Tag Archives: hatch

Roasted Tomato Hatch Salsa

I made the best salsa in the world. The thing is, when it is Hatch season, everything is so much better than the rest of the year. It is the magic the season I guess. This summer I haven’t had any time to do much cooking so I have been just making a ton of refried beans and greens and then just eating simple tacos all week. For a meal like that to be exciting salsa is really the key but the other day I didn’t have any cilantro so I couldn’t make the standard pico. I did have a bunch of Hatch peppers and some local tomatoes so I roasted them both and threw them in the blender with some Cuban oregano. If you live in Austin and have trouble growing things I highly recommend Cuban oregano mine sits in full sun all year and grows like crazy. Even if I forget to water it when it is 110! Even if it stay out in hail storms! It is like the postman of the herb world. And it is really pretty. This salsa was such a hit I am going to make it every week until the peppers are gone again. 

Roasted Tomato & Hatch Salsa

~6 Hatch Peppers

4 big tomatoes

3 cloves of garlic, smashed

juice from 3 key limes

1 Tablespoon of Cuban Oregano

1 teaspoon of Agave

1 teaspoon of salt

Turn on the broiler and roast the peppers on a baking sheet turning until they get all blistered. Put the peppers in a paper bag to loosen up. Put the tomatoes under the broiler unil the get charred. Slip all those babies out of their charred skins. Put the pepper and the tomatoe guts in a blender with the rest of the ingredients and pulse until you have salsa. Enjoy on everything.

If you are looking for other vegan Hatch recipes check out this Corn & Kale Chowder or the Hatch Green Chile Pot Pie. They were both fabulous!

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Hatch Green Chile Pot Pie

So the thing is, I might have gone a little overboard lately with the Hatch Chiles. First I blogged about Chowder and then I made hummus but what you probably don’t know is that nearly every single thing I have made in the last 3 weeks has had Hatch peppers in it. The whole thing has gotten totally out of control and I realize now, here at the end of Hatch season, that I might have gone a little overboard and that’s OK. I present you with one final recipe in case you still have some Chiles from Hatch season or want to roast some regular peppers and add them instead. It is not at all difficult or complicated but it does take a really long time to come together. This is a perfect Sunday dinner kind of meal, especially of you crave Tex Mex style southern comfort food on Sundays. The way I recommend making it, if you try the recipe, is to get the gravy sauting, cut up your vegetables for the pie, and then watch an episode (or 2) of “It’s Always Sunny in Philidelphia” while you wait for your beans to finish and then bake the pie, that is the lazy smurf way to do it. This is my favorite method for making vegan gravy, if you have never tried it with beans you are in for a treat.I made individual pot pies but you can also make one big one in a casserole dish or pie plate.

For the

Chile Gravy

Chop and Saute

2 cloves garlic
1 stalk celery
3 shallots

Add

2 cups broth
3 cups black eyed peas (I used fresh but you could use canned or dried but only 2 cups if you do dried)
1.5 cups corn
4 roasted chile peppers
Cook until beans are cooked through

Add

1/2 cup Almond Milk
1/4 cup of white wine
1 tsp smoked salt
1 tsp lemon

Blend

and season with salt and pepper to taste

To Assemble

Just add the vegetables to the pie reseptacle and then mix in the gravy. The gravy recipe makes a lot so you might have some left over which you can serve on the side, the vegetables will cook down so really pack them in and top with pie crust. Bake for about 40 minutes at 400 degrees and enjoy!

Did you know that pigs are supposed to have the same mental capacity of a three year old human? I know that has nothing to do with pot pies but I wanted an excuse to post this picture.

Hatch Green Chile Hummus

For the last 3 months it has been about a hundred degrees and sunny. Then it was labor day and now summer is suddenly gone. It’s been raining ever since which is great because we really need the rain but man, I am not ready for summer to be over! I haven’t even gone tubing yet or eaten enough tomatoes. The good thing is that figs are in season and organic strawberries are abundant so it isn’t a complete loss yet.I was inspired by dragonfly pie to make some hatch green chile hummus and it was really simple and good. I think you can add these peppers to anything and it would be good, here is the recipe

Hatch Green Chile Hummus

1 clove garlic
1/2 cup cashews
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 can of chickpeas, drained and washed
2 roasted green chiles
juice of one lime
1 teaspoon smoked salt
1/2 teaspoon of fresh sage

Process the garlic, then add the cashews and process a minute or two. Add the remaining ingredients and dilute with water until desired texture is achieved. Enjoy!

I have been using the hummus on avocado, tomato, and greens sandwiches and it I recommend it, the chiles add a lot of flavor.

Corn & Kale Hatch Pepper Chowder

People in Thailand eat more chile peppers than anyone else in the world. I read that our region of North America is starting to gain on them. The town of Hatch in New Mexico makes probably the best chile peppers in the world and we get them here in Austin. For a brief period of the year, right as school is starting again, you can smell it in the air; roasting chile peppers. I made a corn chowder over the weekend with the hatch peppers and then yesterday I made an even better one. Not only was it tastier, but it is healthier since I added kale to what is normally not an extremely nutritious meal. I love chowder. It kills me that I can’t get it in restaurants. At whole foods I often check all of their 33 soups and the two vegan ones are never chowder and there is just no reason for that. Chowder is really easy to veganize, just substitute rice milk for the dairy and add some mashed potatoes.  This soup is great, if you want to make it with another kind of roasted pepper that would work but it might not be as magical.

Corn & Kale Hatch Pepper Chowder

4 yukon gold potatoes, chopped
2 cups of vegetable broth

5 shallots, chopped
1 rib of celery
1 poblano
2 cloves of garlic
5 leaves of kale
4 roasted Hatch peppers (maybe less if your peppers are really hot or you don’t like spicy things)
2 cups of corn
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp dried sage
1 cup of rice milk
juice from 1/2 of a lemon

Cook the potatoes in the vegetable broth until they are starting to fall apart, about 20 minutes in the microwave or on the stove top. When they are done mash about half of them with a potato masher. In the meantime start sautéing the shallots, chop the rest of the ingredients in order and add them to the pot as you finish chopping. First add the celery, then the poblano and the garlic. Once the shallots have started to brown add the kale, the hatch peppers, and the corn. Once the kale is wilted add the potato mixture, the rice milk,  the sage and the salt. Let the whole mixture cook covered for about 20 minutes. Add the lemon and additional milk or broth if you want it a little thinner and check for seasoning. Now you have awesome soup that you can eat with some crusty bread if that’s how you roll. Enjoy!