Recipe Swap: Quinoa Stuffed Poblano Peppers

I’m so pleased. I killed three (not two, three!) birds with one stone with this recipe.

Let me explain…

First of all, I made these stuffed poblano peppers for this month’s Recipe Swap. If you aren’t familiar, the recipe swap consists of 25 foodies and writers from all over the world, and each month we re-interpret a vintage recipe (selected by Christianna of Burwell General Store) and post our creations on the first Sunday of the month. This month, Christianna asked us to re-create a recipe for Wild Rice Dressing.

I was really excited to dive into this recipe. I love wild rice, and felt that this recipe could so easily be re-interpreted in a number of interesting ways. The possibilities were endless!

Which brings me to the second bird I killed with this post. This weekend, I went to a dinner party with friends out at a gorgeous Bed & Breakfast in Dundee. My friend Mari was making Pork Molé for the main course, and I wanted to bring a side dish that would compliment the molé. While dreaming up my dinner party side dish, I also realized that I still needed to make something for this month’s recipe swap. And thus the idea of Quinoa Stuffed Poblano Peppers with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce was born.

The stuffed peppers were a fantastic tribute to the wild rice stuffing and they were the perfect compliment to pork molé tacos. (If you’re counting, that’s two birds…)

The third bird was more of a happy accident. I had a whole bunch of the quinoa and filling leftover, so I decided to make these stuffed peppers again for the Superbowl. I’m not a huge football fan, but I do like to use the Superbowl as an excuse to eat a lot of snack food and watch a few good commercials. And since I was asked to post a recipe on Superbowl Sunday, I think it is completely appropriate to make said recipe for a Superbowl snack! (Confession: this is the one day a year I allow myself to eat Doritos. Specifically, Salsa Verde Doritos. They’re so bad, but so good.)

So with one post, I created a recipe for the swap, a side dish that paired nicely with pork molé, and a radical Superbowl snack. Huzzah!

With that being said, happy Recipe Swap and happy Superbowl Sunday! If I were you, I’d skip the Madonna halftime show and instead I’d recommend you visit the Recipe Swap page to see all the amazing creations my fellow swappers made! ;)

Quinoa Stuffed Poblano Peppers with Roasted Red Pepper Cream Sauce

For the Roasted Red Pepper Sauce
1 cup roasted red peppers
2 tablespoons sour cream
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (+ 1 teaspoon of the adobo sauce)
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cumin

For the Quinoa Stuffed Peppers:
4 Poblano peppers
1.5 cups cooked quinoa (I used a tri-color quinoa blend, but any quinoa will work)
1 yellow onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 carrots, diced
1 stalk of celery, diced
1 heaping cup roughly chopped swiss chard
1 can of black beans
1 cup frozen corn
Cotija cheese
1/2 teaspoon cumin
Salt & pepper, to taste
3 tablespoons roasted red pepper sauce

To make the roasted red pepper sauce:
Blend all sauce ingredients together in a food processor or blender. Taste, and adjust seasonings to your liking. Set aside until use.

To make the stuffed peppers:

Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large non-stick skillet over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add in the diced onion and cook for 3-4 minutes. Add in garlic, carrots, and celery and continue to cook over medium heat until the vegetables are lightly browned, 5-7 minutes. Add in the chopped chard and cook until chard is wilted, another 4-5 minutes. Once the chard is cooked, add in the frozen corn and black beans. Cook until they are heated through. Turn off the heat and stir in quinoa and 3 tablespoons of the roasted red pepper sauce. Set aside until needed.

To prepare the poblano peppers, cut each in half and carefully remove the stems and seeds. Place poblano halves on a baking sheet and lightly brush each side with olive oil. Place poblanos under the broiler, and broil each side for 3-4 minutes (until starting to blacken on each side). Remove poblanos, and set aside to cool. At this point, turn off your broiler and set your oven to 350 degrees.

Once the poblanos are cool enough to handle, begin stuffing the peppers. Sprinkle a small amount of cotija cheese in the pepper halves, and then fill the pepper halves with the quinoa mixture. Sprinkle more cotija cheese over the top. Place in a baking dish, and arrange the poblano halves snugly in the dish (so that they support each other). Bake for 10-15 minutes in a 350 degree oven, or until the cheese is nicely browned and the peppers are cooked all the way through.

Serve warm, with roasted red pepper sauce.

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