I love chiles rellenos and this summer have a bumper crop of
poblano peppers growing in my garden so all the more reason to make them. However,
they can be a bit heavy and my partner is trying to eat healthier, so I put my
mind to figuring out a vegan version.
I also don’t like using “weird” stuff, so there’s no vegan
cheese or anything else in here. Just straight up stuff that you’d have in your
kitchen to make a vegan picadillo and then stuff the peppers. The batter is a
little odd but works and is a bit lighter than the eggy versions that are more
traditional.
There are quite a few steps to this dish but they are below,
so go for it. I serve it with rice, so remember to have that on the go as well.
Some people will stuff the peppers and refrigerate them for an hour and then
batter and fry them. If you do it that way, you can make the tomato sauce and batter
during that cooling off period.
Serves 2-3
Ingredients:
4 poblano peppers
Picadillo
1 tbsp oil
½ onion, diced
1 carrot, diced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
½ cup fresh or frozen corn
1 potato, diced
1 jalapeno, diced
½ tsp Mexican oregano
½ tsp ground cumin
2 tbsp tomato paste
2 tsp tamari
2 cups water
Salt and pepper
Batter
½ cup regular flour
½ cup cornstarch
Pinch of salt
¾ cup soda water
Tomato sauce
1 dried chile (arbol, puya, cascabel, costeno amarillo)
3 tomatoes (or a combo of tomatoes and tomatillos)
1 clove garlic
½ onion
2 tbsp chopped cilantro
Salt and pepper
Splash of oil
Instructions:
Roast the poblanos.
If you have a bbq or gas stove,
char the skin over the flame. If you have an electric stove, put it under the
broiler for 10-15 minutes turning it so all sides get charred. Put the hot
peppers in a bowl, cover them with a tea towel, and let them sit/steam for 10
minutes or more. The skin should now come off easily when you rub it. Be
careful with this step because you want to keep your peppers in the best shape
possible for stuffing. Remove as much of the blackened skin as you can then carefully
slice from tip to tail on one side and, again carefully, remove the seeds. Make
sure the stem remains attached. Rinse and put aside.
To make the picadillo:
Heat the oil in a medium saucepan. Add onions and saute for
a couple of minutes. Add the rest of the vegetables and saute for another
minute or two.
Mix tomato paste and water together so you get a tomato
juice type situation going on. Add that to the veggies in the pan along with
the herbs and tamari (which gives this a bit of a beefier flavour but can be
left out if you don’t have any). Bring to the boil, then lower the heat and
simmer for about 25 minutes until the carrots and potatoes are soft. You want
the final product to be quite dry but if it starts looking like it’s drying out
and going to burn before the veg are cook, just add a bit more water. Check the
seasonings and then put aside to cool.
For tomato sauce:
Stem and seed the chile and then soak in a bit of boiling
water for 15 minutes.
Roughly chop all the other vegetables. Chuck them in a
blender along with the softened chile and a couple of tablespoons of the
soaking water. Waz it all up until smooth, about 2 minutes.
Heat the oil in a small pot. Pour in the sauce. You should
get a lovely sizzle so just watch you don’t get burned. Add salt and pepper. Turn
the heat down and simmer for 10 minutes. The sauce will turn a darker red
colour. Taste again for seasoning.
Batter up
Make the batter by simply adding the flour, cornstarch,
salt, and soda water and whisking it all together.
At this point, you’re going to stuff the peppers, which is a
bit of a fiddly business. Just be patient and have some toothpicks on hand to
help seal the stuffed peppers.
Take a split pepper and place in the palm of your one hand.
Gently fill with 2 tbsps or so of the picadillo (depending on the size of your
peppers, you may need more or less). Make sure they are not too full to allow
you to pull the two sides together and seal with a toothpick or two. Repeat for
each of the poblanos.
In a medium sized frying pan, add enough oil to generously cover
the bottom of the pan and heat.
Gently dip each of the chiles in the batter and place slowly
into the hot oil. Cook for 3-4 minutes on each side or until the batter gets
lightly golden brown. If the batter doesn’t stick as much as you’d like, you
can spoon a little bit more on the chiles while they’re cooking.
Once they’re all golden brown, remove to a bit of paper
towel to absorb a bit of the oil. Serve over a bed of rice with the tomato
sauce.
Buen provecho.
© Gail J Cohen 2018
