Try these stuffed Chile Rellenos (poblano peppers) with sweet potato, black beans, zucchini, and a delicious chipotle mayonnaise dressing! This creamy dressing is made with Hellmann’s®/ Best Foods® Avocado Oil Mayonnaise Dressing and chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. Combine with cheese and lime juice. If you are like me and crave Mexican food, you will like this dish for a fall night. A vegetarian recipe that tastes good and feels good.
This blog post is sponsored by Unilever® as part of my participation in the Unilever Agents of Change Program.
Poblano peppers are large dark green peppers and they are usually mild in spice. They are very versatile, and you can use all different kinds of stuffing with these poblanos. After roasting and peeling them, you can serve them as strips or toppings, they are delicious.
For this recipe, let’s stuff the poblanos with ingredients that are easy to find. The sweet potato and zucchini will help provide a sweet flavor combined with the earthy flavor of black beans.
Have you ever roasted poblano peppers before? No worries, it’s not as hard as it seems.
The main decision is how to roast them, and the rest is easy. I roast mine directly over a gas stove and I stay at the stove to turn the poblanos and make sure I don’t burn them.
You can also roast them in a hot pan, on the grill, or in a hot oven at 400 degrees until they are a medium golden-brown color and not too blackened.
Before roasting them massage oil on them. Once the poblanos are roasted on all sides, transfer to a bowl and cover with plastic or inside a plastic bag. Let it sweat and cool down for about 10 minutes.
Peeling the poblanos will take some time. Make a cut on the side to open it and take off the seeds. Before you proceed, make sure you wear gloves because removing the seeds and veins inside the poblanos can burn your fingers.
Try not to clean the poblanos under running water because you will lose a lot of the smoky flavor. If needed squeeze lime juice inside the poblano, this way you don’t lose its flavor. You got this! The next step is to prepare the chipotle mayonnaise dressing.
For the dressing, I like to use Hellmann’s®/Best Foods® Avocado Oil Mayonnaise Dressing because of its rich and creamy taste and quality oils that help enhance the flavor of a variety of dishes.
It’s also made with quality ingredients such as 100% cage-free eggs. Blend Hellmann’s®/Best Foods® Avocado Oil Mayonnaise Dressing with one or two chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, cheese, and lime juice. If the dressing is too thick, add more lime juice and if you like it spicy, add more adobo sauce or more chipotle peppers.
After sautéing sweet potato, black beans, and zucchini in a skillet, stir half of the chipotle mayonnaise dressing into the vegetables and stuff your poblanos with the mixture. Place stuffed poblanos on a lightly greased baking pan and add more dressing on top.
The traditional Chile Rellenos are fried with an egg batter, but I prefer to skip this step and just bake them in the oven. Serve the vegetarian stuffed poblano peppers with whole grains such as quinoa for a fall night.
Vegetarian Stuffed Poblanos
Ingredients
- 4 large fresh poblano peppers, roasted, peeled & rinsed
- 1 tbsp. oil
- 1/3 cup red onion, chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 small sweet potato, peeled, diced (about 2 cups)
- 1 can (15oz) black beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 small zucchini, rinsed and diced (about 1 cup)
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1 tbsp. chopped cilantro, for garnish
For the dressing: makes 1 cup
- 1/2 cup Hellmann’s®/Best Foods® Avocado Oil Mayonnaise Dressing
- 2 tbsp. chipotle peppers with adobo sauce (small can)
- 3 limes, divided for juice and for serving
- 1 cup queso enchilada, mozzarella, fresco or Oaxaca, shredded or crumbled (about 5 ounces)
Instructions
- Rinse poblanos and massage oil over their skin. Roast poblano peppers over a gas flame, grill, or hot pan. Char the skin to a medium golden-brown color but not too blackened. When they get too black, it is hard to peel them. Place charred peppers in a large bowl and cover with a plastic wrap or inside a plastic bag. Let it sweat and cool for about 10 minutes.
- Peel the charred skin of each pepper. Place pepper on a cutting board and make a small slit lengthwise on the side of the peppers. Wear gloves to remove seeds and veins inside the peppers. Keep the stem and tip.
- To make the chipotle mayonnaise dressing, mix chipotle peppers, juice of two limes, and Hellmann’s®/Best Foods® Avocado Oil Mayonnaise Dressing until well combined. You can mix everything in a blender or food processor or just mix well. Taste and adjust flavor and if you need it less spicy or mixture is too thick, add more lime juice. If it needs to be more spicy, add more juice of chipotle peppers. Transfer to a bowl, add cheese and stir. Set aside.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- In a skillet, heat oil and cook sweet potatoes on medium-high for about 2-3 minutes. Add onion and garlic and cook for about 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Add black beans and zucchini. Lower heat to medium, season with salt. Cover and cook for another 5-7 minutes until the sweet potatoes are cooked but they are still firm. Stir half of chipotle mayonnaise dressing into the vegetable mixture and combine. Set vegetable mixture aside.
- Drizzle oil on a baking pan. Stuff each poblano pepper with vegetable mixture and top with a tablespoon of chipotle mayonnaise dressing as desired. Place stuffed peppers on the baking pan. If you have extra vegetables, place them around the peppers.
- Bake stuffed peppers at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes or until peppers are sizzling. Garnish with cilantro and serve with wedges of lime.
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