dip Archives | sweet miscellany

Creamy Poblano Sauce | vegetarian recipe via The Sweet Miscellany Blog

Easy to make and packed with flavor, this creamy poblano sauce is the perfect way to add vibrant flavor to any meal. Earthy poblano peppers are charred under a broiler then blended with sour cream, cilantro, and lime zest and juice until super smooth. Salt seasons while a touch of agave syrup balances the tanginess. Whip up a batch to pair with tacos, enchiladas, salads, or tofu scrambles.

If I meal prep one thing these days, it’s usually a really flavorful sauce that I can pair with some basics in order to have a fairly quick and easy meal. This creamy poblano sauce is a recent favorite born out of a craving for all of the great salsas back in Texas! It comes together with just 6 ingredients and can easily go from vegetarian to vegan with one simple ingredient swap. And, you can completely customize the heat level by how many poblano seeds you leave in or remove!

How to Make this Recipe fit Your Needs

This recipe relies on just 6 ingredients: poblano peppers, sour cream, cilantro, limes (both zest and juice), salt, and agave syrup. Here are a few ways to adapt this recipe to fit your dietary needs:

If you’re vegan or dairy free, you can swap a vegan sour cream for the regular sour cream. You can also use a super thick vegan yogurt but you want want to increase the amount of lime juice added to make sure you get the right level of tanginess.
Want a higher protein sauce? Use a full fat Greek yogurt in place of the sour cream. I recommend going for full fat since the richness really adds to the flavor.
If you’re sensitive to spicy foods, make sure to remove all of the seeds from the inside of the poblano peppers before you blend them into the sauce.

Note on using poblano peppers – you’ll need 3 large poblanos for this recipe. Each poblano was about the size of my hand for reference. You can use 4-5 medium ones instead or 5-6 smaller ones.

Key Steps in Making this Creamy Poblano Sauce

Before they’re blended into the sauce, the poblanos are broiled or charred over a burner on a gas stove until the skin is blistered and blackened. After a short steam, the skin is peeled off and discarded. At this point in the recipe, you get to choose how spicy or mild you want your sauce. Remove all of the seeds for a mild sauce, leave about half of them in for a medium heat level, or go all in for the spiciest version. I prefer a medium heat level!

Place the peeled poblanos in the blender with the remaining ingredients. For this sauce, I prefer a super smooth texture rather than a chunky one. Once the poblano sauce is blended, taste it, then add more salt, agave syrup, or lime juice as needed so that it suits your own taste buds. Store the sauce in an airtight container in the fridge and use it within a week.

Ways to Enjoy Your Creamy Poblano Sauce

Pair it with your favorite tacos or a burrito (try it with these cauliflower ones instead of the pickled jalapeño chimichurri!)
Thin it out with a little water or milk to use as a salad dressing (I think it would be amazing with this roasted sweet potato and black bean quinoa salad)
Use it as a dip for chips, raw veggies, or roasted potato wedges
Spread it onto a sandwich
Dollop onto eggs or a tofu scramble
Drizzle it over enchiladas

Looking for a more traditional tomato based salsa? Try my roasted garden salsa with serrano peppers, garlic, and onion!

Creamy Poblano Sauce

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Author: Courtney West
Total Time: 30 minutes
Yield: 2 cups 1x
Diet: Vegetarian

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Description

Ingredients

Units Scale

3 large poblano peppers
8 ounces sour cream
1/2 cup cilantro leaves, packed
1–2 limes
Sea salt, to taste
1 teaspoon agave syrup, plus more to taste

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Instructions

Turn your broiler on to high. Place the peppers on an unlined baking sheet (the broiler can cause parchment to catch on fire so skip it here). Broil the poblanos, checking and turning them every 3-5 minutes, until the skin is evenly blackened and blistered. Remove the peppers and place them in a bowl. Cover the bowl with a lid or plastic wrap to allow them to steam for a minimum of 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes, carefully remove the peel and the stems. Depending on how spicy you want the sauce, leave the seeds intact (spiciest), or remove some (medium) or all of them (mild).

Place the peeled peppers in a blender followed by the sour cream, cilantro leaves, the zest and juice of 1 lime, a pinch of salt, and the agave. Blend until smooth. Taste and add more salt, agave, or lime juice as needed.

Store in the fridge in an airtight container and use within a week.

Notes

For a thinner salad dressing consistency, add water, milk or cream to thin it down.
If your poblanos aren’t large, use 4-5 medium ones or 5-6 smaller ones.
Use vegan sour cream or thick vegan yogurt in place of the sour cream for a dairy free option.

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 10-15 minutes
Category: sauce

Caramelized Spring Onion Dip with Green Garlic & Dill (vegan/gf recipe) | seasonal plant-based recipes via The Sweet Miscellany Blog

This vegan caramelized spring onion dip paired with colorful crudité makes the perfect vegan appetizer. Super creamy without any added dairy, this onion dip is packed with flavor thanks to caramelized spring onions, green garlic, and fresh dill. A quick blend with vegan mayo and brings everything together.

Nothing says spring has sprung like the appearance of spring onions and green garlic at the farmers market! I brought home some beautiful spring bulb onions and green garlic from the farms I work with last week and knew I wanted to pair them together in a flavorful dip. This creamy vegan dip relies on caramelized onions for the sweet and savory flavor base. Lemon juice lends a bit of tanginess to balance everything out. Dill adds a lovely herbal note, and vegan mayo makes it creamy and thick. Since there was a veritable rainbow of spring produce in season, I served my onion dip with colorful and crunchy crudité (i.e. raw veggies). This dip is also wonderful with chips, crackers, or as a sandwich spread!

Spring Onions versus Regular Storage Onions

If you’ve been to a farmers market or well-stocked grocery store in the spring, you’ve probably seen a couple of different iterations of “spring onions”. Like green garlic, spring onions are simply immature bulb onions. They’re typically harvested as a way to thin out an onion crop as the bulbs begin to form and get bigger. Sometimes, spring onions will be sold in bunches with the greens attached when the bulbs are still pretty small. Other times, you might find them close in size to a standard storage onion but without the papery skin (like you see here). In order for newly harvested onions to have a papery skin, they have to be cured after harvesting. I’ve tested this recipes with both types of onions and each yields delicious results!

Tips for Making Perfect Caramelized Onions

Since this recipe relies heavily on caramelized onions for flavor, here are my tips for achieving the perfect ones every time:

Be patient! Caramelizing onions, especially to a golden brown color takes time. The more onions in your pan, the longer it will take. Since we’re using two onions here, it will take between 40-50 minutes. I know it seems like a long time, but it’s so worth it for the flavor!
It might seem more intuitive to dice your onions into small pieces in order to caramelize them faster, but that will make it a little easier for them to burn. Instead, cut your onion in half, then slice each of those halves into roughly 1/8-inch thick slices. Check out the photos below for reference.
Stir the onions every 2-3 minutes to ensure they caramelize evenly.
Use a splash of water to de-glaze the pan when there are darker brown bits stuck to it. Do this by adding a couple of tablespoons of water to the pan, then use a wooden spoon to scrape up those brown bits and stir them into the onions.
No matter what you’ve been told, you DO NOT need to add sugar to the pan. Onions have plenty of naturally occurring sugars. Being patient and spending the time to caramelize them properly will yield sweet and savory onions.

Using Green Garlic and Substitutions

You might have noticed that this recipe has “green garlic” in it. Green garlic is simply immature garlic. If you’re curious what it looks like, you can see it in the photos above! Since it’s immature, it hasn’t had a chance to fully develop the cloves and its papery skin. So, you can use the entire bulb and a good portion of the stalk without having to worry about peeling it! Green garlic is common in the spring while mature garlic is typically harvested in the warmer summer months. If you can’t find green garlic, you’ll simply use 2 cloves of regular garlic in its place in the recipe.

Enjoying Your Caramelized Spring Onion Dip

I enjoyed this dip with raw cucumbers, radishes, carrots, and kohlrabi since they were in season at the time. You can also pair this onion dip with chips (ruffled potato chips are my favorite!) or crackers. Or, try it as a sandwich spread with some avocado and sprouts.

Caramelized Spring Onion Dip with Green Garlic & Dill (vegan)

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5 from 1 review

Author: Courtney West
Total Time: 1 hour
Yield: 1 1/2 cups 1x
Diet: Vegan

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Description

Ingredients

Units Scale

6–8 spring onions, or 2 medium onions
1 bulb green garlic, or 2 garlic cloves
2 tablespoons olive oil
Sea salt, to taste
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
3 tablespoons fresh dill, roughly chopped
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
1/3 cup vegan mayonnaise
optional for serving: raw spring veggies such as carrots, radishes, kohlrabi, and cucumbers

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Instructions

Set a large skillet over medium heat. While the pan heats up, prepare your onions and garlic. If you’re using small spring onions, remove and discard the root end Then cut the bulb and green tops into 1/8-inch thick slices. If you’re using larger onions, remove the papery outer skin if present, then slice off and discard the root end. Cut each onion in half, then slice each half into pieces that are roughly 1/8-inch thick. For the green garlic, remove the root end. Remove any tough or dried out parts of the upper green portion and discard them. Finely chop the green garlic stalk and bulb. If you’re using garlic cloves, give them a rough chop.

Add the olive oil to your heated skillet. Add the sliced onions along with a pinch of sea salt. Cook the onions over medium heat, stirring every 2-3 minutes. Once the onions are translucent, add the chopped green garlic. If you notice any brown bits accumulating on the bottom of your skillet, add a couple of tablespoons of water and scrape them up with the back of a wooden spoon. Cook the onions and green garlic until they are golden brown and evenly caramelized. This will take approximately 40-50 minutes total.

Once the onions and green garlic are ready, remove the skillet from the heat. Allow them to cool for about 5-10 minutes so they aren’t piping hot. Using either a regular blender or an immersion blender, blend together the caramelized onions and green garlic with the lemon juice, dill, nutritional yeast, and vegan mayo. Blend until the dip is mostly smooth and thick. Taste and add salt to season as needed.

If you’d like to serve your dip with crudité, cut your preferred veggies into manageable pieces. Put the dip in a bowl and arrange everything on a platter around it.

Keep leftover dip in a sealed container in the fridge. Make sure to enjoy it within a week!

Notes

If you don’t have fresh dill, you can use 2-3 teaspoons of dried dill in its place.
If you don’t need the recipe to be vegan, you can use an equal amount of regular mayonnaise. For a tangier version, use Greek yogurt or sour cream in place of the mayonnaise.

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 40-50 minutes
Category: appetizer