used about 3 tablespoons of sour cream and 2 tablespoons of jalapeño sauce and that made enough for a small group.