Let's Talk Nachos
I was on Reddit the other day and saw a comment where someone said they’d just realized that nachos work better in a long/flat format as opposed to a tall pile and thought, ‘Is this not common knowledge? Do I need to tell people how to do nachos?’ And then I thought probably not - my readers know what’s what, but also….I kind of just want to talk about nachos, so here we are.
When I was a kid, nachos were one of my favorite snacks. For me, ‘nachos’ were a pile of tortilla chips topped with chunks of Velveeta. I might put salsa on them after I melted it all to a molten ooze, if I was feeling fancy. It didn’t take me long to realize that nachos needed to be built in layers, though. Just putting a bunch of cheese on a pile of chips leaves you with sad, topping-less under-chips. A lot of them! So I would meticulously put down a single layer of chips and try to get one dab of cheese on each chip, then another layer of chips with another dab of cheese on each chip (which with the added height was more of a challenge than one might think), and honestly usually a third layer with another dab of cheese on each chip (yes, I’m using the word ‘cheese’ here loosely, since we all know Velveeta isn’t really cheese, but damn I used to love the stuff). Then, I would walk the precariously balanced tower over to the microwave and zap it until all the cheese was liquid. The salty, gooey, chewy, crispy mess that resulted was just…*chefs kiss*. Perfection.
I’ve had plenty of nachos in restaurants where they put toppings on the pile of chips and expect you to just figure it out, I guess, but they’re probably doing that because a) it takes less time, and b) the customer ends up with fewer toppings. Since going vegan, I’ve encountered a couple of places here in Austin that actually do it up right, but my best bet is always to just make my own (as with most things, I have found, I prefer my methods and flavors to those watered down to please the general public, which is probably another post in and of itself, like why restaurant food is almost never good enough for me, but…I digress).
Anyway, behold:
What nachos should look like.
Here you can see my most recent example of nachos. As is appropriate, you can’t even really see the chips. And I’m using an 8x8 baking dish for my SINGLE SERVING (that’s right) so there’s plenty of surface area to spread out instead of up. But chips are in there, and these are the layers:
chips (I like blue corn)
vegan cheese (I used some oat kind that honestly didn’t melt very well, but Good Planet has some excellent melty varieties)
more chips
more cheese
vegan queso (I use a recipe from a cookbook that’s out of print, but you could just add pickled jalapeño slices and cumin to my mac n cheese sauce and it would work great)
Ok - so now this goes into the oven, because it’s paramount to separate hot ingredients from cold ingredients. 375°F for around 20 minutes, until the vegan cheese is melty. Then, when it comes out:
7. chopped lettuce (I like romaine)
8. salsa (some like salsa as a hot ingredient, I don’t, but you do you)
9. guacamole (I keep things simple here with smushed avocado, lime juice, salt, scallions, and cilantro)
10. sliced black olives (only canned will do)
11. a little drizzle of garlicky cashew sauce, just because, but you could use vegan sour cream
And then you eat them with a fork, because that’s a lot of stuff. These were Super Bowl nachos, because any excuse to just eat nachos, I guess (to be honest, I’m eating nachos for dinner all week, since I have leftovers of everything, just, you know, living my best life).
How do you build your nachos? What are your favorite toppings? Would you add anything to this list?