Nourishing the mind, body, and soul along the vegan highway.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Home grown goodness!

We have had some crisp cool weather along with some light rain the past couple of days so we just let Mother nature water the garden. Today with clear skies, back out to our garden I went. Needless to say our produce enjoyed Mother natures gift and have blessed us with some delicious goodies. I picked some Romain lettuce, tomatoes, and DH brought in about 17 jalapenos.
Here is one of out tomato plants




We still have maybe 6 or 7 heads of Romain lettuce growing.



Future popper.:o)
Now, most of you know that I am not a huge fan of super "HOT" foods. Don't get me wrong, I love a good dish of spice just not the kind that burns my mouth so bad that I can't enjoy or taste the food. DH on the other hand believes the "HOTTER" the better. I wanted to surprise him with something fun and with all those jalapenos I figured why not make something that I have never made nor eaten. Jalapeno Poppers. Seeing that I never liked cream cheese, the kind from a cow, poppers have never been in my diet, but tofutti cream cheese I love so why not give them a shot. I found a recipe on the Tofutti website and went for it. DH dipped his in salsa of course and I dipped mine in organic ketchup. Can you say delicious? Oh my gosh! DH was thrilled and so was I. If any of you out there want to give them a try, here is the recipe I used. I have also put my version of it below. The ingredients are the same with the addition of seasoning the flour and bread crumbs and the directions are a bit more detailed.







Vegan Poppers

12 jalapeno peppers, sliced in half lengthwise, tops and seeds removed
8 ounces Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese (I use the one without transfats)
1 cup soy milk (I used plain)
1 cup flour (season with salt and pepper)
1 cup bread crumbs (I used a mixture of homemade and panko seasoned with salt and pepper) oil for frying

Preparation:

Cut the peppers in half and scrape out the seeds. Keep the halves together because you have to put them back together. Fill each half of the pepper with Tofutti and put the halves back together.
Put the soy milk and the flour into two separate bowls.
Dip the stuffed jalapenos into the soy milk and then into the flour, making sure that they are well-coated. Allow the coated jalapenos to dry for about 10 minutes.
Dip the jalapenos into the soy milk again and roll them through the breadcrumbs. Allow them to dry then repeat the process to ensure that the entire surface of each jalapeno is coated.
In a large skillet or deep fryer, heat the oil. Deep fry the jalapenos for about 3 minutes or until golden brown then transfer them to paper towels to drain.

I still have some peppers left so I whipped up a batch of Jalapeno Corn Muffins thanks to Beverly Lynn Bennett, The Vegan Chef.

We finished up this delicious meal with a wonderful, cooling green salad dressed with a Dijon mustard and cilantro dressing. Quick, simple, and tasty.

Go for it folks!

You know you want to. :o)

16 comments:

aredcardigan said...

oooh vegan poppers! haven't had those in a while. i am always apprehensive about having those even before going vegan cause I'm afraid the spiciness will be overwhelming.

Love your garden:)

Anonymous said...

I love spicy foods, but I know what you mean when something's too spicy and you can't enjoy the flavor. Love the pics- wish I could have a garden... my doggies love to dig up plants!

Amy said...

I'm SO jealous of your wonderful veggie garden!

And those poppers look incredible!

Virginia said...

ya know, i don't know if i have ever had a jalapeno popper...but they do sound good!

Anonymous said...

Wow! Do you guy have any winter at all? Here it's all dark and cold right now.
Both the poppers and muffins look amazing.

aTxVegn said...

Those poppers look amazing! All that spiciness looks great to me.

Vegan_Noodle said...

Homegrown is the best!! Your poppers look like the perfect way to spice things up!

River (Wing-It Vegan) said...

Lucky you! Everything is covered in snow here. Poor plants!

Your poppers look SO amazing!!

Zucchini Breath said...

oo, i remember jalapeno poppers from my cocktail waitressing days. They had them at the bar i worked at as an appetizer and I practically lived on them during that time. No wonder I was so tired all the time...

Great photos, the muffins look scrumptous

Melisser; the Urban Housewife said...

Hooray for growing things! I love that you made your own poppers!

A.M. said...

That peppers looks so vibrant and gorgeous!

Anonymous said...

Thanks! I ended up having some coffee and ibu so that helped a bunch. I'm a huge coffee drinker.. but not really because I NEED it, more because I WANT it. It's one of those ´pleasures in life i| refuse to give up, haha
I admire you for giving up all caffeine though, that must have been really hard!

Bethany said...

Thanks for posting this recipe, they look really yummy! I love jalapeno poppers. I made some vegan ones a long time ago, then I lost the recipe!

I'm so cold right now looking at all the snow. Seeing your garden pics really makes me yearn for summer.

Lindsay (Happy Herbivore) said...

I am soooo impressed!!! xoxo

Anonymous said...

Yum! I've got to try that poppers recipe!

Cindy DG said...

I can't make to recreate these poppers, I love poppers! :)
Great site!
Cindy
http://vegetarianmamma.blogspot.com