poblano Archives - abracapocus

Poblanos, Quinoa and Beans

Normally I really like this recipe for Stuffed Poblano Chilies with Garlic Mashed Potatoes. Wow, I guess I’ve been making it for almost 15 years. Sometimes I’ll mix some chorizo with the mashed potatoes. This time I threw a bunch of kale in with the potatoes towards the end of the cooking time. So back to the “normally” qualification up top. I got some weird poblanos. They’re hot. Just stinging hot. Serrano hot but without the flavor that normally comes with a pepper. So I’ve been eating them, but haven’t really enjoyed them as much as usual.

Now this Mexican Quinoa was another story. It’s a very easy side dish and it can easily be varied by using different salsas. I used Whole Foods’ store brand of chipotle salsa. This was perfect.

The beans are just some pintos that were hanging out in my freezer from a big batch made in the slow cooker. Originally the were going to be turned into refried beans, but I got lazy when it turned out Kevin wasn’t going to be home for dinner and just put them on my plate as is.

Lots of brown food, but better for you brown food.

Cornbread-Stuffed Poblanos

Last weekend we headed up the road to Cosmo’s Vegan Shoppe to pick up some of those new Teese Mozzarella Sticks and other random bits.

There might have also been a baked good bonus for local folks, Peanut Butter Rocky Road Poundcake that Leigh baked from Hearty Vegan Meals For Monster Appetites. Which were delicious, by the way. Back to that cookbook though. Kevin picked it up and started flipping through it. Next thing I knew it was in the bag coming home with us. Yay!

As I was looking through trying to figure out what I wanted to cook from this book while making my shopping list, I may have gained 10 lbs. Banana Split Waffles? Maple Bacon Doughnuts? Crispy Mac & Cheese Balls? You get the idea. So one of the recipes I picked out was the Cornbread-Stuffed Poblanos. Okay, so they use mayo or sour cream for the moisture instead of soy milk. Still, they weren’t deep-fried so it seemed like a good place to start.

And they were really good. Using salsa in the batter made them extra tasty. And the pepper roasted up a bit while they baked. Even so, I think next time I make them I’ll back off the sour cream, the option I used, and just substitute soy milk to make them more of an everyday kind of dish.

The sides are Jicama Salad I had leftover from a potluck and we split a Gutenfleischer’s vegan steak that I heated up on the George Foreman.

Vegan Potlucks Rule

Whoops. This is a little tardy. I guess I’m going to get points off on my grade for that. So I hosted the last potluck for our vegan lunch group back on May 30th. Our theme was Latin American cuisine. As always, we had a lovely spread.

3 salsas, chips, guacamole, nopales (cactus)

fruit salad, corn and black bean salad, quinoa salad, horchata

close up of corn and black bean salad and quinoa salad

nopales, guacamole, roasted poblanos stuffed with garlic mashed potatoes smothered in Teese

What I did with my Soyrizo

Friday, I bought a package of Soyrizo on a whim with no particular plan of what to do with it. Then I remembered this old Vegetarian Times recipe for Stuffed Poblano Chilies with Garlic Mashed Potatoes. Perfect! So I loosely followed this recipe from memory. I mean, it isn’t exactly complicated.

But, to incorporate the Soyrizo, I sautéed half the package with half an onion until the onion was soft and the Soyrizo started to brown.

Then I just mixed that in with the mashed potatoes before stuffing the peppers. I also mixed a little Teese in with the mashed potatoes and sprinkled it all over the top. Since I didn’t go by a recipe or measure anything, there was extra mashed potato mixture. So I put it down in the casserole, then plopped the stuffed peppers on top.

We ate it with a side of refried beans. Hey, the chili was green, that counts, right?