It’s almost gametime, guys. Superbowl Sunday. The biggest day for football in America. Are you psyched?! I’m pretty psyched. Not for the actual game. Go Broncos, I guess. I’m talking game day eats. All the noms. As far as I’m concerned, the Superbowl exists solely for the food. Cheesy, greasy, calorie bombtastic food. So what do you do if you’re a mostly vegan who wants to chow down with everybody else? You make these vegan Game Day Nachos. You make them now.
I’m just gonna put it out there, these are my favorite nachos. Ever. And if you’re wondering, I’m including all of the very non-vegan nachos I’ve eaten over the years in that bold statement. Inspired by a recent trip to Whiskey Kitchen in Nashville, these dreamy nachos are a veganized version of WK’s house nachos, which come loaded up with tomatoes, freshly sliced jalapenos, diced red onion, cilantro, and – instead of shredded cheese – a spicy, smoky, slightly sweet chipotle queso. While shoveling chip after chip of drippy, queso laden goodness in my mouth at WK, my brain was working overtime on how to recreate the flavors in these nachos at home. And make them vegan. I knew it could be done. The chipotle queso reminded me of the Chipotle Cashew Crema, we throw on everything from tacos to veggie burgers. It just needed some tweaking to reach queso worthy creaminess. FYI, when you blend together cashews and coconut milk and authentic chipotles in adobo sauce and warm it up with a can of Rotel, you get the best queso of your life. It’s like weird food science.
All of the veggie toppings made it into my version, along with a generous sprinkling of black beans, and avocados needed to make an appearance. Lately we’ve been throwing together an easy avocado mash – avocado with lime juice, garlic powder, red chili pepper, and sea salt – because sometimes I get the lazies and it tastes awesome. For the actual Superbowl you should probably make legit guacamole. Like this. (You’ll have to excuse the photo quality, it was one of my first posts, evah, and I knew not what I was doing. The guacamole is the bomb, tho.) Alright, enough talking, let’s eat.
- 16 ounces restaurant style tortilla chips
- ¾ cup cherry tomatoes, chopped
- 2 jalapenos, sliced thin
- ¼ red onion, diced
- ¾ cup canned black beans, drained and rinsed
- ¼ cup cilantro, minced
- 1 10 ounce can Rotel (diced tomatoes & green chilies)
- ½ cup raw, unsalted cashews, soaked in water for 2-24 hours*
- ¾ cup light coconut milk (from a can)
- 2 tablespoons lime juice
- 2 chipotle peppers from a can of chipotles in adobo
- 1 teaspoon agave nectar
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- 2 avocados
- juice of ½ a lime
- garlic powder
- red chili pepper
- sea salt
- Combine cashews, coconut milk, lime juice, and salt in a high speed blender. Blend until mixture is completely smooth, about 2 minutes. Add agave, and chipotles in adobo and blend about 20 seconds more. Add Rotel and blend until smooth, 30 seconds more. (For a chunkier queso, do not blend Rotel. Add to the queso when heating.)
- Roughly mash avocados with a fork. Squeeze lime juice over and sprinkle with garlic powder, red chili pepper and sea salt. Mix together. Add additional seasonings to taste.
- Preheat oven to 300F. Pour queso into a saucepan and warm over medium to medium-high heat for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently to prevent burning. Queso will thicken as it warms.
- Arrange chips in a single layer on a parchment lined cookie sheet and top with half of the black beans, tomatoes, jalapenos, and red onion. Add another layer of chips. Once queso is warmed throughout, drizzle over the chips. Top queso with remaining beans, tomatoes, jalapenos and red onion. Place the nachos in the oven until chips are warm, about 5 minutes. Remove from oven and garnish with cilantro. Serve immediately.
