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These are amazing! Couldn’t stop eating the filling out of the pot! So glad I made the sauce – I’ll be using it all week. Thanks Lindsday – I make about two of your recipes a week and they all are crazy good!
debi
Okay, so I have some major things to tell you.
First of all, these Queso Stuffed Poblanos are everything. HONESTLY.
Those mild, delicious green poblanos are cut in half and filled with a fluffy white rice mixture that has been simmered in a quick homemade tomato-onion-cilantro type sauce and stirred into happy goodness with sautéed mushrooms and spinach, and of course, a very large handful of melty cheese. They are then popped into the oven to become something reeeeeally savory and delicious. And by savory and delicious, I mean awesomely cheesy.
Ugh. Like, these are definitely the best stuffed peppers I’ve made in recent memory and eek! I just made some not that long ago.
Am I a horrible food blogger for telling you I like these better than the recent crockpot stuffed peppers? I think that wins a new kind of self-sabotaging blogger award. I definitely loved the other ones, too – I would not lie to you! – and what’s not to like about something that’s ready as fast as those little crockpot guys are? Those win in the convenience category.
But I think these new stuffed peppers have helped me come to realize that I prefer poblano peppers over bell peppers, and (SURPRISE) white rice over quinoa.
There is a time and a place for everything – and this recipe is ze time and ze place for ze white rice and ze cheese.
Secondly on my list of things to tell you today, (remember, I was making a list? DISTRACTED) you should know that these queso stuffed poblano peppers were sort of a mistake gone right, as you might remember from Sage’s and my really scrappy SnapChat video where we admitted halfway through the recipe that we had no idea what we were doing and that this recipe might not turn out.
Woopseeee.
Thankfully, we adapted, we improvised, and in the end we came out with a Queso Stuffed Poblanos victory.
PS. SnapChat? You and me? Friends? I’m @pinchofyum and I post 60% dorky food videos and 40% dorky Sage videos.
See you there.
Thirdly, let’s talk about yesterday which was Cinco de Mayo. You probably did something super fun and fabulous because you’re fun and fabulous like that. DANG.
This would have been a great recipe post for Cinco de Mayo, and yet here I am, posting it the day AFTER Cinco de Mayo. Am I slow on holidays? Maybe yes. Okay fine, ALWAYS yes.
I did make that 5 Minute Magic Green Sauce (I’m so sorry for how much I talk about that stuff but also: not even that sorry) and I did watch two more episodes of our latest TV binge show, Revenge (!!!!), and I did take my new birthday rollerblades out for their maiden voyage with Bjork and my sweet baby Sage during which time none of us lost any limbs or teeth, all of which was fun and wonderful, but not really Cinco-de-Mayo-y.
In looking back, I super wish my day and your day would have involved these Queso Stuffed Poblanos. Us, together, eating cheesy stuffed peppers with rice and mushrooms and spinach, rocking the vegetarian vibes.
Can we make that right starting, um, now?
Is 9am too early?
Fourthly and finally, as you might have seen in my Snap vid, for these peppers I used some kind of mystery magic called Queso Melt. I have no idea if this is a brand or a type of cheese or what – I just found a block of in the fancy cheese section at Target, so I shredded it up, stuffed it into my poblanos, and reaped the gloriously melty cheese rewards.
There’s a good chance that sometime in the future I’m going to find out that this cheese is actually just Velveeta repackaged with the name Queso Melt, but until that happens, I’m giving it my wholehearted cheese-loving recommendation.
It’s mild and creamy and it melts like a dream. With all that white rice and tangy tomato sauce and the sautéed mushrooms and spinach? Ohmyword. Heaven sent.
GET IT. Get all of it. Goooo.
Queso Stuffed Poblanos
- Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
- Yield: 5 servings (2 poblano halves per serving) 1x
Description
These Queso Stuffed Poblanos are filled with sauteed mushrooms, spinach, rice, and a homemade sauce and topped with melty cheese.
Ingredients
For the Sauce (makes extra to save for later)
- 1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes
- half of a red onion, chopped (reserve a small amount for the mushrooms later)
- a big handful of cilantro
- 1 jalapeño pepper (remove the seeds and ribs if you want it mild)
- 1 cup water
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
For the Poblano Peppers
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 8 ounces fresh mushrooms
- 8 ounces fresh spinach
- 5 poblano peppers
- 1 cup uncooked white rice
- 1 1/2 cups shredded queso melt cheese (just about any kind of cheese will work)
- 2–3 tablespoons flaxmeal (optional)
Instructions
- For the sauce: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. In a food processor or blender, puree the sauce ingredients until mostly smooth. Set aside.
- For the filling: Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add the reserved red onions and mushrooms; saute until browned and softened. Add the spinach; saute until just wilted. Add the rice and stir around in the pan to coat. Add 2 cups of the sauce from step one, stir, and simmer over medium low heat. Continue to simmer, adding a little water if necessary, until the rice is cooked (about 20 minutes). Stir in one cup of the cheese. If the mixture seems too runny, add a few tablespoons of the flax meal to act as a binder that will soak up excess moisture and hold everything together nicely. Taste and season with salt if needed.
- For the peppers: Cut the poblanos in half lengthwise and remove the ribs and seeds. Top each half with a few spoonfuls of filling and a pinch of the remaining shredded cheese. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until the poblanos are softened and the cheese is melted.
Notes
With this amount of filling, I filled about 8-10 poblano halves.
- Prep Time: 20 mins
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Category: Dinner
- Cuisine: Mexican-Inspired
Keywords: stuffed peppers, vegetarian stuffed peppers, cheese and peppers, stuffed poblanos
Loved your site; you are very funny. BTW, I thought poblano peppers needed to be roasted before using. Do I need to do that; seems like the answer is “No”.
How do i leave 5 stars? Well, I made these for a Labor Day pool party exactly as directes and they were a huge success! I ended jp cutting each half pepper into thirds so they could be served as an appetizer. Two guests were diabetic so the low-sodium was a good option and 3 were gluten sensitve. Will definitely make again!
I had an impromptu idea to make poblano peppers 1 hour before guests arrived. I got this recipe, raced to the store and an hour later I had the happiest guests I’ve ever seen. This was AMAZING. And in the moment as the rice was cooking I decided to throw 10 sliced raw shrimp into the mix and it was even better! DO THIS NOW.
I forgot to give it 5 stars!
What is an alternate to queso? Can I just use a texmex shredded blend?
Yes, any shredded cheese will work!
Why make significantly more than 2 cups of sauce if only 2 cups are used? What to do with all the extra sauce?
The flavors here were excellent and it was easy to pull together, but the timing and ratios were off for me. Had to add over a cup of extra water to the rice and it still came out a little under-cooked. In addition, it took my stuffed peppers 30 minutes to get soft enough at 400-degrees. Would make again with modifications!
Thanks for sharing this feedback with us, Cara!
I’m fixing for our 43rd anniversary dinner. I’m excited to try. Thank you very much for all the instructions since I’ve never worked with poblano peppers
Happy Anniversary, Donna! 🎉
Can these be frozen after they’re made?
The cooked filling would probably freeze well, but we’re not totally sure how the rest would hold up. If you end up trying it out though, we’d love to hear!
I am amazed at this very creative recipe! I love how you have done everything! Love the photos of your dog as well 😀
Made this tonight without the jalapeno (my toddler won’t eat it) or cilantro (all out) and canned mushrooms (only thing in the house). The entire family thought it was incredibly delicious. My husband tried his second helping with some tortilla chips and sour cream, which was also very tasty.
So glad you enjoyed this, Samara!
I have made this recipe twice because my garden produce some beautiful Pablano peppers. I changed a few things but it was your wonderful recipe that made it great.
Thank you so much.
Poblano peppers from the garden! Yummy! Glad you enjoyed this, Karen! 🙂
Another time I would blanche the peppers first. I had to cook them 20 minutes longer to get the peppers to be al dente. I ended up using the rest of the sauce in the bottom of the casserole to keep everything from drying out. It was delicious but definitely needs some tweaking.
Omg Lindsay! These were so incredibly delicious! If I could give it 10 stars I would😊 My hubby has never like any kind of stuffed pepper, but because I was recently diagnosed as a diabetic, he tries to eat the same foods I do. He loved them and said the recipe is a definite keeper!
These were really nice! I made them once mostly as directed but I stuffed extra queso in the pepper with the rice mixture and then used the extra sauce like you would for enchiladas and then covered everything in cheese before baking.
The 2nd time I made this into a taco dish, rough chopping the poblano into the rice mixture and serving it with small flour tortillas, cilantro and sour cream. Tasted great, but you lose the poblano flavor. I’m going to use the left overs to stuff some more poblanos. (BTW, I had a bite of seared steak while eating my ‘tacos’ and goodness – I’m adding steak next time!)
Should I roast and peel a poblano peppers ahead of time
I did not. I make chili relleno a lot so I thought the same thing, but I found this dish did not require that step. Actually, it would probably make the pepper too flimsy to hold the stuffing.
Should I roast and peel the Poblano’s ahead of time
This is really a poorly written recipe. The prep instructions for the mushrooms and spinach were non- existent. The cooking time at 400° at 20 minutes was insufficient to actually cook the poblanos, which as is often the case could be very spicy but definitely need cooking. Salt and cilantro were not enough seasoning for this; it needed more herby flavorings such as pepper, oregano etc. as it was rather dull.
I made these just last week. We really good enjoyed it very much. I did slice the mushrooms, didn’t read to or not to. I do have extra sauce and probably used a little too large handful, of cilantro so will take that down a little next time. My peppers took forever to soften but glad I didn’t need to “blister ” them, next time I will blanch them that should be ok. My rice took forever so not sure might pre-cook rice first next time. Can I cook and freeze my leftover green sauce? Not sure how the cilantro will take or taste after that. Overall….this is a keeper !
Hi Lindsay! I love this dish and have made it a couple times but for some reason the rice takes about 75 min, the whole amount of sauce, and about 2 cups extra water to cook through. Any idea why this varies so much from your recipe? I’m just using plain white jasmine rice. I have this same problem with one of your tomato based lentil curry recipes – delicious but the lentils took AGES to cook. Like 90 minutes and tons of extra water. So weird! Would appreciate any tips on this! Thanks!
I love this recipe! I make it all the time! I can’t get enough of it!
These are amazing! Couldn’t stop eating the filling out of the pot! So glad I made the sauce – I’ll be using it all week. Thanks Lindsday – I make about two of your recipes a week and they all are crazy good!
Sorry Lindsey – Deba!
If I were to use PRECOOKED rice that I’d cooked a big batch of and stored in my freezer (instead of UN-cooked rice), about how do you think the liquid ingredients should be adjusted down? Also, the red onions in my grocery store tend to vary in size, with most of them being pretty large, so approximately what size / weight of onion did you use for this recipe? Thanks in advance!
We haven’t tried this recipe with cooked rice, so we can’t really say! We would just reduce how much sauce you mix in to the rice. For the onion, you can use a medium-sized one, which is typically around 8 ounces.
Hi Lindsey can’t wait to make stuffed poblano tonight… Can I substitute 1 cup farro instead of rice?
Yep! Just note that farro might need a slightly different amount of cooking time. 🙂
Also wondering what type of pan you used, did you grease it or cover it at all? I did grease mine with olive oil as well as the poblanos and liked the texture I got from doing that. I also had some of the extra sauce on the side so if anyone wanted more they could put it on top. I really liked these and will definitely make again with a couple of tweaks.
Hi, Christy! Lindsay baked these (uncovered) on a large, non-stick, rimmed cookie sheet. You could also use a 9×13 or similar pan. She did not grease this pan because it wasn’t necessary, but sounds like using olive oil worked great for you! 🙂
Not sure if this was asked yet but what kind of white rice did you use? Usually I use a long grain white but I had a quick cook white rice in my cupboard and used that and it seemed like it got a little mushy.
Hi, Christy. Lindsay used a “normal” white rice, not a quick cook version.