Vegan Baked Chili Nachos
Vegan. Baked. Nachos. No- you aren’t dreaming. You found it: the nacho recipe to end all other nacho recipes. Why? Well, how long do you have?!
Seriously though, these are easy, delicious, and probably should be considered “cheating nachos.” But not the bad kind of cheating that would’ve gotten you kicked out of school, the good kind! The kind that enables you to cook amazingly tasty food with *extreme* minimal effort.
The “cheat” is achieved by using one of our premade soups as the vegan “meat-and-potatoes” (if you will) of the nacho toppings. More on that below!
Get ready to wow your guests, or eat them all yourself (been there done that!) because this recipe is almost too good to be true. No one can not love this dish.
Our favorite go-to easy topping is the Organic Chili Bean Soup, topped with one of the best parts of these nachos: the cashew cream. If you’ve never had cashew cream before, now would be the time to take a stab at making your own!
Simply soak your cashews in boiling water for about 20 minutes, then drain and add a little water, some sea salt, lemon juice, and nutritional yeast. Blend it all up in a food processor (or blender) until it’s beautifully smooth and perfectly creamy, and you’re done! We recommend using 1-2 teaspoons per serving.
You might even want to double the recipe and keep some extra in your fridge, because this is the perfect cherry-on-top of a hot tray of homemade nachos- or really anything else that you’d like to add some creamy vegan goodness to. (Trust us, the options here are endless.)
Let’s talk tortilla chips.
While you can definitely buy some, it is surprisingly easy (and actually rewarding) to make your own tortilla chips.
You just cut up some fresh corn tortillas, sprinkle on your preferred spices and some olive oil, then bake them until they’re nice and crispy. Easy, right?
For this recipe below, we stacked a pile of fresh tortillas on top of each other, and then sliced them up like a pizza to make a bunch of chips with one go.
Then we tossed those babies in a little olive oil (optional), sea salt and chili powder- but you can add whatever seasonings you’d like, such as lime juice or cayenne pepper. Spread them in an even layer on a baking sheet and toast them for 10 minutes at 400F, or until they’re good and crispy. The time will differ depending on your oven’s heat, the thickness of your tortillas, and your preferred crunch.
Why not just buy a bag of chips at the store? Well, you can totally do that. However, many popular chip brands deep fry theirs in tons of oil- and we all know about the downsides of processed oils.
Plain corn tortillas are usually oil-free, and are often inexpensive as well. By making your own tortilla chips, you are in total control of the amount of salt that goes in them- something else that big brand chip companies go crazy with.
Another reason to make your own tortillas: the integrity of the chips. Unless you’re one of the few who likes to eat their nachos with a fork, making your own tortilla chips is a surefire way to make sure that your chips hold all the goodness you piled on top of them, without crumbling like a leaf. And even if you prefer minimal nacho toppings, a thick homemade chip stays crunchy for longer.
Who Needs Meat, Anyways?
Okay sooo anyway, your sizzling homemade tortilla chips are in the oven: now you’re going to prep your Right Foods Organic Chili Bean Soup. This step might very well be the easiest, thanks to the convenient nature of our soups. This one is plant-based and vegan, so you can maintain that delicious heartiness of traditional nachos, without the guilt (or tummy issues) that usually comes along as well. The addition of our vegan chili soup transforms a pile of chips (boring) into nachos (fascinating).
Here's the Organic and Vegan soup we used to make this dish! You can buy it in 6 pk or 24 pk bulk boxes for savings!
When your chips are done, take them out of the oven and top them off with the chili bean soup, avocados, cilantro, and literally anything else that suits your fancy, like chopped tomatoes, onions, basil or chives. Then, for the final touch, add your homemade cashew cream and DEVOUR.
The key to enjoying the perfect tray of nachos is to eat them as soon as possible after baking them, so try not to let them sit out for too long! If you want to save some for later, only make half the batch and set aside the other half for later so you can enjoy this recipe twice. GENIUS.
Trust us; these vegan nachos will be the highlight of your week. Just remember, these are your vegan nachos, so go to town on toppings and make them your own.
If you make these vegan baked chili nachos, leave us a comment below and tell us what you think of them- or rate this recipe card and print it out for future use!
Craving more easy vegan recipes like this one? Be sure to check try the recipes below as well:
