When you make this vegan version of nachos, you will be getting the real deal. When you order nachos out and about, it’s often very dissapointing. This recipe uses either my special chilli mince, or my vegan meat sauce substitute. Either of these sauces is great for this dish.
The choice of tortilla chips for the base is wide. I prefer Manomasa tortilla chips as they don’t have any MSG flavour enhancer in them, whereas Dorritos do. Allow around 65g of tortilla chips per plate.
Make sure you’ve got some of one of the vegan meat sauce substitutes in the freezer. Be sue to defrost it beforehand so it’s ready. Cut the vegetables – peppers, chillies, jalapenos, baby plum tomatoes etc into fairly small pieces and put in a bowl. Add in some capers, chopped gherkins, finely sliced red onion, spices and palm sugar or muscovado sugar. Stir well so you can spread it evenly over the middle of the tortilla chips.
Spoon the vegan meat sauce on top of this bed of sliced veggies, and spread it out to cover the veggies. The veggies stop the sauce making the tortilla chips soggy. Grate the vegan cheese on top of this – I recommend, Scheese mozzarella, with Sainsbury’s cheddar, and a fine sprinkling of Cheesely mozarella on last. Sprinkle the oregano or Italian seasoning over the cheeses, and sprinkle a few chilli flakes on too.
I find that if you just grill it, the vegan cheese doesn’t melt very well. However if you give it around a minute in the microwave first, it melts and browns very well under the grill.
I suggest making up some vegan salsa, as well as hummus and also guacamole to have with this vegan version of nachos. An alternative to making guacamole is to slice some avocados finely and place in a layer around the plate.
Vegan Nachos with mince & melted cheese
Equipment
- pyrex plates
Ingredients
- 200 g bag of plain or lightly tortilla salted chips 65g per plate.
- 2 portions of my Bolognese chilli mince mix
- 1/2 a medium red onion
- 20 baby plum tomatoes - check this amount.
- 1 Tablespoon of capers
- 1/2 a red pepper
- 2 or 3 red chillies
- 1 Table spoon of jalapeno peppers
- Black and green olives? possilbe extra ingredient
- 110g Sainsbury’s or scheeze cheddar Tesco jalapeno cheese, Cheezely mozzarella
- Oregano and smoked paprika and ancho chilli flakes
- 1 teaspoon of Muscovado brown sugar or palm sugar
Instructions
- Chop the pepper, chillies, red onion, and baby plum tomatoes fairly finely and place in a bowl.
- Add in the sugar and salt, stir, and leave to blend a little.
- Arrange the tortilla chips on a Pyrex plate in a reasonably thick layer.
- Defrost the chilli mince mix.
- Spread the veg mix over most of the tortilla chips
- Spread the chilli mince on top of the bed of vegetables
- Grate first the cheddar style cheeses on top of the mince in a reasonably good layer, and put a thin layer of the mozzarella on last.
- Sprinkle on the herbs and spices and chilli flakes
- Put in microwave (full power) for 1 min to 1 min 30 secs per plate
- Then grill for around 4 to 5 minutes until the cheese is nicely browned.
- Serve immediately.
Notes
- You can put loads of things in the veg mix - whatever takes your fancy - can add spring onions, black or green olives, gherkins even, pimientos etc.
- With the veg - don't put them on the chips in advance of assembly or they make the chips soggy.
- Same thing with the mince keep it on the veg or the chips go soggy.
- Using 2 or 3 layers of different cheese works well - adds texture, and as long as the last thin layer is a super melty on like Cheezely's mozzarella it will work just fine.
- You can add any herbs and spices you like on top - sainsbury's do a good range - anything spicy is good!
- You can add some fresh chillies on top of the cheese layer too!
