Stuffed Poblano Chilli Peppers

After a week of busy days at work and with family, we had been avoiding shopping for a few days and were low on vegetables. We wanted something exciting to eat, but that didn't involve dragging ourselves to the shops or standing over a cooker for ages. Then I remembered with delight the two remaining Poblano peppers from our chilli stock that our friend Dominic had given us. However low our food cupboard is, we very rarely run out of nuts and seeds so after a quick rummage around I had enough ingredients to make a stuffing for these tasty, mild peppers.

As ever my recipe isn't precise with quantities of ingredients and open to interpretation. This stuffing would be equally happy and tasty in normal bell peppers, mushrooms, aubergines, courgettes or anything else at hand that is good for stuffing.

Stuffed Poblano Chilli Peppers
 

2 large Poblanos

Oil for frying leeks and oiling baking sheet

½ leek

Garlic puree or 1 clove of garlic to taste

Oregano

1 slice of wholemeal bread

2 handfuls of cashew nuts

1 handful of pumpkin seeds

1 tablespoon of vegan cream cheese

1 tablespoon of tomato puree

½ tablespoon of balsamic vinegar

Bit of water

Vegan hard cheese for topping off

1. Wash the poblanos and then halve horizontally. Remove the seeds. Place on an oiled baking sheet.
 

2. Slice the leek and fry in oil until softened.
 

3. Add the garlic to taste (you either like it or not!) and oregano to taste and mix well whilst continuing to fry for a couple more minutes.
 

4. Meanwhile, place the bread, cashews and pumpkin seeds in a blender and blend until it resembles coarse breadcrumbs.
 

5. Add the bread mixture to the leek mixture and stir.
 

6. Add the vegan cream cheese, tomato puree and balsamic and stir again to incorporate whilst still heating briefly on low just to melt in the cream cheese.
 

7. At this stage add a touch of water to loosen the mixture slightly and enable it to be easily spooned and smoothed into the poblano halves.
 

8. Stuff the poblanos with the mixture and top off with as much vegan hard cheese as you like (we used Vegusto Walnut).
 

9. Bake at about 200 degrees C for about 20 minutes until the desired softness to the poblanos and crispiness to the top has been reached (I must admit mine in the photo were on the crispy side but still very tasty!).

Enjoy!