Leftover jalapeño stuffing. What to do?
March 22, 2022 6:11 AM Subscribe
Hope me figure a quick, simple use for this leftover jalapeño stuffing.
Over the weekend, I made a batch of stuffed jalapeño peppers, and I have about a cup of the stuffing leftover. The ingredients are:
Hot sausage
cream cheese
parmesean cheese
Rather than toss it, I'd prefer re-purposing it into a quick dinner thing. But, what's tripping me up is the cream cheese. I really don't do much with the stuff beyond this stuff and the occasional cheesecake, so every idea I think about ends with my head asking "does cream cheese go in this?"
For instance, some of my first thoughts were either omelettes, burritos, or working the stuff into some sort of odd pasta sauce. But, as I said, the presence of cream cheese kind of trips me up a bit.
Anyway, any ideas that would be quick, simple, and not require me to venture out in the monsoon we're having today to source new ingredients would be very helpful.
Thanks!
Over the weekend, I made a batch of stuffed jalapeño peppers, and I have about a cup of the stuffing leftover. The ingredients are:
Hot sausage
cream cheese
parmesean cheese
Rather than toss it, I'd prefer re-purposing it into a quick dinner thing. But, what's tripping me up is the cream cheese. I really don't do much with the stuff beyond this stuff and the occasional cheesecake, so every idea I think about ends with my head asking "does cream cheese go in this?"
For instance, some of my first thoughts were either omelettes, burritos, or working the stuff into some sort of odd pasta sauce. But, as I said, the presence of cream cheese kind of trips me up a bit.
Anyway, any ideas that would be quick, simple, and not require me to venture out in the monsoon we're having today to source new ingredients would be very helpful.
Thanks!
Add some veggies and this will be AMAZING omelet filling. A cup would make a whole family’s worth of omelets, probably.
I think it would also work as a pasta sauce, again with more veggies and some spices if you want the flavor profile to be less sweet (though the Parmesan goes in that direction already).
Or mix the whole thing with a bunch of cooked rice (white or brown), cooked spinach or other veggies, probably throw in an egg, and top with more Parmesan. Bake for a while.
posted by sesquipedalia at 6:16 AM on March 22, 2022 [4 favorites]
I think it would also work as a pasta sauce, again with more veggies and some spices if you want the flavor profile to be less sweet (though the Parmesan goes in that direction already).
Or mix the whole thing with a bunch of cooked rice (white or brown), cooked spinach or other veggies, probably throw in an egg, and top with more Parmesan. Bake for a while.
posted by sesquipedalia at 6:16 AM on March 22, 2022 [4 favorites]
What I’d do: add a little sour cream or yogurt to make it more spreadable (if necessary), spread on crackers and eat as a snack. I’d probably freeze half of it and do it again in a couple of months.
I’m assuming the sausage is cooked; if not, I’d throw some of it in a ramekin and bake for a while, and then eat it on crackers as a snack.
Or just freeze it all and make more stuffed jalapeños someday.
posted by sriracha at 6:32 AM on March 22, 2022
I’m assuming the sausage is cooked; if not, I’d throw some of it in a ramekin and bake for a while, and then eat it on crackers as a snack.
Or just freeze it all and make more stuffed jalapeños someday.
posted by sriracha at 6:32 AM on March 22, 2022
I'm not a big cream cheese fan, but I'd definitely heat that up and put it on pasta. Maybe add something green (if it were me, it'd be a handful of petits pois, which I think counterbalance creamy pasta sauces nicely).
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 6:53 AM on March 22, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 6:53 AM on March 22, 2022 [2 favorites]
I’ve added cream cheese before to polenta to make it really creamy. Start with the standard dry corn polenta or grits. Cook it with water and then toward the end, mix in your stuffing. Yum!
posted by amanda at 6:53 AM on March 22, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by amanda at 6:53 AM on March 22, 2022 [3 favorites]
I would totally just slather it on some toast or a bagel. Sounds pretty yummy!
posted by zengargoyle at 7:04 AM on March 22, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by zengargoyle at 7:04 AM on March 22, 2022 [4 favorites]
Quesadilla! A lot of leftovers taste great in a quesadilla.
posted by poppunkcat at 7:13 AM on March 22, 2022 [6 favorites]
posted by poppunkcat at 7:13 AM on March 22, 2022 [6 favorites]
Put it on a baked potato and it'll be your new favorite dish
posted by olopua at 7:19 AM on March 22, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by olopua at 7:19 AM on March 22, 2022 [3 favorites]
That'd go into polenta in my house.
posted by Dr. Wu at 7:23 AM on March 22, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by Dr. Wu at 7:23 AM on March 22, 2022 [2 favorites]
That would not be an "odd" pasta sauce at all in my house. It could be a component in a very nice mac-n-cheese. If you're not a wing-it sort of person I would recommend a ratio of 8 oz of cooked pasta, 1 cup of plain white sauce, and about 4 oz of shredded cheddar. Optionally bake in a greased casserole dish topped with bread crumbs @375 for about 20 mins.
(Adding a few oz of cream cheese and parmesan is one of my classic tricks to zhuzh up box mac-n-cheese.)
posted by drlith at 7:48 AM on March 22, 2022 [2 favorites]
(Adding a few oz of cream cheese and parmesan is one of my classic tricks to zhuzh up box mac-n-cheese.)
posted by drlith at 7:48 AM on March 22, 2022 [2 favorites]
Oh no, cream cheese is DELICIOUS in omelettes, but I also make egg muffins with a blop or piped swirl of cream cheese mixture very much like your stuffing blend on top, where it kinda floats and then browns tastily as the egg muffin bakes.
posted by Lyn Never at 8:08 AM on March 22, 2022
posted by Lyn Never at 8:08 AM on March 22, 2022
If it seems too odd on its own as a pasta sauce, adding it to tomato sauce would be really good. I’ve done that before when I didn’t have actual cream in the house with good success.
posted by tchemgrrl at 8:17 AM on March 22, 2022
posted by tchemgrrl at 8:17 AM on March 22, 2022
It would be awesome on any kind of baked pasta. If you dollop spoonfuls of it among cut pasta and sauce it will act similarly to a fresh mozzarella or a ricotta and give you pockets of oozy melty flavor.
Boil dried pasta until a little underdone, make a quick tomato sauce with any canned tomato product you have, some aromatics (just some onion all the way up to like, a full mirepoix or holy trinity), salt and pepper to taste, whirr it up with a stick blender if the tomato stuff you used was chunky. Or use whatever jarred sauce you like. Then, set aside some of the sauce, and mix the rest into your pasta. Put a layer of that in a baking dish, then pop spoonfuls of your stuffing mix across the pasta. Top with more pasta, more spoonfuls of sausage mix, etc, until you’ve filled your dish. If you want to add vegetables, I think nearly any kind of summer vegetable would do nicely, like peppers or zucchini or eggplant or broccoli, just parboil or roast it first, and add it in with the stuffing mix. Spread the reserved sauce over the top and if you have any leftover parmesan add that too, and stick it in the oven on medium heat until the pasta is tender, maybe twenty minutes? Then turn it to broil, top with breadcrumbs, stick it back under the broiler for a literal hot minute and remove as soon as you see browning. The breadcrumbs step is very optional but makes baked pasta extra texturally delicious.
posted by Mizu at 11:47 AM on March 22, 2022
Boil dried pasta until a little underdone, make a quick tomato sauce with any canned tomato product you have, some aromatics (just some onion all the way up to like, a full mirepoix or holy trinity), salt and pepper to taste, whirr it up with a stick blender if the tomato stuff you used was chunky. Or use whatever jarred sauce you like. Then, set aside some of the sauce, and mix the rest into your pasta. Put a layer of that in a baking dish, then pop spoonfuls of your stuffing mix across the pasta. Top with more pasta, more spoonfuls of sausage mix, etc, until you’ve filled your dish. If you want to add vegetables, I think nearly any kind of summer vegetable would do nicely, like peppers or zucchini or eggplant or broccoli, just parboil or roast it first, and add it in with the stuffing mix. Spread the reserved sauce over the top and if you have any leftover parmesan add that too, and stick it in the oven on medium heat until the pasta is tender, maybe twenty minutes? Then turn it to broil, top with breadcrumbs, stick it back under the broiler for a literal hot minute and remove as soon as you see browning. The breadcrumbs step is very optional but makes baked pasta extra texturally delicious.
posted by Mizu at 11:47 AM on March 22, 2022
roll out canned crescent dough and wrap that filling up inside and bake. quick breakfast thing rather than dinner but yummy
posted by domino at 12:21 PM on March 22, 2022
posted by domino at 12:21 PM on March 22, 2022
Do you like mushrooms? Stuff it in mushroom caps and bake them (I like them brushed lightly with butter, others prefer without the butter). This is almost exactly the stuffed-mushroom mix I use when that's what I'm making.
It's also fantastic stuffed into small, hollowed-out baked or boiled potatoes, or just dumped on top of hot potatoes.
You also pretty much have the mix for sausage-cheese balls without the Bisquick. If you have Bisquick lying around and none of the other ideas sound good, maybe you can try stirring some in very thoroughly, shaping into balls, and baking? Considering this an idea of last resort because mixing the Bisquick in this way might not work as expected, so it might not be a successful attempt.
Cream cheese goes in everything that any other creamy dairy (cream, sour cream, creme fraiche, quark, or marscapone) would go in.
posted by rhiannonstone at 10:09 PM on March 23, 2022
It's also fantastic stuffed into small, hollowed-out baked or boiled potatoes, or just dumped on top of hot potatoes.
You also pretty much have the mix for sausage-cheese balls without the Bisquick. If you have Bisquick lying around and none of the other ideas sound good, maybe you can try stirring some in very thoroughly, shaping into balls, and baking? Considering this an idea of last resort because mixing the Bisquick in this way might not work as expected, so it might not be a successful attempt.
Cream cheese goes in everything that any other creamy dairy (cream, sour cream, creme fraiche, quark, or marscapone) would go in.
posted by rhiannonstone at 10:09 PM on March 23, 2022
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posted by brilliantine at 6:14 AM on March 22, 2022 [2 favorites]