Loaded Nachos - Dairy Free or Lactose Free
Cook separately. Eat separately.
Take advantage of video calls.
We can’t wait to be together and cook together again, but in the meantime, here’s a fun challenge: social distance nachos.
After taking a pause, we started social distance blogging but hadn’t made a new recipe yet during shelter-in-place.
For now, we thought we’d try a cooking date via video call. We decided to surprise each other about the ingredients we were putting in our nachos.
Random Trivia Point
A few days ago, Twitter had trending a list of the restaurant foods people are missing most. Mexican food topped the list and the click-bait image was a loaded plate of nachos. We sure miss Mexican food, too, and that’s why these nachos hit the spot.
Taste Test Kitchen Chat
Rebel: What was your first thought when you took your first bite?
Lee: They just tasted so good. I was really surprised. What about you?
Rebel: My initial thought was, wow, this tastes familiar. It brought up the feeling of nostalgia.
Lee: Did anything surprise you?
Rebel: The pinto beans. I’d never blended pinto beans to make them creamier. It was interesting that when you took a bite, the creaminess combined with the cheese made it feel like you were eating nacho cheese sauce.
Lee: I’d always made nachos by broiling them and then some of the edges of the chips could burn. So baking them meant I could layer them a lot and everything got heated evenly. It was great. What was your favorite ingredient?
Rebel: I can’t decide what I liked best. Because they were that good! Maybe it’s because I haven’t had nachos in a long time.
Lee: Right. Remember I’d always try them and compare at different restaurants?
Rebel: Yeah. How did you think it went, cooking together via video chat?
Lee: It was hectic and hilarious. We each had to do all the jobs: prepping, cooking, taking photos, remembering to take notes, or not (‘cause I forgot that part).
Rebel: I thought it was surprisingly fun. When this pandemic started, a lot of my life shifted to video calls. Initially I thought it was going to be awful. Depending on the activity it’s actually worked out well. For example, now we’re using Zoom to have this discussion.
Lee: One thing was hard, though…we each had a full pan of nachos to eat. (Shakes head.)
Rebel: I was stuffed. Nostalgia got me real good.
Lee: (Shakes head again. Laughs.) Let’s wrap up. The point of this was to try out if it would be fun for us – and for other people – to ‘cook together’ at a distance.
Rebel: So would you do this again?
Lee: As long as it’s an easy enough recipe, I think it’s a lot of fun.
Rebel: See you next Friday, then!
Update: here’s the link to the Shredded Chicken Taco Meat.
Loaded Nachos - Dairy Free or Lactose Free
Ingredients:
- Tortilla chips – yellow corn
- Tortilla chips – blue corn (optional)
- 1 16-ounce can refried beans, black beans or pinto beans
- 1 4-ounce can green chilies, diced (mild or medium hot)
- 8 ounces shredded vegan cheese, such as Vio Life cheddar
- Meat topping (optional):
- 1 1/2 – 2 cups Shredded Chicken Taco Meat
- 8 slices uncured bacon, cut into pieces and cooked
- Salsa
- cherry tomatoes, quartered
- cilantro, chopped
- 6 green onions, sliced
- ½ medium red onion, chopped
- 1 avocado
- 1 lime
- sliced Serrano or jalapeno peppers
- For crema:
- 1/2 cup sour cream, plant based or lactose free
- 1-2 tablespoons chipotles in adobo seasoning sauce (see notes)
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 350°
- Cut bacon in 1” pieces (with clean scissors) and fry in skillet. Drain on paper towels.
- Line lasagna pan or rimmed baking sheet in foil.
- Place cold pinto beans and 1/4 cup of water into blend and pulse until just pureed. Add more water if needed to help fully mix but not too much or it will be watery. Scoop beans into a resealable plastic bag, seal and set aside.
- Put an even layer of chips in the pan. Cut the tip of the bean bag and drizzle over the chips – you won’t use all of it. Sprinkle with green chilies and cheese. Repeat chips, beans, chilies and cheese in a second layer.
- Bake for 15 minutes.
- Dice the red onion and quarter the lime. Cut the avocado into cubes.
- Make crema in blender by pulsing sour cream and adobo seasoning sauce until just mixed.
- Remove pan from oven. Drizzle with crema. Add red onion, bacon and avocado. Squeeze lime juice over the top.
- Preheat oven to 400°
- In medium saucepan, heat refried black beans and green chilies, stirring occasionally. In a small saucepan, heat 1 1/2 to 2 cups shredded chicken taco meat over medium-low heat.
- Prepare cold toppings – tomatoes, cilantro, green onions – and set aside. Mash avocado slightly (so it's still chunky) with about 1/4 cup of salsa.
- Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil.
- Place one layer of yellow corn and blue corn tortilla chips on pan and sprinkle with 1/3 of the cheese. Heat about 4 minutes and remove from oven.
- Put small dollops of heated refried bean and green chilies mixture over the cheese, spreading slightly. Add another layer of chips, cheese and beans. (No need to use the whole can of beans.) With tongs, drain chicken well, and layer on top. Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the chicken.
- Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until heated through.
- Top with cold toppings of your choice and enjoy. I used vegan sour cream, mashed avocado, tomatoes, salsa, cilantro and green onions. (Cooked onion and red peppers are in the chicken taco meat.)
