When you have a large crop of jalapeños from the garden or farmstand, you don't have time to casually include them in complicated recipes or to frantically figure out how to use them up before they go bad without getting sick of them. You want to make the most of your harvest and to actually enjoy it.
Here at Plant to Plate, we like to keep things simple! Here are some of my favorite ways to use or preserve jalapeños:
- Sauté or stirfry them in sesame oil with komatsuna and mushrooms.
- Bake them with chicken and cheddar.
- Make a casserole with jalapeños, rice, and chicken.
- Stuff a bell pepper with jalapeños and cooked quinoa or rice and bake.
- Top a pizza or flatbread with them.
- Top a baked, mashed, or steamed potato with them.
- Top a sweet potato with jalapeños and avocados.
- Add them to savory baked goods such as savory quickbreads and muffins.
- Add them to garlic bread.
- Add them to other soups and broths.
- Add them to any chili, whether the chili has a beef, chicken, turkey, bean, chickpea, or other base, for an complementary kick.
- Add them to macaroni and cheese or other baked pastas, alone or with tomatoes.
- Add them to grilled cheese and paninis.
- Make a dip with jalapeños, cranberries, chives, and cream cheese.
- Make a dip with jalapeños, bacon, onions, cheddar, and cream cheese.
- Add them to premade queso dip, alone or with spinach.
- Add them to a cheese ball.
- Make a salsa. Although jalapeños are a common ingredient in traditional salsas, they can also be added to a number of simplified and creative salsas such as those made with the following:
- Toss them with corn and cilantro. Add cheese of choice if desired.
- Top toast, crackers, bagels, and other baked goods with them along with cream cheese.
- Add them to avocado toast.
- Add them to pasta salad.
- Add them to chicken salad.
- Add them to potato salad for an extra zing.
- Use them as a Frame of an Interesting Salad. (Wondering why I capitalized those letters? Read more about Interesting Salads here!)
- Make a Simple Salad. A few ideas for Simple Salad pairings with jalapeños are as follows:
- Tomatillos, avocados, and cilantro
- Mangos and cucumbers
- Tomatoes, cucumbers, and feta
- Add them to other salads.
- Purée them with tomatillos and onions for a simplified verde sauce.
- Make a jam or jelly.
- Pickle them, alone or with green beans and basil. Jalapeños work well with both traditional pickling and quick-pickling methods.
- Dice and freeze them to save them for later.
Further Reading
Growing jalapeños? Check out these quick facts like their best growing conditions, companion plants, and expected yields.
Jalapeños are also featured in these articles: