Lunch on Sundays at SuzerSpace is just about always nachos. Good on rainy days, good on sunny days. They pair well with sports, or crafts, or even chores.
You can’t really go wrong with melty cheese and chips, and anything else you add is bonus.
Because I top these with arugula and southwestern salad dressing, I call them “Salad Nachos” and then I feel less guilty about them. Although as long as you keep the fatty items off, and be tight on portion control, nachos don’t necessarily have to be on the bad list anyway.
A quick word about my feature photo – this isn’t a food blog, so I’m showing them exactly how we eat them. I lift them off the baking sheet by the foil, and then wrap that foil around the serving plate.
Classy? Not really. Easy cleanup? You betcha 🙂
Salad Nachos
Ingredients
- Tortilla Chips
- 1/4 cup Shredded Cheese
- 1/4 - 1/2 cup Black Beans rinsed and drained
- Salsa
- Arugula
- Southwestern Style Ranch Salad Dressing
Instructions
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Line a small baking pan with foil
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Place a single layer of chips on the foil, keeping them close together so very little foil shows through.
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Add a light layer of black beans, and top that with salsa.
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Sprinkle with shredded cheese evenly so everything gets a little.
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Place this dish in a cold oven, and turn oven to Bake, 350 degrees. *See first note below
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Bake until oven hits preheated temperature, switch to broil. *See second note below.
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Remove from oven when cheese and chips are browned and crispy.
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Top generously with arugula, sparingly with Southwestern style ranch dressing.
Recipe Notes
- I call this cooking method "Two-Stage" cooking, which is I'm using the pre-heating of the oven to warm all the ingredients and then switching over to broil to blast them at the last second. I find if I just broil the nachos, the tops are good, but the beans are cold.
- When the nachos are in the first stage of cooking, you've got freedom to do something else, since the oven will beep (or in our case play a song) when it's at 350 degrees. However, when you switch to broil, DO NOT LEAVE the oven, not even for a second. These go from "almost there" to carbon in as long as it takes you to look up that just one more thing on the computer.
I love this idea to make nachos into a salad! My husband hates when I try to make everything fun healthy, more for me! Pinned for later, Thanks!
Oh what a healthy idea! I love nachos but they tend to be unhealthy. Glad that I can now indulge without the guilt. Haha! Thanks for the recipe! Thanks for sharing it over at Food Friday. Excited to see what you’ll be sharing next! 🙂