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How To Make Stuffed Mexican Peppers The Healthy Way

Stuffed peppers are a classic dish and there are many ways to make them. They can be stuffed with rice or couscous, as well as meat, mushrooms, cheese, bacon and pretty much anything else you can think of. A small stuffed chilli makes a nice appetiser but a larger variety can suffice as an entree. This dish is known as “Chiles Rellenos” in Mexico.

If you want to make a delicious Mexican food appetiser, what about stuffing some small chillies with tomato and chorizo? Banana peppers are quite thin so if you use those you do not need a lot of stuffing. If you want to serve these as an entree, each person will need two.

Mexican chorizo is different from Spanish chorizo in that it is uncooked ground pork sausage. Spanish chorizo is smoke-cured and sold in a casing. It can be eaten as it is or sliced. Mexican chorizo contains chillies and garlic so you do not need to add a lot of other flavours to this dish. The chipotle-flavored tomato sauce on the side makes these stuffed treats extra delicious.

Forget about opening a can of tomato sauce because this special recipe deserves freshly made tomato sauce. Chipotles in adobo sauce are great with the cumin, cayenne, and chilli and they add a smoky, rich taste to the dish, which is reminiscent of many authentic Mexican food recipes.

What you’ll need

What you will need for the sauce:

-1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

-28 oz can crushed tomatoes

-1/2 minced onion

-1 teaspoon ground cumin

-1 tablespoon olive oil

-1/2 teaspoons chilli powder

-2 chipotle peppers and 1 tablespoon adobo sauce

-2 minced cloves garlic

-Salt and black pepper

What you will need for the peppers:

-8 banana peppers

-1 minced clove garlic

-4 oz shredded sharp cheddar

-1 tablespoon olive oil

-3/4 lb Mexican chorizo

-1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

-1/2 minced onion

How to make them:

First, make the sauce. Heat the olive oil in a pan over a low to moderate heat and sweat the onion for five minutes. Add the chipotle and garlic and cook for one minute. Add the adobo sauce, tomatoes, and spices. Stir well and season to taste. Bring the salt to a boil, then let it simmer covered for an hour. You can cover it at this point and keep it in the refrigerator overnight.

Cut a long slit in each pepper and remove the seeds. Leave the stems on. Blanch them for a couple of minutes in boiling water then let them cool. Heat the oil in a skillet and saute the onion and garlic for a couple of minutes.

Add the chorizo and cook it for about ten minutes, using a wooden spoon to break it up. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F and oil a baking dish. Stuff the chorizo mixture into the de-seeded chillies and lay them in the greased dish.

Ladle most of the tomato sauce over the stuffed chillies and scatter the cheddar cheese over the top. Sprinkle the oregano over and bake for half an hour or until the cheese is bubbly and starting to brown. You will have some of the tomato sauce left over because you do not need to use it all in this recipe.

What to serve with stuffed peppers

Serve it with grilled chicken breasts or over rice.

Recipe: Salmon Salad With Dill and Mustard Dressing

This type of recipe sums up Summer food for me. Hardly any cooking, fresh and colourful. This is a healthy option that doesn’t feel like you are compromising on flavour. I love to serve it when friends come over. Very forgiving if you don’t happen to have all the ingredients to hand, and very, very easy to make. It makes a great dinner or a weekend lunch.

Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 10 minutes
Ingredients for 4 servings

For the Salmon
4 x salmon filets of about 125gr each
Juice of a lemon
Salt and pepper
1 x tbsp olive oil

For the Salad
One Romano lettuce leaves washed and chopped roughly.
2 x handfuls of watercress
One cucumber chopped into bite sized cubes
2 x tbsp capers
100gr of walnuts roughly chopped
2 x spring onions chopped finely
100gr of raw peas (I prefer to use frozen, just defrost and use)
Some salt and pepper if you wish

For the Dressing
2 x tbsp honey
2 x tbsp Dijon Mustard
1 x tbsp white wine vinegar
Large handful of fresh dill chopped finely
2 x tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Salt to taste (if needed)

Method

To cook the salmon, preheat the oven to 200 Degrees Celsius. Place the salmon on a roasting tray, which has been lined with aluminium foil (enough to cover the salmon) and drizzle the oil and lemon juice, then add a little salt and pepper. Cook for about 10 minutes. Cool before using in the salad.

Mix the salad dressing ingredients together and set to one side.

Place the lettuce cucumber, capers, spring onions and peas in the salad bowl that you want to use to serve.

Pour about two-thirds of the dressing over the salad and mix through.

Break the salmon into bite size pieces and place them over the top of the salad, then sprinkle the walnuts over.

Drizzle the rest of the dressing over your salad.

Tips and Variations

Handling salmon, once purchased, requires its own special attention. Once you get home, remove the fish from its wrapping and rinse it with cold water; next rewrap the salmon in plastic wrap and then cover it with a layer of aluminium. Store it in your refrigerator in the coldest part, to keep it fresh. Ideally, you should avoid the typical temperature setting of 40-140 degrees Fahrenheit. Most food is unsafe within this temperature setting. So, remember to keep your salmon as cold as possible. You probably shouldn’t keep the fish unfrozen for longer than a day, as it will not keep.

For extra luxury, use avocado in this salad, some bite size chunks through the salmon.

Make sure you bring this salad together as you are about to serve, it will wilt if you leave it for any length of time, and of course the avocado, if you use it, will discolour.

About The Guest Blogger

Helen is the founder of Goodcookingwithyou.com, where she and her associates blog about the best food recipes, tips & tricks, and finest tech that will help you make exquisite food in your home. GoodCookingWithYou is concentrated on the taste, the joy of cooking and making the most out of it.

 

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