Nachos

By SmartyPlants | December 14, 2020
Serves 2-3
These Nachos are great for Taco Tuesday, parties or game day! They’re tasty, crunchy, colorful, messy and fun. There are two things that takes these from good nachos to incredible, mind-blowing deliciousness. That would be our Creamy Refried Beans and our Nacho Crema cheesy sauce. Sure, you could buy a can of refried beans to speed things up, but once you make our beans, and take a big bite of these crunchy, creamy Nachos, you'll see that a little bit of effort is more than worth it.

Ingredients

Crunchy Baked Tortilla Chips Nacho Crema Creamy Refried Beans 1 1/2 cups frozen corn, thawed
2 cups Romaine lettuce, shredded
1 cup tomatoes, quartered
1/2 cup green onions, sliced
1/2 cup black olives, sliced
1  avocado, sliced
4 squeezes fresh lime juice

Directions

  1. First, make your Creamy Refried Beans and Nacho Crema ahead of time and keep them both in the fridge until it’s time to make your Nachos.

  2. Next, make your Crunchy Baked Tortilla Chips according to the recipe and instructions below. Heat up your Refried Beans in a saucepan on the stove if you made them ahead of time.

  3. Now let’s put together a beautiful Nacho platter!

  4. Find a big platter and line it with a layer of chips. Spread some Creamy Refried Beans onto each chip. Sprinkle on the corn, lettuce, tomatoes, green onions, black olives and avocado slices.

  5. Drizzle your Nacho Crema over everything, making sure to get every chip, and give it all a good squeeze of fresh lime juice.

  6. Dig in and make sure you have some napkins on hand!

Recipe Notes

You can easily make adjustments to the ingredient measurements, depending on what you like and how many people are eating.


For the Crunchy Baked Tortilla Chips:

Ingredients

6  corn tortillas, no oil
2 squeezes fresh lime juice
2 sprinkles sea salt

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350° F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

  2. Using a large knife or kitchen scissors, cut each tortilla into 4 triangular tortilla chips. I like to stack a few on top of each other before cutting to speed things up a bit. Place the chips on your prepared baking sheet, making sure that they are not overlapping.

  3. Lightly squeeze some lime over the chips (don’t soak them!) and sprinkle them with a little salt.

  4. Bake your chips for 20 minutes or until golden brown and crispy. Keep an eye on them, so they don’t get too brown. Turn off the oven but let them sit for a few more minutes before taking the tray out of the oven. This will get them nice and crispy.

Recipe Notes

Dunk these into your favorite salsa and our Guacamole!

We like Food for Life, Sprouted Corn Tortillas for these. You can find them at most grocery stores and definitely at Whole Foods.

Tip: You only need a couple of squeezes from your lime, so make a lime “cheek” and use the rest later. To make the cheek, cut ¼ off of one side of a lime. This gives you a nice little ½ moon to squeeze.


For the Nacho Crema:

Ingredients

1 cup water
1 cup raw cashews, soaked in water for at least 20 minutes
1  Roma tomato, ripe, diced
6 tablespoons nutritional yeast
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon granulated onion
1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
2 tablespoons scallions, sliced
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar, plus 2 teaspoons
8 slices pickled jalapeños

Directions

  1. In a high-speed blender, combine the water, cashews, tomato, nutritional yeast, salt, smoked paprika, onion, garlic, cumin, scallions, and vinegar. Don’t add the jalapeños just yet.

  2. Blend until everything is really smooth and there aren’t any bits of cashews left.

  3. Now add the pickled jalapeños and blend about 5 seconds more. You want to leave some jalapeño bits!

  4. Adjust the seasonings to taste.


For the Creamy Refried Beans:

Ingredients

1 pound dried pinto beans, rinsed and soaked for at least 6 hours
2 cups yellow onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
4 cups vegetable broth
2 cups water
1 teaspoon granulated garlic
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons sea salt, more to taste

Directions

  1. Put all of the ingredients into a large pot and bring to a boil. Then, turn the heat to low, cover the pot and simmer for about 1 ½ - 2 hours or until the beans are soft, stirring every so often to prevent sticking. When the beans are soft, continue to cook uncovered, until most of the liquid is absorbed.

  2. Once most of the water is absorbed, remove the pot from the heat. If they still look a little watery, that's fine. They will eventually absorb the liquid. Mash the beans down with a potato masher. It’s kind of a workout smashing those beans down! Allow the beans to sit, and they will thicken up. Adjust salt to taste.

Recipe Notes

Store your leftovers in the fridge for up to a week. You may even have to add some water before serving again because they really thicken up as they sit!



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