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.
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!
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
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.
In a medium sized skillet, cook the soy chorizo until it has cooked through. Allow it too cool.
In a medium sized bowl mix the cream cheese, shredded cheese, cooled chorizo, garlic, and chili powder.
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.
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.
Serve with a side of vegan ranch or sour cream if you like.
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