stealth veggies

Happy Wednesday friends!

Matt has requested more “stealth veggies” in his meals. Meaning, he wants me to sneak more veggies into the normal things I make him. I forget this, but not everyone likes raw veggies or plain veggies the way I do. I can literally munch raw veggies all day long, or eat just plain salads without dressing. I guess I’ve been too generous with the plain veggies lately, so he requested I change this.

Right-o captain.

This is a recipe I had been imagining for several weeks, since I was in the store and saw a “wall of chilies” in the produce department. I am also completely obsessed with beef right now (as in, it’s all I crave and want – no idea why? Maybe I’m low on iron or have been eating too little protein), so the marriage of the two clicked instantly in my mind.

This is the perfect stealth veggie meal. Everything in this meal except for the meat and the cheese is a vegetable (well considering how you view beans). I have tried this two times and finally came up with an excellent recipe to share with y’all.

I present to you Baked Stuffed Chiles. Almost like a chile relleno that hasn’t been fried or breaded. Feel free to make these with turkey or chicken rather than beef. Or just leave the meat out completely and use beans, tofu or lentils. It’s spicy, it tastes amazing and it will help increase your veggie intake for the day! These can be an appetizer, an entrée served with a side dish, or a stand alone meal (as we ate it most recently).

Just to clarify this recipe, I had relatively small chilies. How much you want to use for stuffing and sauce is up to your discretion, but I’ll tell you what I used for the chilies I had. Also – I’m using poblanos, which are mild chilies but still have some kick to them especially in the seeds.

Stealth Baked Stuffed Chiles

Serves 2 as a standalone meal
Print this recipe

Ingredients:

• 4 poblano chilies (these are mild and large)
• 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 1/2 avocado diced
• Raw onions for topping (optional)

Filling:

Sauce:

• 16 oz tomato sauce
• 2 tsp chili powder
• 2 tsp cumin
• 3 T diced jalapenos

Supplies:

• Casserole baking dish
• Knife and cutting board
• Large non-stick skillet
• Spatula
• Small stock pan
• Whisk
• Measuring spoons/cups
• Large bowl for filling

Steps:

1. To start, preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Rinse and dry chilies and cut top off. Slice chile down the middle (from top to bottom) and deseed. Clean inside until free of seeds and membrane. Place in casserole dish upright then cook chilies in oven for 30 minutes.

2. While chilies are cooking, pre-heat the large skillet over medium heat and add 1 T of olive oil. Chop onion and add to skillet. Once onion is translucent, add beef and break apart, allowing beef to cook until no longer red. Feel free to drain any extra fat from pan after beef is cooked.

3. While beef is cooking, add all ingredients for sauce into the small saucepan and stir to combine with whisk. Heat over low heat while the rest of the filling finishes, stirring occasionally.

4. Mince garlic cloves and add to pan once beef is cooked. Cook for 1 minute. Then add spices for the filling – cumin, chile powder, ancho chili powder (if you don’t have, just double the amount of chile powder) and cayenne pepper. Mix together then add the water and kick back the heat to medium low, allowing to simmer for approximately 5-10 minutes. If you have too much water after simmering, raise the heat and the water will evaporate.

5. As beef simmers, chop squash into small pieces and add to large bowl, along with beans. Once beef is finished simmering add to this bowl as well and mix everything together.

6. After chilies have cooked for 30 minutes, stuff chilies with this filling. Remove the sauce from the heat and fish out the jalapenos and dispose. Pour sauce over the top of each chile and cover with a sprinkle of cheese.

7. Bake chilies again for 10 minutes in oven. Top with diced avocado and raw onions if you like!

One very important thing to remember – even though these are mild chilies, your hands and fingers will still have the heat from the seeds on them. Be VERY careful and wash your hands with soap and lemon juice several times to get the sting off. I still had some heat on my fingers the next morning when putting in my contacts, even though I had washed with soap and lemon juice several times!

We ate these as a standalone dinner. They were super filling and left a slow burn in your mouth that only increased as you continued to eat! They were really good and I can’t wait to hear how y’all substitute other ingredients in these!

What is your favorite “stealth veggie” recipe?