Poblano and Mushroom Rajas with Crisped Potatoes and Lime Crema
Poblano strips charred in a skillet with thick-cut mushrooms and white onion over crisped potatoes, seasoned with cumin and oregano and finished with a cool lime crema and a handful of cilantro.
Why You'll Love This Recipe
Rajas, which just means strips, is one of those preparations that turns a couple of peppers into the center of a meal. Poblanos have a flavor somewhere between a bell pepper and a green chile, mild but genuinely peppery, and charring them is what brings it out. I add mushrooms because they brown into something meaty in the same pan, and potatoes because a lunch of peppers alone leaves me looking through the cupboards an hour later. It is one skillet, twenty minutes, and the kind of cooking where you stand at the stove and let things sit still until they color.
What I like about eating it is how many textures land in one forkful. The potato corners go crisp and the middles stay soft, the mushrooms turn dense and chewy once their water has cooked off, the poblano strips stay slippery and a little firm, and the onion goes sweet and almost melting. Cumin and oregano bloom in the hot oil and give the pan its smell. Then the crema, cold and sharp with lime, goes over the top and cuts a line straight through all that browning, and the cilantro at the end keeps it green and fresh.
This is a weekday lunch that eats like something you cooked on purpose, and it happens to be the meal I make when the refrigerator is down to odds and ends. Poblanos keep for a week and a half, mushrooms and potatoes hold longer than that, so it is often possible when nothing else is. It reheats beautifully in a dry pan, so I make the whole four servings and take the rest to work, with the crema carried separately in a small jar.
Ingredients
- 1 lb Yukon gold potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch dice
- 4 poblano peppers, stemmed, seeded, and cut into 1/2-inch strips
- 1 lb cremini mushrooms, halved or quartered if large
- 1 large white onion, halved and sliced 1/4 inch thick
- 2 1/2 tbsp olive oil, divided
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 1 1/2 tsp dried Mexican oregano, crumbled between your fingers
- 1 1/3 cups plain nonfat Greek yogurt
- 2 tbsp lime juice, plus wedges for the table
- 1/2 cup cilantro leaves and thin stems, roughly chopped
- 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
- 1/2 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
Instructions
- Start the potatoes: Cut the potatoes into half-inch dice so they cook through in the time you have. Heat 1 1/2 tbsp of the oil in a wide cast iron or steel skillet over medium-high, add the potatoes with a pinch of the salt, and spread them in one layer. Leave them undisturbed for four minutes, until the undersides are golden, then toss, cover, and cook another five minutes until a knife slides into a cube without resistance. Tip them onto a plate.
- Char the poblanos: Turn the heat to high, add the remaining oil, and lay the poblano strips in the dry hot pan. Leave them alone for two to three minutes so they blister and blacken in patches, then turn them with tongs and give them another minute. They should still have some spring to them. Move them over with the potatoes.
- Brown the mushrooms: Add the mushrooms cut side down and let them sit without stirring for three minutes. They will squeak and release water first, which is normal, and once that water has cooked off they will start to brown in earnest. Stir once and cook two or three minutes more, until they are deep brown and have shrunk by about half.
- Soften the onion and bloom the spices: Add the onion and cook for three minutes, stirring, until it is translucent and going limp at the edges. Clear a small space in the middle of the pan, add the garlic, cumin, and oregano to it, and let them sizzle for thirty seconds until you can smell the cumin, then stir everything together.
- Bring it back together and make the crema: Return the potatoes and poblanos to the pan with the rest of the salt and the black pepper, toss gently, and warm through for a minute. In a small bowl stir the yogurt with the lime juice and a splash of water until it pours in a thick ribbon. Take the pan off the heat, drizzle the crema over the top, and finish with the cilantro and lime wedges.
Variations
- Corn and rajas: Add a cup of corn kernels with the onion so they pop and brown in the hot pan, which is the classic partner for poblano strips.
- Black beans: Warm a drained cup of black beans through at the end for a heartier plate with a softer texture running through it.
- Smokier: Add half a teaspoon of chipotle powder with the cumin for a deeper, redder pan and a slow heat behind the peppers.
- Taco style: Pile everything into warm corn tortillas with the crema spooned inside and eat it with your hands.
- Herb crema: Blend the cilantro into the yogurt with the lime rather than scattering it over, for a pale green sauce and a fresher finish.
Storage & Leftovers
The skillet keeps for four days in a sealed container in the refrigerator, and the flavors settle overnight into something rounder than they were on day one. Store the crema in its own small jar rather than spooned over, since yogurt loosens and goes watery once it sits against warm vegetables.
Reheat in a dry skillet over medium-high for three or four minutes, spread flat and left alone for the first two so the potatoes crisp again. The microwave heats it through but the potatoes go soft all the way to the edge. Add the crema and a squeeze of lime after reheating, never before.
This freezes for two months in flat sealed portions, though the potatoes come back softer than they went in. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and reheat in a hot dry pan rather than from frozen, so the water they give up has somewhere to go. Make the crema fresh, since yogurt separates in the freezer.
Notes & Tips
- Cut the potatoes small: Half-inch dice is what lets them cook through in nine minutes. Anything larger needs a parboil or a covered pan for twice as long, and the whole point here is one skillet and one stretch of time.
- Cook in stages, not all at once: Potatoes, peppers, mushrooms, and onion all want different heat and different timing. Cooking them separately in the same pan takes no extra minutes and is the difference between browned and boiled.
- Let the mushrooms sit still: Stirring mushrooms early keeps them in their own liquid. Three still minutes on a hot surface drives off the water and gives you the browning that makes them taste meaty.
- Bloom the spices in oil: Cumin and oregano stirred into a wet pan taste dusty. Thirty seconds in hot oil in a cleared space changes the smell of the whole skillet.
- Thin the crema: Straight yogurt sits on the vegetables in a lump. Lime juice and a spoonful of water loosen it enough to pour, so it runs down into the pan and coats everything.
- Keep the pan wide: Everything in this recipe is browned rather than stewed, and browning needs surface area. A twelve-inch skillet is the right tool, and a crowded ten-inch one is the usual reason it does not work.
Nutrition & Mindful Eating
- Poblanos, mushrooms, potatoes, and yogurt each carry a different part of this plate. The peppers bring the flavor, the mushrooms bring a dense chew, the potatoes bring the starch that makes it a meal, and the crema brings protein and calcium along with the tang that cuts through all the browning.
- Poblanos are picked and eaten green, and that grassy, rich flavor comes with a solid amount of vitamin C along with the carotenoids that give the deeper-colored peppers their pigment. Charring them concentrates all of it.
- Mushrooms are one of the few foods that make vitamin D when they meet light, and they bring selenium and B vitamins as well. What they really give this pan is savoriness, the glutamate-rich depth that makes a plate without meat still taste round and full.
- Yellow potatoes cooked with their skins on keep their potassium and their fiber, and the waxy flesh holds its shape in a hot pan so the cubes crisp at the corners rather than falling apart.
- Cumin, oregano, lime, and cilantro are what make this taste like a dish rather than a pan of vegetables. Toasting the dried spices in oil releases their aromatic oils, and the lime goes in cold at the end so it stays sharp against all that smoke.
- As you eat, look for a forkful with a crisp potato corner, a strip of blistered pepper, and a swipe of the cold crema all at once, and let that combination be worth sitting down for rather than eating on your feet.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I have to peel the poblanos?
Not for this. Traditional rajas are made from peppers blistered whole and peeled, which is lovely and takes twenty extra minutes. Cut into strips and charred in a skillet, the skin stays thin enough that nobody notices, and you keep all the flavor that would otherwise come off with it.
Are poblanos spicy?
Mild, mostly. They sit well below a jalapeno on the scale and taste more grassy and rich than hot, though every so often you meet a fierce one. Taking out the seeds and the pale ribs inside keeps them gentle, and the crema softens whatever heat is left.
My mushrooms went gray and rubbery. What happened?
A crowded pan, almost always. A pound of mushrooms needs a twelve-inch skillet and high heat so the water they release evaporates rather than pooling. If your pan is smaller, brown them in two batches, and resist stirring for the first three minutes.
Can I make it ahead for the week?
Yes, and it is one of the better candidates. Cook the vegetables through step four, cool them, and refrigerate. Stir the crema together fresh on the day, since lime juice thins yogurt over time, and reheat the pan in a dry skillet so the potatoes come back crisp.