stuffed peppers

Vegan Chorizo and Cream Cheese Stuffed Jalapeños

Vegan Chorizo and Cream Cheese Stuffed Jalapenos

My oldest daughter recently asked me to make jalapeño poppers.

I have eaten plenty in my life, but never once made a stuffed jalapeño.

My next question was if she wanted them stuffed with cheddar or cream cheese. I have had both and personally prefer cream cheese, but would not turn down a pepper stuffed with cheddar. All cheese is created delicious in my mind, and I do not discriminate.

She has personally NEVER had a stuffed jalapeño, vegan or otherwise. Because we are vegan, they are not something she has ever been able to order out, and again I never thought to make them. I am not sure how long in her 17 years she has been dreaming of eating a stuffed jalapeño popper, but this was the first mention of it, so obviously I would need to try and make her pepper craving dreams a reality.

But here is the thing, I didn’t really want to go to all that work , trying to get them hallowed out and stuffed and battered and fried, knowing she was the only one in the house other than me that was going to eat them. It was going to be a lot of work. I love fried food, but if I can be honest here, I HATE the act of deep frying food. I makes a mess that I do not enjoy cleaning up, especially if its not a food my whole family is going to want to eat. So I kept putting it off.

Vegan Chorizo Cream Cheese Stuffed Jalapeno Peppers

Then one day, my friend Aunterial texted to let me know she had a LOAD of veggies for me. I had not idea just the amount she was talking about until she dropped the crate on my porch. SO MANY JALEPENOS!! So I had no more excuse. Later that week I saw on Facebook that Aunterial had made peppers too, but stuffed them with cream cheese and baked them! She is a fricking genius y’all!!! BAKED THEM!!! What?!?!?

So to solve the cheddar vs cream cheese debate, I decide to mix both. I actually used our homemade kimcheese shredded and mixed with the cream cheese because thats what I had on hand. But the kimcheese works because it has a kick to it, too. I also decided I wanted extra spice and bite, so cooked up some soy chorizo and mixed that in. To add some crunch, I sprinkled the tops with some panko and popped them into the oven!!

Y’ALL!! These might be my new favorite easy appetizer! I shared them with my non vegan neighbors to get a unbiased review and they all loved them! But most importantly, my daughter loved them. Spicy, creamy, crunchy, and I didn’t have to fry anything thanks to Aunterial’s brilliant idea! Don’t worry I probably turned around the next day and fried a thing. But these vegan chorizo and cream cheese jalapeños are officially a bake only, no frying required snack!!

So if you have been craving an jalapeño poppers but don’t want to go to the trouble of stuffing, battering, and fying them, maybe this is the solution you have been looking for! Quick, easy, and soooo good!

Vegan Chorizo and Cream Cheese Stuffed Jalapenos

INGREDIENTS:

  • 6-8 large jalapeño peppers

  • 1/2 container, or 4 oz of vegan cream cheese, or homemade cream cheese

  • 1/2 package or 6 oz vegan soy chorizo ( we used Trader Joe’s)

  • 1/3 cup shredded vegan cheddar or any shredded vegan cheese you may like

  • 1 teaspoon minced garlic

  • 1/2 teaspoon chili powder

  • 1/4 cup panko bread crumbs

INSTRUCTIONS:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

  1. Wash peppers. Cut the peppers in half lengthwise and remove seeds, and ribs. Place peppers on a parchment lined cookies sheet. Give them a spray or light brushing with some cooking oil.

  2. In a medium sized skillet, cook the soy chorizo until it has cooked through. Allow it too cool.

  3. In a medium sized bowl mix the cream cheese, shredded cheese, cooled chorizo, garlic, and chili powder.

  4. Fill the peppers evenly with the cream cheese chorizo mixture, and sprinkle the tops with panko. I like to sprinkle some chili powder on top of the bread crumbs as well, but it’s optional.

  5. Give the peppers one more spray with some cooking oil and place them on the middle rack of your preheated oven. Let them cook for about 20-25 minutes. You want the pepper to soften some but not become really mushy. If the tops seem to be browning too quickly you can move the tray to the bottom oven rack and bump the heat down to 350.

  6. Serve with a side of vegan ranch or sour cream if you like.

Vegan Chorizo and Cream Cheese Stuffed Jalapenos

If you like this recipe, then try these:

Vegan Lasagna Stuffed Peppers

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I love lasagna. Since I was a kid it was one of my top 5 favorite foods.

Cheese, sauce, veggie or “meat,” I will always gladly eat lasagna!

Not to talk myself up, but I make a pretty mean lasagna. I use our all purpose vegan cheese sauce in place of shredded mozzarella and it is truly amazing. Its gooey and extra cheesy, and creamy and perfect!

Depending on my mood, I alternate between craving a veggie or vegan meat lasagna. I give the option for both in this recipe in case you are the same way.

I typically make homemade sauce because it is easy, and I normally have the staple items to make it in my pantry. I often find jar sauce too sweet, or get annoyed at how many of them actually contain dairy (its weird to me the things they throw dairy in for no apparent reason) so it has become my habit to just make my own. You can always double the batch and freeze half for a quick weeknight dinner down the road as well.

Now how did we happen upon stuffing lasagna into a pepper you may ask?!?!? Well one day of of my kids told me they saw lasagna stuffed into peppers online and I got super excited!! Thank goodness my kids love food as much as I do and often find recipe ideas I have yet to stumble upon. So as quickly as she suggested it, I had them made and in the oven!

These stuffed peppers are really simple to make! Don't let the steps below discourage you. It is just as easy as making a big lasagna, you are just building it into a pepper!

These lasagna stuffed peppers are great for entertaining as well because they actually turn out really pretty. I used green peppers but you can use any variety of bell pepper you prefer!

So if you are a fan of lasagna but want to change it up a bit, give these a try! They are delicious, pretty and a fun spin on an original classic!

Lasagna:

  • 4 - 6 bell peppers

  • 1/2 box lasagna noodles, regular or gluten free

  • 1 batch tofu ricotta

  • White cheese sauce (recipe below)

  • Homemade veggie marinara (recipe below) or you can use a jar of store bought, you can also add cooked vagan sausage, ground “beef”, or seitan to the sauce if you like

White Cheese Sauce:

  • 1/2 cup of cashews (soaked in hot water a few hours, or microwaved in water for 3 mintues)

  • 1 cups of water

  • 1 teaspoons minced garlic

  • 1/2 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

  • 1/2 teaspoon salt

  • 2 and 1/2 tablespoons arrowroot or tapioca starch

  • 1 tablespoons nutritional yeast

Instructions:

  1. Drain cashews

  2. Put all ingredients into a high speed blender, or food processor and blend for several minutes until completely liquified. Totally Smooooooth!

  3. Heat on stove in a medium sauce pan, on medium heat, stirring with a whisk until it begins to thicken. It will thicken quickly so do not stop stirring! Once it thickens, remove from the heat!

The Sauce:

  • 1 large can crushed tomatoes

  • 1 small can diced tomatoes drained

  • 1 carrot diced

  • 1 onion diced

  • 1 cup diced mushrooms (optional)

  • 1-2 teaspoons crushed garlic

  • 1 teaspoon dried thyme

  • 1 teaspoon dried oregano

  • 1 teaspoon salt

  • pepper to taste

  • splash of red wine (optional)

This sauce will make more than you need. I often just freeze the other half and use the next time I am making this recipe, or need a marinara sauce.

“Meaty” option:

If you would rather have a "meaty” sauce, you could omit the carrot, pepper, and mushroom, and add a bag of meatless crumbles, or even use 2 Beyond Beef brand burgers. Simply thaw them, and cook as you would ground meat before adding to the sauce.

Instructions:

  1. In a large sauce pan, saute all of the veggies and garlic in a few teaspoons of oil until tender. If using meatless crumbles or Beyond Burgers, Heat the faux meat, garlic, and diced onion together in in a pan until cooked through.

  2. Add wine and let cook for a minute.

  3. Add both cans of tomatoes, and spices, and let the sauce simmer for 15 - 20 minutes.

COOKING INSTRUCTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees 

  1. Cut tops from bell peppers and hallow out the insides. Place peppers on a parchment lined cookie sheet turned upside down, and bake at 350 for about 15 minutes. Turning them upside down will allow the liquid in the peppers to drain out while cooking.

  2. While peppers are cooking, boil lasagna noodles according to package instructions.

  3. Once noodles are drained, and cooled, cut each noodle into 4 pieces.

  4. Begin stuffing the peppers by first adding 1 or 2 tablespoons of marinara to the bottom. Next add a piece of lasagna noodle, ricotta, marinara, cheese sauce, and repeat until the pepper is filled. Repeat with remaining peppers.

  5. Place stuffed peppers back on the cookie sheet you used to cook them the first time, and bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.

Serves 4 - 6.