Vegan Nachos A Fast and Easy Dinner


I had company coming over for dinner and I had no ideas, no time, and no motivation.  Then it hit me… nachos!  Whoohoo!

So the following is not going to be completely whole-foods plant based but it *is* vegan, and on a scale from fast-food to super healthy it’s definitely leaning more toward the super healthy (but there are some processed foods in it and there is some oil).  If that doesn’t offend you, read on.

LAURA’S NACHOS

Ingredients
  • A base… I used Siete cassava chips and most grocery stores now carry them (you can also try corn chips, baked potatoes, potato wedges, or rice)
  • Shredded Daiya Jalapeño Havarti Style Block
  • Black beans
  • Taco seasoning mix (see below)
  • Avocado
  • Chopped onion
  • Chopped jalapeño, no seeds
  • Salsa (I used Pace Picante medium)
  • Vegan sour cream (I wanted to make my own since most if not all vegan sour creams on the market either have sugar or oil in them and/or are just highly process foods)… see recipe below

Taco Seasoning
My taco seasoning is a variation of the one from AllRecipes.  Here’s my version:
  • 2 tablespoon chili powder
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1 teaspoon onion powder
  • 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
  • 1 heaping teaspoon smoked paprika
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • ½ teaspoon dried oregano
  • A few grinds of salt
  • A few grinds of pepper

You will not use all of this at once so just store it in a container in your pantry and use as needed.  I put the strained black beans (from a can) into a pot, added some water, shook some taco seasoning mix in , stirred as it heated… then just added more until I felt it was the right balance.

Vegan Sour Cream
  • 1 cup raw cashews
  • ½ cup water
  • Juice of one lemon (2-3 tablespoons)
  • 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
  • ¼ - ½ teaspoon salt

To make the vegan sour cream, I took a cup of raw cashews, put them in a pan and added water, put them on the stove to boil and once they boiled I took them off the stove and waited about half an hour, then drained them and put them into my small food processor.  I added about half the water then all the other ingredients and mixed them on high for awhile.  If the mixture looks too thick, I add a bit more water (sometimes it does take the full half cup).

We decided to warm the chips up in the toaster oven, so I spread them out on a parchment paper on the cooking pan, and drizzled the shredded “cheese” on top, then popped them into the 400 degree oven until they were just starting to get a wee bit of color. 

So there you have it.  We both (my company and I) stuffed ourselves.  It was fast and easy.


Index of all my recipes

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