In this delicious recipe, I will show you how to make the ultimate copycat Hello Fresh tex mex paste. It is easier than you think and my recipe is even easily customizable! The paste is earthy, spicy, super rich, and packed with spices – perfect for any Mexican-inspired dish!
You can incorporate this tex mex paste into many recipes. I personally love adding some to my Sopa De Albondigas Con Fideo recipe, as well as Bistec Con Papas, a Mexican steak and potato stew. It also goes great as a topping for tacos, burritos, quesadillas, and even empanadas.
Trust me, as soon as you start incorporating it into your dishes, you won’t be able to stop! It’s that good!
What Is Hello Fresh Tex Mex Paste?
HelloFresh is quite a famous company. The service they offer includes providing homes with step-by-step recipes along with pre-portioned fresh ingredients. This enables people to still make healthy meals without having to spend hours doing so.
Naturally, their company and recipes grew exponentially! This led to more people wanting to buy some of their specific pre-portioned ingredients, not an entire meal.
But unfortunately, they don’t sell pantry items. So, if you want something, you’ll have to buy the meal kit and use it in that specific way.
Luckily, I have spent hours developing a copycat recipe for their famous and highly sought-after tex mex paste.
Today I will show you how to make the best copycat hello fresh tex mex paste recipe from scratch. It is extremely easy, super fun, and very versatile. You can use this paste in other dishes and even as a dipping sauce!
Ingredients for the Tex Mex Paste
This easy tex mex paste recipe contains a ton of ingredients. Luckily, they are all pretty basic ones.
To start, the base of the paste is made from roasted tomatoes, garlic, rehydrated chipotle peppers, and raw white onions. This creates a very savory, rich, and slightly earthy flavor profile.
Then, you also have some added spices. Now they are VERY customizable to suit your needs. But keep in mind that this paste is extremely garlicky and very spicy. So if you don’t like those main flavors and don’t want to adjust the recipe, you may want to find something else.
Some of the aromatics that help balance the flavors include sugar, salt, and rice vinegar.
Tomato paste and garlic with chili paste are used to deepen the flavors.
And finally, I’ve also incorporated some spices and herbs like oregano, coriander, cumin, garlic, chili, and paprika.
Cocoa powder is the ingredient that always gets people. But it’s a staple in a tex mex paste recipe. It gives the paste a deeper color, earthy flavor, and slightly bitter undertone.
Steps for Making Hello Fresh Tex Mex Paste
Making this paste is incredibly easy. You first have to roast your tomatoes and garlic.
While they roast, you can rehydrate your chipotle chilies and measure out the remaining ingredients.
When all of the ingredients have been cooked and cooled, add the tomatoes, garlic, onion, and chilies to the blender. Create a uniform smooth mixture.
Decant the paste base into a saucepan and add the remaining ingredients.
All that’s left to do is cook the mixture until you have a thick, but saucy, paste.
Tips And Tricks To Make This Paste
- All of the spices and herbs are adjustable in today’s recipe. Traditionally, a tex mex paste is super spicy, packed with garlic flavors, and has a heavily seasoned pallet. However, not everybody likes those characteristics in a paste. Therefore, just modify the spices according to your personal preference. And don’t forget to make notes on what you changed so you can replicate the recipe in the future.
- Traditionally fire-roasted tomatoes are used. If you do have a barbecue going, feel free to roast your garlic and tomatoes there. But if not, the oven-roasted method works just fine. The smoky flavors come from the smoked paprika used.
- You should cook the paste until it has a thick consistency. It shouldn’t be oily or watery. Luckily, you can just leave the paste over medium-low heat to reduce it.
- To store this paste, place it inside an airtight container. Keep it inside the fridge to extend its shelf life. It will easily last a couple of weeks if you keep it cool.
Hello Fresh Tex Mex Paste Recipe – As Good As The Real Thing
Ingredients
For the roasted garlic and tomatoes
- 2 bulbs garlic
- 4-5 medium tomatoes, halved or quartered
- Olive oil
- Sea salt, to taste
For the tex mex paste
- 3/4 cup (4 ounces) Chipotle chilis
- 3 medium white onions, peeled and quartered
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 2 tbsp cocoa powder
- 5 tsp rice vinegar
- 5 tsp sugar
- 4 tsp garlic and chili paste
- 3-4 tsp fine salt, to taste
- 2-3 tsp chili powder, to taste
- 2 tsp ground coriander
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 2 tsp smoked paprika
- 2 tsp garlic powder
- 2 tsp dried oregano
Instructions
Make the roasted tomatoes and garlic
- Begin by setting your oven to 400ºF (200ºC) to preheat.
- Make the roasted tomatoes and garlic first. Slice the garlic bulbs in half. Place each half in a sheet of foil.
- Drizzle some olive oil over the garlic bulb and season it lightly with salt. Make sure the oil covers all of the exposed cloves.
- Loosely wrap the bulbs in foil and place them on a parchment-lined roasting tray. Set it aside.
- Next, add the halved tomatoes to the roasting tray. Drizzle them with a bit of oil and season them lightly with salt and pepper.
- Place the roasting tray inside the oven. Leave them to roast for about 30-40 minutes. Make sure to check the garlics' progress to prevent the tomatoes from burning.
- When the garlic is golden brown and uber-soft, you can remove the tray from the oven and leave it to cool at room temperature.
Re-hydrate the Chipotle chilis
- Place the chilies into a medium pot and fill it with water.
- Bring the ingredients to a simmer over medium heat and leave the chilies to rehydrate for roughly 20 minutes.
- Once they have become soft again, drain them from the water and set them aside.
Make the paste base
- When all of your elements have been prepared, place the roasted tomatoes, garlic, onions, and rehydrated chilies into a blender.
- Blend these ingredients together until you have a uniform, smooth paste.
- Pour the mixture into a medium or large saucepan.
- Add all of the remaining herbs and spices. Stir them in very well.
- Bring the paste to a simmer over medium heat and leave it to cook for roughly 15-20 minutes. It will reduce and become extremely aromatic.
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