Making your own homemade tamales can be a great deal of fun. When our children were young, they loved vegetable tamales with a corn/cheese and pepper filling. This is our home version of Vegetarian Tamales.

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My first note is that our tamale dough is not vegetarian because it uses lard. If you want a vegetarian option for tamale dough check out these recipes from Dora’s Table and Isabel Eats.

Homemade tamales are a fairly time-consuming process. You should check out our full article on making tamales to know what you are getting into. We like to make the fillings ahead of time and freeze batches for later use when we make tamales. This allows us to make several types of tamales.

For our full guide to making tamales see this article.

Cole Cooks: Guide to Instant Pot Tamales

Tamales are one of those Mexican dishes you don’t find in many restaurants. This is because they are labor intensive. However, with proper planning, you can make your own tamales that are better than most any you can buy commercially. This is our guide to Instant Pot Tamales. The good news is that by planning […]

If you do not care about making a variety of tamales, this veggie filling is simple to make while you are preparing the tamales. The only part that needs to be done ahead is broiling the chili peppers. This can be done while you prepare the tamale dough.

To roast peppers simply turn on the broiler. Place peppers on a baking sheet. Coat the peppers lightly with oil. Broil for about 10 minutes, check, turn and continue broiling until charred. Set the peppers aside to cool while preparing the rest of the filling.

When the peppers are cool you can remove the skin and seeds. You will cut the peppers in strips and place a strip or two on each tamale. Then you top with the filling.Making the corn and cheese filling is simply a matter of combining the corn, cheese and spices in a food processor and lightly combining them using the pulse setting.

Overall this makes about 30 tamales. As we mention in our overview, we like to go light on the dough and heavy on the filling. One issue we have with most tamales is that they seem to have too much dough and not enough filling. The dough will expand quite a bit so go lightly!

Instant Pot Vegetarian Tamales

This is a corn, cheese and green chili pepper tamale that can be cooked in an Instant Pot

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Prep Time 1 10

Cook Time 40

Total Time 1 50

Course Main Course

Servings 30 tamales

Ingredients

4 fresh Anaheim or Poblano chili peppers
16 ounce corn kernels fresh or frozen
1 Tablespoon cumin
3 Tablespoons chili powder see recipe
1 teaspoon salt
16 ounces queso fresco
1 batch of tamale dough see recipe
30 corn husks soaked in water for at least one hour tear additional corn husks into strips for tying

Instructions

Set oven to broil. Place peppers on baking sheet lined with aluminum foil. Place under broil for 10 minutes or until charred. Remove and set aside to cool.
In food processor combine corn, cheese and spices. Blend using pulse button until combined.
Place individual tamale husks on work surface. Put about 2 tablespoons of dough on each dusk. Spread across husk into a square.
Remove skin from peppers. Remove tops and seeds from each pepper. Slice into strips. Lay a strip on top of each tamale and top with about 3 tablespoons of corn/cheese filling.
Fold tamale sides so they meet. Pull up bottom and tie with corn husk strip.
To cook place one cup water and steam rack in Instant Pot. Place up to 16 tamales upright in steamer. Set on high pressure for 10 minutes. Let natural release for 10 minutes. Remove tamales and let cool for 5 to 10 minutes before serving.

Notes

https://fundiegofamily.com/cooking/homemade-tamale-dough/

Keyword Instant Pot Vegetarian Tamales

Make sure and see our full guide to making tamales.

Cole Cooks: Guide to Instant Pot Tamales

Also see our recipe for tamale dough (not vegetarian).

Cole Cooks: Homemade Tamale Dough

Making your own tamales at home can be a fun family project. Of course, the first step is making the masa dough. This is our recipe for the tamale dough we use in our Instant Pot Tamale Project. Go To Recipe This dough is easy to make. That being said, making tamales is a time-consuming […]

Other toppings include Shredded Beef Barbacoa, Carnitas, and Chicken Tinga.

Cole Cooks: Instant Pot Chicken Tinga

Chicken Tinga is a common filling in Mexican cooking. It is savory shredded chicken that has been cooked in a smoky chipotle sauce. I have developed my own version of Instant Pot Chicken Tinga that can be prepared in an hour. Go To Recipe Chicken Tinga is surprisingly easy to make. The Instant Pot can […]

Cole Cooks: Pork Carnitas Recipe

Pork carnitas is one of our all-time favorite dishes. I first had it when I moved to California from North Carolina in 1991. It has always struck me as the Mexican version of Carolina pulled pork, another favorite. Our family has been experimenting with making carnitas for 25 years and I think we we have […]

Cole Cooks: Instant Pot Mexican Shredded Beef

Mexican Shredded Beef is a staple filling for tacos and burritos. The restaurant chain Chipotle took this style of beef to the masses under the name Barbacoa. This is our recipe for Instant Pot Mexican Shredded Beef. Go To Recipe We first came across the term Barbacoa in our Sunset Mexican Cookbook dated 1991. This […]

Cole Cooks: Vegetarian Tamales

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