Vegan MoFo: Stuffed peppers (Chiles rellenos)

(English)

Ok, so I said Soy mince can be used to stuff poblano peppers. Never made them before, and I didn’t have a recipe, just my memory and common sense. They actually turned out quite nice, so here they are!

Ingredients

2 medium sized poblano peppers

2 cups water or vegetable stock

5 tomatoes

1/2 onion

1 clove of garlic

1 sprig fresh cilantro

salt

1 cup soy mince

Props: two wooden toothpicks per pepper

Optional: To remove the skin from the peppers, place them in a very hot oven (I use electric, still afraid of the gas one) until they get serious blisters, about 15-20 minutes. You may need to turn them every so often. The smell of the charring peppers is divine, if somewhat harsh on the eyeballs (must be my Aztec blood speaking... legend has it that the prehispanics used to punish kids by locking them up in a room with burning peppers so their eyes would sting.) Then drop them in a pan with ice-cold water. The skin will peel right off. Be careful not to remove the stem.

For the sauce: Blend water or vegetable stock, tomatoes, onion, garlic, cilantro and salt on high for as long as it takes to really puree the tomatoes (I didn’t do it long enough, so that’s why my sauce turned out a bit marinara-ish). Heat some oil in a pan and bring the sauce to a boil, then cook on low until it turns a nice red hue.

To fill: Cut open a side of each pepper, and carefully remove the seeds only. Trying to take out the veins will only result in a very beat up pepper, so please be gentle. (Vicious as they may seem, moist poblano peppers are very fragile!) 

Beat-up pepper and gently treated pepper

Spoon in some of the soy mince. Don’t overfill, as the peppers are hard to handle. Secure with one or two toothpicks (alas, I totally forgot about this step, so  have no idea how easy or hard it is). Place in the pan with sauce; cover and let simmer until the filling has heated through.

Carefully transfer to a serving platter or individual plates and serve with either tortillas or rice... or both!

And for g*d’s sakes, don’t rub your eyes without having washed your hands... it stings baaaaaad!)