PEPITA POBLANO ROMESCO SAUCE | dolly and oatmeal

hi friends, i’m trying something new out here. you may notice that this post went live on sunday, which i never do! so here’s the “something new”:

last year i asked a favor of you readers to fill out a survey answering some questions about where you’d like dolly and oatmeal to go. to my surprise, a lot of you said that you love it just the way it is, which was so lovely to hear! but i did hear quite a bit of interest in how i feed myself, and my family. the truth is, i’m still in the muck of it. amesy still doesn’t really eat what frank and i do for dinner, so most nights i’m left making 2 completely different dinners. as such, i’ve taken up meal prep once again. i usually spend amesy’s nap-time on sundays to slow cook chicken breasts for the week, make some of amesy’s lunch and dinner components, and most importantly, i prep a few sauces for the week. sometimes it’s a sauce and a dressing, sometimes a dip, and when the stars align the sauce/dressing/dip all have the ability to serve as each one! the point i’m trying to make here is that without these small, saucy components, dinners can suffer. the truth is, life is just easier when you can grab a reliable sauce from the fridge to take your meal/salad/ side to the next level.

which is all to say, that i’m going to be here every sunday providing you some of the sauces/marinades/dips/vinaigrettes that continue to give life to our meals throughout the week, in hopes they give life to yours as well. and without spending the entire weekend food prepping. yay!!

the first one up is this delicious green romesco sauce. if you’re familiar with romesco sauce then you probably know that it’s generally made with red bell peppers and is therefore red, not green, like this version. in this recipe, we swap out the red peppers for poblano peppers, and the walnuts for pumpkin seeds. when it comes together it’s a light but luscious sauce that can used for such a variety of preparations:

served over top to your protein of choice (i used it here to top roasted salmon).
as a creamy/sauce-y component in a lunch/dinner bowl
thinned out with some olive oil for a creamy salad dressing
served as a dip with sliced veggies, crackers, etc.
or smothered over roasted fingerling potatoes for a twist on a classic potato salad

i hope you all enjoy this series as much as i’m loving creating it! it is my sincere hope these “sauce-y sunday” posts will assist you in making meals less daunting. if you have any thoughts/ideas/comments please leave them below or shoot me an email ❤️

pepita poblano romesco sauce | v

method

roast the pepper over a gas flame set to medium-low, rotating it with tongs until charred evenly - about 15 minutes (if you don't have a gas stove, you can broil it in your oven). place pepper in a bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap (this creates steam to help peel the skin). once cool enough, cut the pepper and discard the stem and seeds, carefully peel the skin and discard. run the peppers under water to remove any excess char, and pat them dry.
blend in a food processor with the parsley, pepitas, garlic, vinegar, and ¼ cup oil. if the romesco is too thick and pasty, add the remaining olive oil. season to taste with salt and pepper. place in a lidded jar in the refrigerator until ready to use (i like to make it a couple days in advance to let the flavors come together.)

ingredients

| makes 1 1/2 cups |