Nachos are ALWAYS a fun snack at our house. I made a few different ones last football season. So last weekend I decided to search through our fully stocked cabinets to create a snack for my husband. We had several different salsas in the house, canned corn, pita bread left from my Spaetzle Pizza and some other odds n ends.
I thought about making my own pita chips and then some kind of dip, but once I spied the taco seasoning, I knew what I was going to make... PITACHOS!! (Pita Nachos).
This recipe is very easy to make. It probably took me about a half hour from start to finish with making the pita chips and assembling the finished dish.
I decided to make this quickly, so I decided against opening the ground beef and sauteing it, so these are "vegetarian," per say. I can't claim it 100% because I don't know if any of the other products I used could be classified as non-vegetarian. I just know there is no meat!
First, I made the pita chips using the whole wheat pita bread I used for last week's recipe. I cut the pita into 8ths and dipped each piece lightly into olive oil. Once all the bread was dipped, I sprinkled some taco seasoning over the chips and baked them in the toaster oven for about 15 minutes until crisp. I did turn them over half way to make sure each side was dusted in taco seasoning and baking up nice and crispy.
While those were heating up, I cracked open a can of yellow corn niblets and heated them up.
I also diced some red onion very finely - just a little though. I didn't want to overwhelm the palate.
For the cheese, I used Tostito's Spicy Nacho Cheese dip. We had this 4 pack lying around the house because we bought it before Hurricane Irene hit us in case we lost power. The single serve travel packs were great because they didn't need refrigeration until opened, and you could finish one pack in a serving. So it totally worked as my cheese!
The salsa I used was actually from Canada. My parents went on vacation last year and brought us back a jar of Cherry Salsa from Prince Edward Island and we just never opened it. I decided to give it a try for this recipe. Any salsa will work, but if you can find a sweeter, fruity salsa, that would work best. We also had pineapple salsa from Trader Joe's in the house, but the cherry won.
A dollop of sour cream topped off the nachos, and I presented them to my husband with joy. He dug in and said "wow, these are actually REALLY good!" Score. I successfully made my own pita chips with a taco flair, as well as finally using a gift my parents got us a long time ago. I apparently made him too much and he couldn't finish, so I did, and surprisingly, I enjoyed it too, despite not really liking salsa.
I think PITACHOS will become a staple here in the future. I would have loved to add some scallions or jalapenos for my husband, but we just didn't have any in the house. I could also see adding some chopped lettuce. Maybe next time!!
So here is a rundown of the ingredients in case you missed anything in the description:
Homemade pita chips
(whole wheat pita bread, cut into 8ths, drizzled in olive oil and taco/fajita seasoning)
yellow corn niblets
red onion - finely diced
nacho cheese (Tostito's Spicy Nacho Cheese Dip)
cherry salsa from canada
sour cream
Assembly:
Place the baked pita chips on a plate and layer some corn and red onion over the chips. Pour some of the cheese on, and add a little more corn and onion.
Another splash of cheese, a few spoonfuls of salsa and a dollop of sour cream will finish off your PITACHOS.
Enjoy!
PS - serve with a fork too, just in case!
No comments:
Post a Comment