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Vegan Jalapeño Poppers — Best Stuffed Jalapeños!

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Easy baked Vegan Jalapeño Poppers Recipe makes the best party appetizer or snack. Homemade Jalapeño Poppers are made with fresh jalapeños peppers filled with vegan cheese, breaded, and baked until tender on the inside, crispy on the outside. It’s definitely a delicious formula. Make this baked cream cheese stuffed jalapeño poppers recipe and see my tips for making them gluten-free and low carb/keto friendly!

Looking down on three vegan baked jalapeño poppers on brown paper.
This recipe for Jalapeño Poppers baked in the oven is deliciously crispy!

I remember trying my first Jalapeño Cheese Popper and loving it. That was probably about a month before I went vegan. Since most of these delicacies are made with cheese, it was bye bye little poppers!

It didn’t take long before I started to wonder…could I make jalapeño poppers vegan?

Once I got in the kitchen and experiment it didn’t take long before I realized I could make homemade vegan baked jalapeño poppers! Yes!

Three plates hold different dipping ingredients. There are several green jalapeños around the plates.
Make this easy jalapeño poppers recipe with three dipping stations.

How to Make Baked Jalapeño Poppers Vegan

It’s easy to make these breaded stuffed jalapeño poppers.

Step One: Prepare the Jalapeños

This stuffed pepper recipe begins with preparing the jalapeño peppers. Be very careful when handling these peppers. The oil from the peppers can transfer to the things you touch. I prefer using gloves and then I wash my hands immediately after cooking with hot peppers.

Cut the jalapeños in half and remove the seeds and innards. Set them aside.

Step Two: Vegan Cheese Filling

Prepare the vegan cheese filling recipe by combining vegan shredded cheese, vegan cream cheese, plant-based milk, garlic powder, and salt in a bowl. Stir until combined.

Use a spoon or spatula to fill each halved jalapeño pepper with the cream cheese mixture.

Step Three: Breading Station

Next, prepare the dipping station. You’ll have a total of 3 bowls. The first bowl will have ground flax seeds, nutritional yeast flakes, and plant-based milk.

The second bowl add the flour. In the third bowl add the bread crumbs.

Here are the steps for breaded jalapeño poppers:

  1. Grab a stuffed pepper
  2. Dip it in the flour
  3. Then, dip it in the ground flaxseed mixture, making sure both sides are covered
  4. Dip it in the breadcrumbs
  5. Place it on a prepared baking pan
  6. Repeat these steps with the rest of the peppers.

Wondering how long to bake jalapeño poppers? Place the pan of poppers in the oven and bake for 30 minutes, until the crust is golden brown.

How to Get Breading to Stick to Poppers

Jalapeños have a slick surface which makes it seem tricky for the batter to stick to them. However, if you follow the steps above, dipping the stuffed pepper in flour, followed by the vegan egg dip, followed by breadcrumbs, it works.

I also recommend placing them immediately on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Then after they’re done baking and you’ve removed them from the oven, be sure and let them sit on the pan for several minutes. This step helps the coating stick to the poppers too.

Air Fryer Jalapeño Poppers

You can make air fryer jalapeño poppers by preheating the air fryer to 375F. Spray the air fryer tray with vegetable cooking spray.

Once the air fryer is up to temperature, place 4 – 5 breaded poppers in the tray of your air fryer, one layer at a time. Air fry at 375F for 10 – 12 minutes, until crispy. Repeat with remaining poppers.

Expert Tips:

Use these tips and tricks to make this vegetarian jalapeño poppers recipe perfect every time:

  • Be careful when chopping jalapeños. I recommend using gloves when handling raw jalapeño peppers. These tips on cooking with hot peppers are good to follow
  • For vegan cream cheese, I love using Tofutti, but there are other good brands like Daiya and Trader Joe’s.
  • I recommend using Daiya’s Jalapeño Garlic Havarti, but if you can’t find that feel free to substitute with your favorite vegan cheese shreds
  • This recipe uses plant-based milk. You can use almond milk, soy milk, or whatever plant-based milk is your favorite, just be sure it’s plain and not vanilla flavored
  • Use gluten-free flour and bread crumbs to make this a recipe for gluten-free jalapeño poppers.
  • Make sure to dip the stuffed peppers in the order specified above to get some nice and crispy baked poppers.

Do you love vegan appetizers?

If you love vegan appetizers, you’re gonna want to give these babies a try:

Make Vegan Keto Jalapeño Poppers

To be honest, you can follow this recipe as is and you’ll have a nice, low-carb vegan recipe. Here are the estimated nutritional values:

Calories per popper: 32 Carbs: 5 g Protein 1g Fiber: 0

To make an even more low carb Jalapeño Poppers recipe, replace the flour and bread crumbs with 1/2 cup of almond flour. So you’ll dip the stuffed jalapeños in the flax seed mixture and then dip it in the almond flour. Here are the estimated nutritional values using almond flour in place of the flour and bread crumbs:

Calories per popper: 26 Carbs: 1g Protein: 1g Fiber: 0

Looking down on several vegan baked jalapeño poppers on a piece of brown paper.
These healthy jalapeño poppers are cholesterol free!

I hope you love this recipe as we do. Have you tried it? Be sure and leave a comment and a rating of this recipe below and then take a quick photo and share it with me using #namelymarly on Instagram. I love seeing your creations!

A closeup of vegan baked jalapeño poppers on a paper.

Vegan Jalapeño Poppers

These Vegan Baked Jalapeño Poppers creates a perfect appetizer with a crispy crust, tender peppers, and cheesy filling. Serve this treat for parties or for snacks.
5 from 4 votes
Print Pin Rate
Course: Snack
Cuisine: American
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Resting Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes
Servings: 20
Calories: 32kcal
Author: Namely Marly

Ingredients

  • 10 jalapeños
  • ½ container of Daiya Jalapeño Garlic Harvarti Style Wedge shredded
  • ½ container dairy-free cream cheese
  • 1 tablespoon soy milk
  • 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
  • ½ teaspoon sea salt
  • 2 tablespoons ground flax seed
  • 1 teaspoon nutritional yeast flakes
  • ¾ cup soymilk
  • ½ cup flour
  • ½ cup breadcrumbs

Instructions

  • Warm the oven to 350 F.
  • Spray a baking sheet with vegetable cooking spray
  • Cut the jalapeños in half and remove seeds. If you haven’t had much experience working with these hot peppers, be forewarned you should wear gloves and be very careful about what you touch. Now is not the time to be watching Steel Magnolias and wiping your nose. Come to think of it, you wouldn’t want to do that while you’re cooking anyway.
  • When you’re done, set those hot mamas aside!
  • Place the vegan cream cheese and shredded vegan Daiya cheese, 1 tablespoon of soymilk, garlic powder and sea salt in a bowl and stir together until well combined.
  • Stuff each halved jalapeño with the vegan cream cheese mixture. 
  • In a medium-to-small size bowl, combine the 2 tablespoons of ground flax seed, nutritional yeast flakes, and 3/4 cup of soy milk and stir. 
  • Place the flour on one plate and the breadcrumbs on another plate. Your dipping station should go in this order: Flour plate, Flaxseed/Egg bowl, Breadcrumbs plate.
  • Grab a stuffed jalapeño and roll it in the flour, followed by a dip in the Flaxseed/Egg bowl (roll it around so all sides are covered), followed by a final dip in the breadcrumbs. Fun, eh?
  • Place the breaded popper on your prepared pan and repeat the dipping process until you’ve worked your way through each one. Then “pop” them in the oven and bake for 30 minutes.
  • Allow them to cool a little and serve warm!

(The products above contain sponsored links to products we use and recommend)

Notes

Make these poppers gluten-free by using gluten-free flour and gluten-free bread crumbs (such as Kellogg’s corn flake crumbles).
I used Tofutti’s vegan cream cheese.
Substitute your favorite vegan cheese if you don’t have the havarti available.
Nutrition Facts
Vegan Jalapeño Poppers
Amount Per Serving
Calories 32
% Daily Value*
Sodium 83mg3%
Potassium 42mg1%
Carbohydrates 5g2%
Protein 1g2%
Vitamin A 95IU2%
Vitamin C 8.3mg10%
Calcium 20mg2%
Iron 0.4mg2%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

The nutrition information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator and should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

Enjoy!

We recently updated the photos for these Vegan Baked Jalapeño Poppers. Here’s a sample of one of the previous photos.

Three baked jalapeño poppers sit next to a fresh jalapeño.

I hope you’ll agree that the new ones are much better. It’s fun to be changing and growing. We hope you love this recipe as much as we do!

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34 Responses to Vegan Jalapeño Poppers — Best Stuffed Jalapeños!

  11. How did you know I was craving something both spicy and creamy? These look so delicious. Thank you for sharing. 2013 is off to a delicious start. I hope you have a relaxing and joyful weekend, my friend!

    Reply

    • The good news is my family doesn’t get into spicy food like me so I got to eat all of these myself. I didn’t think they were overly spicy, but just the word jalapeño was enough to keep them at bay!

    • Is this the equivalent of a food bomb? When you can’t get it out of your head? Well, I think that means you must make them soon. But I have to warn you, even after you make them…it’s still possible to want more. *sigh*

    • I love improvising with a recipe! Your changes here sound great – I might have to try this version myself!

  16. Hi,

    I am from India and love medium spicy food. A month ago I saw friend eating jalapeno poppers at a movie theater and knew that was complete no no for me. I am following a vegan diet to large extent.
    But now I found your recipe. It’s way less in calories compared to what is sold outside.

    Thanks a lot

    Reply

  18. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe! My friend is vegan, I’ll have to make this so both of us can enjoy it. Everything looks delicious.

    Reply

  19. This was so delicious ! Next time I want to cover the entire 1/2 pepper with the mixture so it’s crunchy at the bottom. I made the MIstake of spaying the bottoms with oil make the almond flour coating stick . Any suggestions ?

    Reply

    • Thanks Ebee! So glad you liked this recipe. I have jalapeños in my fridge right now just waiting for this recipe! Just try not spraying it with oil next time and give it a generous dip in the batter. That batter might pool a little in the pan (below the popper) as it bakes and therefore create the coating all around it. I find if I cook it on parchment paper that helps. After you bake them let them cool in the pan for a few minutes to help the coating stick to the popper rather than the pan. Hope this helps!

  20. So good, will definitely make again! I had the block of Daiya Jalapeño Garlic Harvarti in the freezer for a while, which I think caused it to be unshredable. It was too crumbly, but that actually saved me time from having to shred. The crumbles were very easy to mix in. Thank you for sharing!

    Are these poppers freezable? If so, do you recommend freezing them before or after baking?

    Reply

    • Hi Sue — So glad that worked out with the vegan cheese! I freeze these after baking. Simply let them cool and then place on a tray. Once frozen they can be transferred to a freezer bag. Then allow them to come to room temperature and heat them in a toaster oven or oven to serve.

  21. OMG, Marly! These jalapeno poppers are the bomb! I love cheese and a little bit of spicy in my food. This will be a perfect appetizer or snacks!

    Reply

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