Nachos with spiced black beans - pub food at home

One thing I missed going to pubs was for the nachos. The nachos are cheesy, crunchy, salty, satisfying snack/meal items that go well with many beautiful late nights, beers, and patio conversations. Funny enough, it's got to be one of the easiest things to make, and completely customizable. Like jalapenos? sure. Like peppers? throw those on! like it extra saucy? do it! There are no rules in nacho land, literally none. In about 20 min you will have this dish made just to your liking. So why not make nachos at home, crack open your favorite can of cool bevvy, cuz tonight will be a good night.

I used to always get ground pork or beef for my nacho topping. But since going vegetarianism, I stopped buying meat. What I use, which are really close substitutes are tofu crumble, or black beans. Today I made with black beans, spiced. It really gives this dish a bit of Mexican faerie dust. This is a satisfying dish to have it yourself or share with a friend.

What you need:

- one head of baby lettuce, chopped (or 5-6 big romaine leaves if you have the giant romaine lettuce)

- 1 tomato, chopped

- 1 small red onion, chopped

- 1 can of black beans

- 1/2 cup of grated cheddar cheese

- 1 jalapeno, sliced

- 1 tsp of cumin, coriander, paprika, salt, and pepper

- 1 tbsp of oil

- half of bell pepper

- bag of tortilla chips

Recipe:

- cook the black beans on the stove top, add cumin, coriander, salt, pepper, and paprika on med heat. Stir well until the beans cook down and flavors mixed in. This takes about 10 min.

- In the mean time, wash and chop your vegetables, set them aside ready as toppings

- line the tortilla chips in a microwave safe cookware, I use my 8x10 glass ware typically. sprinkle a layer of cheese, a layer (about half) of your beans, a few jalapeno slices (about half).

- line the tortilla chips once again, same thing with the second layer, sprinkle the cheese layer, beans, jalapeno. I also like to throw some onions and bell peppers on at this point. 

- stick the glass ware into microwave, for 2 min on high. This is to melt the cheese, and just cook the peppers and onions ever so slightly. I used to try baking/broil this to melt the cheese. Don't worry about that - microwave works just fine for this. 

- take your glassware out and layer all the rest of the vegetables on top. Yes I said all, of, the, vegetables. We are going for a super green, almost kind of healthy (haha see how I just did that?) pub food alternative.

The result? Amazing. You think you are eating nachos, but there's also the salad-y components to this cuz I piled so much veggies on it. The beans are so great and so satisfying. You don't feel like you miss meant at all. Sometimes I throw in a chopped garlic and ginger in there too. You want it to be fairly spiced and it really adds such wonderful layers in contrast to the crunchy tortilla and fresh veggies.

So don't be sad that you haven't gone to the local pub. Make your own vegetarian nacho, viola! You and I the average joe's can be good at this too, easy.