I have a new found appreciation for vegan Jalapeño Poppers...
Jalapeño Poppers, those cheese-oozing, fried/breaded peppers used to be a favorite "junk food" snack of mine in my pre-vegan days. Well this veganized recipe is awesome!
These have an inner cheesy mixture of creamy white and cheddar cheese. Crisp, light breading. Tender medium spiciness. I'm in Jalapeño heaven with this fun party recipe. These are easier than I imagined too!...
Amazingly, this recipe turned out perfectly on the first try. I served these during the Super Bowl and my husband loved them. He kept asking me if he could eat just one more. I rarely serve "fried foods" because you have to use so much oil and it just always seems a bit wasteful to me, but these are worth it! Especially if you are serving them for a big crowd and can double or even triple to batch!
Vegan Cheese. A good popper needs rich, melty cheese. I would advise using a brand that melts well like Daiya or Follow Your Heart's newer block cheeses. Read my Big Vegan Cheese Guide here.
A note of caution when working with Jalapeño peppers: be careful! You’ll want to remove the seeds so that the spiciness level is mild. Those seeds have a kick! Do not touch them with your bare hands and then touch your face or especially your eyes! Soop them out, discard and wash your hands just in case. You can always wear gloves if you are nervous about working with spicy seeds. Or goggles, kinda kidding there though. Ha.
This is one of my most popular party-approved recipes and I hope you love it!!
Party Jalapeno Poppers
By Published 02/07/2011
These easy vegan poppers are filled with cheese and cream cheese and have a crispy Panko, lightly fried outer shell. Warm and spicy and so amazing!
Ingredients
- 5 large jalapeños, sliced in half and seeds removed
- --
- Cheese Mixture:
- ¼ cup vegan cream cheese
- ¼ cup vegan cheddar cheese shreds
- Flour Mixture:
- 2 tablespoon all purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
- ¾ teaspoon garlic powder
- ⅛ teaspoon chipotle powder or smoky paprika - or to taste
- pinch of salt and pepper
- --
- Panko Bread Crumbs
- small shallow bowl filled with non-dairy milk (about ⅓ cup)
- 1+ cup vegetable oil (for frying)
Instructions
- Prep your jalapeños by halving them and carefully removing the seeds. Set aside.
- Get your "breading" station set up. You will have a bowl for each of these: cheese mixture (fold the shreds into the cream cheese), flour mixture, Panko crumbs, non-dairy milk.
- Stuff jalapeño halves with vegan cheese mixture, roll in milk, roll in flour, back in milk, roll in Panko crumbs, set aside. Pressing the Panko crumbs into the wet cheese layer really helps. Continue this process until all the jalapeños are stuffed and breaded.
- Pour your oil into a large pot over med-high heat. Test the oil for heat-readiness by dropping one panko crumb into the oil - if it sizzles, the oil is hot enough. If you can get by with cooking all your poppers with 1 cup of oil, great. But if you want a more saturated "fry" you may need to add more. "Fry" each popper for about a minute or until the outside is deep golden brown. They don't need much because the oil is so hot.
- Transfer the cooked poppers to a paper towel or baking rack to cool for a few minutes before serving.
Yield: 10 poppersPrep Time: 00 hrs. 15 mins. Cook time: 00 hrs. 10 mins. Total time: 25 mins. Tags: Jalapeño poppers, vegan,appetizer,super bowl,snack,cheese,vegan,jalapeños,party,easy
Annelisa Christensen says
OMG These used to be my favourites too! Thank You! I shall try these.
Kathy Patalsky says
Hope you love them! 🙂
Lola Duncan says
These sound wonderful. I am new to changing my eating habits. I am now having to eat gluten, dairy and corn free. What other flour would you recommend since wheat flour is a no no for me? Also could I use almond milk instead of soy? Thank you.
Diane Elaine says
I have hemp milk..do you think it will be ok to use...making these babies for The Kings game tonight..GO KINGS GO!!!
rachel m. says
You could also bake these at 375 for about 15 minutes, instead of frying. They come out crispy! That's how i do mine....my husband and i can polish off an embarrassing number of these, so we feel less guilty about it if they're baked not fried 🙂
Megan Jones says
Can these be baked instead of fried?
Kyle says
These were absolutely fantastic! I'm an executive chef and have been vegan for just over a year now, living with my fiance who has been vegan for over two years, and I'm still trying to adapt to some of the different techniques that are involved with vegan cooking, so I found this recipe last night when I wanted to make jalapeno poppers for dinner but was unsure of the best way to bread them in a vegan-friendly way. The only things that I did differently are that I used Daiya brand jalapeno-garlic cheese and beat it with the cream cheese in my KitchenAid mixer, then I left out the chipotle powder from the flour mixture because the jalapenos that I used were from my garden and I knew they were already very spicy, and then I baked the poppers in the oven on 425 for about 12-15 minutes instead of frying them, simply to make them a bit healthier. All in all, they were absolutely delicious, perfectly crispy and the absolute best flavor! This recipe will be making a permanent stay in my vegan recipe box!
Angelita Rodriguez says
Daiya and Follow your heart are two popular brands of vegan cheese that I've tried. I buy mine at Whole Foods market and some Publix stores have them as well. There are other brands that I haven't tried but if you want dairy free make sure casein isn't listed as one of the ingredients. Some of the alternative cheeses will be made of soy but contain the milk protein for flavor. If it actually says vegan on the package then you don't have to worry about it containing any dairy. Also from experience, I've found the rice cheeses to be pretty gross. The two I listed are about as close as it gets to real cheese for me
Sharvil Patel says
HI Kathy, I got your link from a friend Carolyn and your site looks awesome!!
i had a question though, where can i find vegan cheese and other stuff? and are they totally dairy free as my daughter is allergic to dairy ?
Carrie Alpert says
made them and my mouth is still burning (from last night) and i am off to whole Foods to make them again (happy belly) so good!!!!
igdogcatfish says
Thank you!
Health and industrial food production disenchantment are causing this girl to rethink all things food and everything else animal related. I love reading your site and this was today's first vegan jump (however small a jump it may seem to most your readers). My gonna be diehard husband LOVED these. I'm not a chef and a novice cook even, so, may be stating the obvious to others but, I found they worked best when starting the frying cheese side down then flipping.
BTW, I started this one because when I pinned to pinterest it was reprinted 41 times and liked 7 within 45 mins of my posting!!
Kathy Patalsky says
love it! 🙂
Kathy Patalsky says
yay! i LOVE these things. And now I'm craving the too..
Kathy Patalsky says
Yup, I let him eat lotsa poppers! He kept saying "they're vegan!" (Gulp)
Kathy Patalsky says
Whole foods or my other smaller chain natural foods stores