hot sauce | Trader Joe’s Rants & Raves (mostly raves, a few rants)

SPICY DYNAMITE SAUCE – “A great condiment for all dishes like sushi, fries, burgers”

https://www.traderjoes.com/home/products/pdp/spicy-dynamite-sauce-078428

Here’s what they have to say about their new SPICY DYNAMITE Sauce: “Made with a base of vegan mayo, the ingredients to our Spicy Dynamite Sauce read like a list of greatest gastronomic hits: Pickled chili peppers! Sesame oil! Garlic! Horseradish-mustard paste! It all adds up to one superlatively full-flavored profile, with notes of heat, sweet, and umami, and a captivatingly creamy texture. We like it on and with everything , and we mean everything: French fries, chicken nuggets, poke bowls, grilled salmon, roasted broccoli, baked potatoes, burgers, sandwiches, fish tacos, scrambled eggs—seriously, you name it, and this Sauce will work like Dynamite.”

First off, let me just state, this is SERIOUSLY spicy. Let me say that again. This is HOT STUFF.

Absolutely spicy delicious as Bourdain used to say. I really liked it. A vegan mayo with a lot of tasty ingredients that will spice up and add flavor to whatever you put it on. And you can put it on everything. I mean everything.

How spicy is it? Very. I quickly realized how spicy this actually was and that a little went a long way. So use sparingly. I just used a few small dollops of it and got the effect. I even toned it down, mixing it into other things, like yogurt and mayonnaise , ketchup, and liked all these sauce combos I made. TIP: When cold it’s quite thick and a little hard to control squeezing a small amount. So do that carefully lest you get too much coming out of the bottle.

This is a very good sauce with a lot of flavor. Just know that its going to bring the heat.

$2.99 (10 oz bottle)

I would buy it again.

Trader Joe’s GREEN DRAGON HOT SAUCE

RAVE

Trader Joe’s as you know carries a whole bunch of condiments and sauces, many being outstanding. It has quite a few hot sauces, most of which are VERY good. TJ’s Green Dragon Hot Sauce is one of my favorite Trader Joe’s items, along with Bomba and Peri-Peri and of course ZHOUG).

Now I would easily say Trader Joe’s GREEN DRAGON is a fantastic hot sauce and if you Google it, you’ll find it has many, many fans. GREEN DRAGON has far more fans than the TJ’s Sriracha (which while not bad is nowhere the equal of the original classic Huy Fong Sriracha {red rooster label) IMHO.

Trader Joe’s Green Dragon Hot Sauce‘s ingredients include: jalapeño, tomatillo, garlic, cilantro, vinegar, garlic, lime juice and habanero. It is spicy of course but not blow the roof of your mouth off spicy. This stuff has a lot of lovely flavors going on, it’s not simply “hot”. With the above ingredients naturally Green Dragon can be viewed as a type of classic Mexican/South American style salsa. But it works with all kinds of cuisines and foods in particular I find Asian or Asian style food. When I’m making many Chinese or other Asian dishes I tend to use Green Dragon a good deal. Its very floral as it is made from fresh green chiles, herbs and aromatics. Used judiciously this sauce adds flavor to all kinds of dishes with a hint of spiciness. A few drops can go a long way in the flavor department, so you can use it a bit sparingly (unless you love heat, in which case use more of course!) For example a splash of this when you are making eggs, either in scrambled eggs, or on top of fried eggs… It’s great with egg dishes. I even put a few drops on something “boring” like cottage cheese (no really, try this combo on a toasted bagel – or on crackers which I have above) Cottage cheese with some GDS is boring no more. Toast up a bagel, top with cottage cheese, dot with Green Dragon; Thats one yummy breakfast. AVOCADO TOAST? YES! See below for a mini-recipe.

I just put some GDS in a lentil soup I had made and found it was perfect for that too, it added just that little bit of something extra that the soup needed. It is easy and fun to experiment with Green Dragon. Once you start trying it on different things, you will also discover, “umm, that works with this too”. Green Dragon sauce is one of my “always got to have in the fridge” TJ items! I never am without it and I keeps one in the pantry too, as I never want to come up empty. It’s a steal for $3.29 a bottle (18 ounces). In another Gourmet type store, something like this would be six bucks no doubt.

Avocado Toast: mash a ripe avocado up with salt, pepper, a splash of apple cider vinegar or lemon juice then add Green Dragon to taste. Spread the avocado mixture on lightly buttered sourdough toast, a sliced brioche, a bagel, or any of your favorite toast. This is really yummy. Side note – add some into your guacamole, of course that’s also a fantastic match).