Saturday Savory: Green Spaghetti

After a month of no recipes, I finally have a new recipe for you to try! This is a common recipe down here in the valley, and we have eaten it at a few meals at church. One time when it was brought to church, it was very spicy. However, the next time it was a very mild heat. Depending on how you balance the ingredients of this recipe, it can be tongue burning, or very mild.

The recipe today has some very simple ingredients, and is really not all that hard to prepare. Only the poblano pepper could prove a slight challenge, but more on that in a minute. This recipe gets its name "Green Spaghetti" from the sauce, which, when blended, takes on a
light green hue. Here are the ingredients for this green spaghetti:

• 1 pound spaghetti
• 2 medium poblano peppers
• 2 cubes (or 2 tablespoons powder) chicken bouillon
• 3 tablespoons fresh cilantro
• 2 cloves garlic or 2 teaspoons minced garlic
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground black pepper
• 1 1/2 cups sour cream
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup water

Now, I know some of you out there are questioning the use of a pepper in this recipe, but the poblano is one of the mild peppers in its family. This being said, you will still need to take precaution against the pepper's seeds and wear some plastic gloves when de-seeding and de-veining it. The ingredient you should take the most caution with, however, is the black pepper. My Mom did not use 1 1/2 teaspoons black pepper (she reduced it to 1 tsp) in the recipe, as it is an incredible amount of pepper and could cause some intense heat to the recipe. Now, the first step of this recipe is to preheat the oven to 450º F. Then, start the spaghetti noodles cooking. While the spaghetti is cooking:

When the peppers are cooked, place them in a sealable plastic bag to sweat for 8 minutes; this helps the skin to come off easier. While the peppers are sweating, prepare any other ingredients that need peeled, like the garlic cloves, or measured, like the cilantro. (As a note, my Mom used much more than three tablespoons of cilantro, and thus the amount does not affect the recipe.) Also, check the pasta as it might be done cooking. If it is, let that sit until you are ready for it. Now, the peppers are done sweating, and they need peeled, de-seeded, and de-veined. For this you will need some plastic gloves, and a knife.

Peel all the skin off the peppers. Click the image to enlarge.

There is no real method to getting the skin off, just grab it and pull it all off. The skin is chewy, which is why we remove it.

The knife is to cut the pepper open, and cut the veins out.
Click the image to enlarge.

Make sure you get all those pepper seeds! They can be really hot. Once you have done the above steps for preparing the poblano peppers, place them in the blender.

Now that the sauce is ready, put the drained pasta in bowl large enough to hold it all and be able to stir around. Pour the sauce on top of the pasta and stir it in thoroughly. Now you have yourself some Green Spaghetti!

This is a very simple recipe, although you do have to be careful to prepare it properly or you could hurt yourself with the peppers. I hope you enjoy this recipe! Have you ever had a unique pasta dish? Share the experience with me through Facebook or the comment section below.