Spicy vegan jalapeño poppers stuffed with dairy-free pimento cheese are a total crowd-pleaser, no deep frying needed. Instead, you make them in the oven or in the air fryer.
Transfer the cream cheese into a big bowl, so it can get to room temperature. Meanwhile!
Put half of the pimentos plus your garlic into your food processor. Puree until as smooth as possible.
Transfer the pimento puree to the bowl of cream cheese, add the remaining ingredients, and mix everything together until it's well combined. Stick the bowl into the fridge while you prepare the peppers for stuffing.
Make the baked jalapeño poppers
Slice the jalapeños in half lengthwise, and use a spoon to scrape out the seeds. If you want to reduce the heat, you can also scrape away the vein inside of each pepper. Pour the panko into a shallow bowl.
Scoop around a teaspoon of the pimento cheese almost filling into a jalapeño half. Do not overfill, because that will create a mess in the oven! Then, press each stuffed jalapeño half -- cheeese side down -- into the panko, to get the coating to stick.
To bake: Arrange the halves, panko side up, on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the filling is melty and the jalapeños soften a bit.
To air fry: Arrange the halves, panko side up, in a single layer in your air fryer basket. You may need to do more than one batch, if they don't all fit in a single layer. Cook at 390° F for 10-12 minutes, then let them cool in the basket for 5 minutes before serving. The pimento cheese will be very soft at this point, so use a wooden or rubber (NOT METAL) spatula to carefully scoop each one out. It is normal for them to stick together a bit. Gently pry apart any stuck-together jalapeños before lifting out of the basket.
Notes
It's very important that you choose vegan cream cheese, cheese shreds, and mayo that you like. Those flavors do come through in the finished product, and I'd hate for that to give your finished product a flavor you're not wild about. If you can't find large jalapeños, you can use small ones, you'll just need more of them. I'd estimate around 24 small jalapeños should do the trick. You'll probably go with the shorter end of the baking time for smaller peppers.I also can't stress enough how important it is that you don't overstuff your jalapeños. The cheese is going to melt as these cook, and if you overfill your jalapeño halves, you'll end up with a big ol' mess.Leftovers will keep for 3-4 days in the refrigerator. Reheat in the air fryer, oven, or toaster oven. I don't recommend reheating in the microwave, because the panko will be mushy if you do that.