The shishito pepper burst into my consciousness a couple of years ago and I thought, “where have you been all my life, you tasty, quirky, wrinkled little pepper, you?”
Light, bright and citrusy, the shishito has been around for centuries in various cultures but has recently shown up on lots of menus as an all-in-one finger food appetizer, and definitely has a place on Glover Gardens appetizer rotation.
When blistered, shishito peppers are irresistible nibbles that bring a surprising depth of flavor with just a couple of ingredients. After enjoying shishitos prepared this way at restaurants in Houston, Miami and London, we decided to make our own at home. It was so easy!
We took the smoking-hot cast-iron skillet approach and after the first time, added grape tomatoes for color and texture. Here’s our recipe.
Blistered Shishito Peppers with Grape Tomatoes
Ingredients
- 1/2 lb. fresh shishito peppers
- 1 cup grape tomatoes (about a dozen), washed
- 1 tbsp neutral oil, like grapeseed or sunflower
- ¼ to ½ tsp. Southwest spice mix (I use our Zippy Southwest spice mix, which you can make at home)
- Course sea salt or kosher salt to taste
Optional serving condiments:
- Regular or spicy ranch dressing
- Lemon wedges
Cooking Instructions
Prepare the shishito peppers and tomatoes by rinsing and drying them, leaving the stems on the peppers. Put them in a medium bowl and toss with the oil to cover.
Heat a cast-iron skillet on high until it is smoking hot. (We do this outside.) Add the peppers and tomatoes and sear, turning when they are nicely blistered on the first side and continuing until you have a nice sear on all sides (5-7 minutes, total). The tomatoes will cook faster than the peppers and should be removed first onto a serving platter, followed by the peppers. Sprinkle with the spice mix and salt and serve immediately.
Notes
If you are not using a cast iron pan outside, you can be more judicious with the heat, and be sure not to heat a non-stick skillet without food in it, because it’s not good for the pan and releases noxious chemicals in the air that would kill your parakeet, if you had one.
Don’t skip the southwest spice mix. I did once, and got chastised by The Grill-Meister and our Musical Millennial. “It needs the Zippy, Mom,” he said. “Zippy just adds something and makes it perfect.” OK – I hear you!!!
Serving Suggestions
This is a wonderful quick appetizer, and it’s fun to eat the peppers with your fingers, picking them up by the stems. The tomatoes need a toothpick or small fork, unless you’re ok with messy fingers. The tomatoes are optional but we really like the way their warm and runny texture and slightly sweet flavor pairs with the peppers.
The peppers don’t need a sauce, but if you want one, a creamy dressing like ranch or even spicy ranch is an excellent complement to the peppers.
We use the Serrano Ranch from our local supermarket, HEB, which is in a refrigerated area of the produce section.
The first time we made the peppers at home, they were delicious! We only did the peppers that time and added a squeeze of lemon for brightness of flavor. I would recommend that if you don’t include tomatoes in your dish.
The peppers go well with a crisp white wine or even bubbly, or a lemon-flavored sparkling water.
While my pictures show the blistered shishitos and grape tomatoes as a solo appetizer, they also work really, really well on a charcuterie platter. They don’t need to be hot to be good!
Ideas for Leftovers
If you have any tomatoes and peppers left over (which is doubtful), they are excellent chopped and added to scrambled eggs, white rice or even hollandaise sauce, to spice it up. Or you could layer them onto a panini with goat cheese – yum!
More about Shishitos
Shishito peppers are mild, scoring very low on the Scoville Heat Scale, at only 0-200. For comparison, jalapenos range from 2,500 – 8,000, and habaneros from 100,000 – 350,000. Occasionally, one of the peppers is spicier than the others, but still within the range of mild. This variance may be because the pepper was left to ripen longer and developed more capsaicin. Read more about shishito peppers here in the Pepper Geek site, a nice resource for pepperholics like me.
Join Me in the Kitchen
Warning! These peppers disappear in minutes, so you might want to make a double batch.
Do you have shishito peppers in your life?
© Glover Gardens, 2023
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