Hello, beautiful stuffed pepper. Hold still, cuz I'm gonna eatcha. Thanks.
Well, hi there friends. It has been a few days, and One can only rest on one’s Cranberry Ketchup Laurels for so long, so…
I was Ever So Slack last week and left you without a Sunday Supper. For that, and for all the other ways I am sometimes slack, I apologize. Please accept this humble offering as an olive branch. Thank you.
Before I go any further, I must tell you that I was inspired by my friend Gina’s picture of her stuffed poblanos that she posted on facebook. Thanks, Gina!
So, The Beloved and I are trying to eat responsibly. We’ve always been pretty good about eating foods that are good for us, and we always try to Consider the Source when it comes to purchasing meat. I doubt that we will ever become true vegetarians, what with our love of sausages and bacon and What Not, but we are taking more steps towards the Veggier end of the Vegetarian to Carnivore Spectrum. One of our steps is called Gimme Lean. It’s a sausage-style vegetarian Food Product, and I initially bought it because I appreciated the name. Gimme Lean is the veggie alternative to Jimmy Dean, and I do appreciate a good rhyme.
Of course you can make this with meat. A lovely Mexican-style sausage like chorizo would be fantastic in this. But, we wanted to go Veggie, so we defaulted to Gimme Lean. And the flavoring for Gimme Lean is more Italian–it’s pretty fennel-y. Kinda weird maybe, but we went with it.
Vegetarian Stuffed Poblano Peppers
- poblano peppers (we just used two and saved the rest of the filling for burritos. You can make as many as you want)
- a couple of tablespoons of vegetable oil
- 1 pound Gimme Lean (or Meatatarian Sausage of your choice)
- some chopped onion
- salt and pepper, cumin and chili powder, all to taste
- 1-2 minced chipotles in adobo (completely optional but quite yummy)
- 1 can o’ diced tomatoes
- a couple of splashes of vegetable stock to keep things moist
- rice (I cooked ours in vegetable stock with some cumin in it)
- Salsa
- Queso fresca or any mild, crumbly cheese. Or pepper jack. Or cheddar. It’s up to you.
First, put the peppers on a sheet pan and shove them under the broiler. Keep a close eye on them and turn them often until the skin is blistered and/or charred all over. If you have a gas stove, you can also do this by holding them in the flame (with tongs). Danger makes it taste better.
Once your peppers are charred, throw them in a bowl and cover them with plastic wrap for a couple of minutes so they can steam a bit. Let cool so you can handle them, and then peel off the charred/blistered skin. It should come off very easily.
If using veggie sausage, add some vegetable oil to a skillet and then add the sausage. (No need for oil if using Meatatarian sausage)
Cook the sausage for a couple of minutes over medium-high heat, and then add the onions and spices.
Cook for a bit until the onions are soft, and then add the tomatoes, the chipotles and some vegetable stock. You don’t want this runny, so only use the stock if things are looking dry.
Mix in your cooked rice–however much you want. You can just a little, or you can use 1/2 rice, 1/2 sausage stuff. It’s completely up to you. You can even just serve the rice on the side if you want. I mixed it half and half.
Back to the peppers: you can either cut them in half the long way and scoop out the seeds and stuff (that’s what Gina did), or you can cut around the stem and pull out the seeds that way. I chose Option 2, but either way is A-OK.
Fill your peppers with the sausage/rice mixture–don’t pack it in tightly, but make sure they’re full.
Arrange your guys in a greased baking dish. It’s fine if they touch.
Pour some salsa over the whole deal. As much or as little as you’d like. You can make your own, but I just used what was in the fridge.
Bake at 375F for about thirty minutes, or until everything is hot and bubbly.
If you want, you can grate some cheese over your guys about five minutes before you take them out of the oven. Either way, sprinkle some cheese over the stuffed peppers once you have them plated.
And that’s pretty much it. I hope that you find this is a Particularly Tasty olive branch. Now, I’m off to work on my Inaugural Newsletter. I’m calling it The Inbox Pastry Chef. Hey, why not go sign up for it? Plus, it’s time to work on The Creaming Method video.
Shameless Teaser Alert:
Oh, and guess what? Tomorrow, our neighbors’ kids Jackson and Sophie, will be my able-bodied assistants to the prequel to Doin’ the Pretzel Twist as we bring you Before the Twist: How to Make Pretzel Dough. Jackson continues to Wax Poetic about the pretzels. The other day, he told me that they were Masterpieces. I can actually make him Do What I Want by offering (or threatening to withhold) homemade pretzels. That boy is Mine. Ha!
Okay, I’m done now. Happy day, all.
