Wasn’t sure if it could be a thing, wanted it to be a thing, and trust me when I tell you, it’s a thing!!
I’ll admit I’m not the biggest sports fan but these really make me want to put on a game! These healthy vegan jalapeño poppers remind me of the snacks at that game day party or BBQ that I so badly wanted to eat but couldn’t due to my food allergies. Now I can enjoy them and so can you!
I remember a local market when I was growing up had jalapeño poppers in their hot prepared food section. I honestly never thought a healthy version of these could exist because they were just so rich! But still using all whole food plant based, gluten free ingredients and skipping the fryer, these really are rich in flavor and so delicious!
To make this recipe even more unique I used my avocado pickles to stuff the jalapeños, you can find the recipe here! If you don’t want to use the avocado pickles you can just use regular avocado slices, which will work great too!
Are they really spicy?
Surprisingly to what you might think jalapeño poppers are not crazy spicy at all. Since you remove all the seeds, which contain the heat, these are mild. The roasted jalapeño just provides a really delicious flavor, if you want to leave some seeds in for extra space or add a little cayenne to the cream cheese mixture you can go ahead and do that.
Healthy alternative to traditional recipes
What makes these healthy jalapeño poppers extremely unique is using vegan bacon made out of rice paper. In a previous recipe I made the ultimate vegan BLT sandwich using rice paper bacon. I used the same marinade to create the “bacon” strips in this recipe and they really provide the savory, salty, umami flavor from real bacon. You won’t believe it’s actually good for you!
- 4 large jalapeños
- ½ cup vegan cream cheese (I like kite hill and miyokos)
- A few avocado pickles, cut in half (recipe on website)
- 8 pieces of rice paper strips (cut into 1½ in pieces)
- FOR THE MARINADE:
- 2 tbs coconut oil
- 1 tbs avocado oil
- ¼ cup maple syrup
- 3 tbs coconut aminos
- 1½ tbs garlic powder
- 1½ tbs smoked paprika
- ½ tsp sea salt
- 2 tsp paprika
- Wash and slice jalapeños in half, length wise and remove the seeds from inside with a spoon.
- Place them onto a baking sheet pined with parchment paper.
- Spray with avocado oil and bake at 375F for 20 minutes
- Then fill with a slice of avocado and vegan cream cheese and set aside.
- To a shallow bowl mix together all marinade ingredients with a spoon or whisk until well combined.
- Take your rice paper strip and soak it in the marinade for about 5 seconds.
- Place it vertically on a plate or cutting board then place your stuffed jalapeño horizontally on the front of the rice paper and roll it up until its completely wrapped.
- Repeat the process for each jalapeño and place them all on a baking sheet or baking baking rack.
- Spray them with avocado oil.
- Then place in an oven at 400F for 10-15 minutes.
- Remove, cool and enjoy!
These make for a delicious appetizer or snack food. Check out a quick video tutorial I did for my “Avocado Series” here to see how I make them!
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