Chile Rellenos Casserole – Gluten Free and Dairy Free

First, “chile”, “chili”, or “chilli” – are all basically the same, just vary in use by location, hence the reason I’m always confused as to which to use. I’ve lived in the southwest where “chile” is used most of the time and in other parts of the states where “chili” is usually used. I already have this recipe (with full-on wheat and dairy) as one of the first recipes on this blog, but called it Chili Rellenos Casserole and I’m just gonna leave it that way. If you can have and want the wheat and dairy, feel free to pop over to that one. If not, read on for one made with eggs, gluten-free flour and Daiya dairy-free cheese shreds. (It’s just as good!) I also make my own tomato sauce, but you can absolutely use something like Muir Glenn pizza sauce (yum!).

This recipe is super forgiving. Only have 3/4 of a can of tomato paste for the sauce? That’s ok. Put in too much flour accidentally? (oops) That’s ok, too (phew!); just add another egg to compensate. Forget that you’re out of the flour you want for the recipe, but have already cracked the eggs? A rough mix of 1/2 non-starchy flours (e.g., rice flours) and 1/2 starchy flours (e.g., tapioca starch) should work.

It’s also super tasty 🙂 When I make this, I use two rectangular dishes now [2.75 Qt (2.6 L), 9.5″ x 7.5″ at the top] because I make one with the chiles, and one without. Both are very popular and there are no leftovers.

Make sure to gather everything up (mise en place – “everything in it’s place”) and let’s get started…

I’ve already mixed the eggs, milk, and flour here.

Ingredients

• 8 large eggs (455 g)
• 2 c (480 g or ml) unsweetened almond milk
• 1 c (150 g) Bob’s Red Mill 1-to-1 Baking Flour (blue bag; technically it’s 148 g, but 150 g is what I do)
• 1 bag (200 g, 7.1 oz) Daiya cheddar cheese shreds
• 1 bag (200 g, 7.1 oz) Daiya mozzarella cheese shreds (or use Daiya pepper-jack shreds for more kick)
• About 2 c (425 g, 16 oz) your choice of tomato/pizza sauce (Muir Glen pizza sauce is great or make your own – See note below.)

Sauce: Wow. I gotta say after looking around on All Recipes at pizza sauce recipes that people there are way overcomplicating this. There’s no need to cook it and no need for a lot of different ingredients. This is what I do and it’s the same sauce I use when I make pizza: I use 1 can (6 oz, 170 g) tomato paste, about 2 Tbls extra virgin olive oil, about 1.5 c (360 g or ml) water (don’t add all at once), dried oregano (couple teaspoons?), dried mince garlic (sprinkle generously), and some Penzey’s pizza seasoning if I have it on hand, with the key ingredient there being dried fennel. Whisk together as you add each ingredient. When whisking in the water, do so gradually. It will mix better and you can watch for the right consistency. All the herbs can be mixed in at once. You could add a teaspoon of sugar to cut the acid from the tomatoes, but there’s really no need to for this; there’s plenty of water to dilute the acid. Sorry for the lack of definition here; I don’t measure anything for this and I mix and add ’til the taste (tomato-y and herby, but not gritty), thickness (slightly thick, not watery), and look (fluffy and glossy) are how I like them.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 F (190 C).
2. Butter 2 rectangular dishes w/dairy-free butter [2.75 Qt (2.6 L), 9.5″ x 7.5″ at the top]. If you only want a dish with chiles, you can use a 9″ x 9″ dish, but remember it will be thicker so cook at 350 F (180 C) for about an hour.
3. Mix together eggs, milk, and flour. An immersion blender works nicely for this if you have one. You could also just put it all in a blender.
4. If making your own tomato sauce, do that. (See note above.)
5. Layer in dishes as follows, except remember to leave off the chiles and spicy cheese in one of the dishes if you’d like. I usually have some leftover cheese, using most, but not all of both bags:
   1. egg mixture
   2. cheeses
   3. chiles
   4. egg mixture
   5. cheeses
   6. chiles
   7. dollop on tomato sauce
6. Bake for about 40 minutes or until done. It should look poofy and will bounce back if you touch it lightly in the middle. It will flatten a bit upon cooling.
7. Cool a few minutes as it will be very hot.
8. Enjoy!