T invited a classmate over for dinner this weekend. We cooked a delicious vegetarian (un-paleo) meal. She even wanted to help out! Dinner was “amazing” and the company was wonderful. This meal was not a paleo meal but It could definitely be modified to make it that way. I will cook some other variations on this because it was super tasty and I love the flavor of a poblano chili.
Spinach Stuffed Poblano Peppers
9 large poblano peppers
2 packages of cream cheese
16 oz of shredded Monterrey Jack cheese
3/4 of a wheel of Vaquita cheese. (it is the Mexican version of mozzarella)
12oz of spinach
1tsp cumin
1/2 tsp of black pepper
1 cup of diced onion
handful of chopped cilantro
3 eggs
about 2 cups of flour
about 2 cups of panko crumbs (Japanese style bread crumbs)
Carefully slice around the stem of the poblano peppers as if you were making a jack’o’lantern out of it. Seed and core the inside with a spoon being careful not to rip the pepper.
Mix all the cheese, remaining veggies, and spices in a large bowl.
Spoon and press down the cheese mixture into the poblanos. We ended up with a lot more cheese than peppers so I’ve adjusted the number of peppers you’ll need above to match what we made. Stick the tops back on after you’ve stuffed the peppers.
Make a breading station to bread the peppers. 1. egg wash of beaten eggs, 2. flour, 3 panko. Dredge the peppers through eggs, flour, eggs, then panko. If you are eating more paleoish (cheese is not really paleo) you can omit the breading steps and your peppers will still be delicious.
Bake in a large baking tray for about 30 minutes at 350.
We made a mole sauce to put on top of these sort of enchilada style but your favorite enchilada sauce will work too. Mole (mole-ay) is a pepper chocolate sauce that is super tasty. The recipe we followed was fair but there are better ones out there on the interwebs or you can find it pre-made in the Mexican section of your grocery store.
To go with the peppers we made Cuban style black beans that consisted of:
1/2 diced yellow onion
4 minced cloves of garlic
2 canned chipotle peppers
3 15 oz cans of black beans (no added salt)
1 tsp of cumin
6 oz of orange juice and some zest of 1/2 an orange
2 bay leaves
salt and pepper to taste
Cook the onions and garlic first until clear, add the rest of the ingredients simmer until meal time. About 10 minutes. Again legumes are not paleo. However, this would make a fun cheat meal that you can involve the whole family in.
We really enjoyed dinner and it was fun to have Bethany help out!
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