La bombas are a type of jalapeño pepper that grow into little round, red peppers. They get their namesake by their resemblance to bombs. Although, being a jalapeño variety, don't pack an inedible punch. I grew these la bomba peppers in my garden. You might be able to find them in farmers markets or at your own local nursery. You can also substitute any other pepper of choice. For a milder variety, bell peppers, banana peppers, Anaheims, poblanos, cubanelles, gypsy, shishito, and other "sweet mini peppers" or similarly labeled chilis. For a little bit more of a kick, you could opt for jalapeños, Serranos, and maybe even habaneros. Although I would avoid cayenne peppers, Thai chilis, or any peppers that are too thin to deseed, devein, and stuff without splitting. La bombas are definitely on the smaller side of stuffable peppers, going up to bell peppers on the larger side. You can mix and match different cheese and peppers. Although, today, I opted for Oaxaca Cheese-stuffed La Bomba Peppers.
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I did some trial and error here to figure out the best way to keep the cheese from spilling out. The peppers being round. I'm sure that there's some kind of specialized equipment for this. Or an egg holder. But, it did help a little bit to prop all of the peppers up along the side of the basket.
Variations of Cheese-stuffed Peppers
There are a multitude of dishes that you can make with cheese-stuffed peppers. I made a similar dish the other day with Oaxaca Cheese-stuffed Cubanelle Peppers. Which also goes to show that the size of the peppers doesn't matter as much as the heat level that you're going for (anywhere from mild to spicier peppers works, as long as you can handle the heat). You can also mix and match the cheese. I tend to stick with queso fresco. Although Oaxaca, panela, and chihuahua cheese are also great options.
Cut the tops off of the peppers. Take a small knife and de-vein and de-seed the peppers.The goal here is to hollow out the peppers, without compromising the shape. It's easier to stuff them when there aren't holes in them for the cheese to spill out! I'll use a long, sharp paring knife for this. That way it will fit inside of the pepper and you can just twist it around to remove the seeds. If you're careful and the knife is sharp enough, you can also slice through the veins and pull them out. You don't have to remove every single vein and seed, but they are quite bitter. So, removing as much of the innards as possible is preferable.
Stuff Oaxaca cheese inside of the peppers.It helps to pull the cheese apart a little bit before trying to stuff the peppers. That way, you can push it into the bottom tip of the pepper, without poking through the flesh. This can be easier said than done! Especially with larger pieces of cheese. Although crumbling it certainly helps as well as stuffing small amounts of cheese at a time.I also like to fill the end of the peppers with a larger chunk of cheese. This serves as a kind of cap to the peppers to keep the crumbled bits of cheese from falling out during the roasting process.
Put stuffed peppers in the air fryer and roast for 10-15 minutes, or until the peppers begin to char and turn slightly brown in color. Make sure to rotate somewhere between half and three-quarters of the way through the roasting process in order to cook evenly.Also make sure that the peppers are propped up as much as possible, to keep the cheese from spilling out. I tend to place them in the air fryer so that the slight curve of the peppers faces upward. Most peppers aren't perfectly straight and lean to a certain direction. Then, when I rotate them to get an even cook, I'll sometimes stack the peppers leaning against one another so that the cheese still faces upwards as much as possible.
Tips, Tricks, & Notes
You can also roast peppers in the oven or on the barbecue. Cooking times are roughly the same if you roast around 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
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