We may be geeks, but that doesn’t mean we don’t know how to create great things in the kitchen. Some of the best dishes can be made quickly and easily as long as you know what you’re doing. Let’s get cooking!
For the first edition of the Casual Cookery, I’ll go over how to make a dish everyone loves: nachos. The photos I’m using here originally appeared on my Instagram, feel free to give me a follow for more random pictures.
The nachos are a quick fix for a filling dinner. Putting everything together shouldn’t take more than about 35-40 minutes, depending on how long you want the nachos to bake.
For these nachos, you’ll need a bag of tortilla chips, a can of black beans (I used low sodium black beans), frozen corn, a small onion, shredded cheese, an avocado, a tomato, salsa and sour cream. The amount you’ll need really depends on how many nachos you want to make.
First things first, pre-heat your oven to about 350 degrees. Adjust the heat of your oven accordingly. Every oven seems to be a little different with how well it heats up…
Drain the can of black beans of any juice and put it in a small sauce pot. Add in some spices of your choice; I used cumin, black pepper, crushed red pepper and garlic powder. Dice your onion and throw it in the sauce pot along with some frozen corn. Mix them all together and cook over a low heat until everything is nice and toasty.
While the beans, onion and corn cooks on the stove, cover a nice sized pan with aluminum foil, and layer the foil with a capful of canola oil. Once you’ve greased the foil, place a layer of tortilla chips on top. The oil will keep the chips from sticking to the foil, the foil will keep the pan from getting too dirty.
Once the beans, corn and onion mixture has been thoroughly cooked through and it’s all nice and hot, turn the stovetop off and spread the mixture over the chips. Make sure to get an even distribution of the mixture over the spread of the chips.
Next, take the shredded cheese of your choice – I used a four-cheese Mexican blend, but use whatever your heart desires – and spread it over the top of the chips. If you’re like my wife and really like your cheese, once you finish putting it on the chips, be sure to add some more. Cheese is good.
Once you’ve sufficiently spread the cheese around, throw the pan into the oven.
While the chips are cooking in the oven, grab the avocado and slice that up. Then, take your tomato of choice – I used grape tomatoes here – and chop them up, too. The more veggies the better, really. Feel free to add in olives or whatever else you like to have on top of your nachos.
Once you finish chopping your veggies, check on the chips and see how the cheese has melted. Once it looks as melted as you want it to be, take it out of the oven and let it sit for a minute while you grab your plates.
Put the chips, cheese and black bean mixture on a plate, top with the avocados and tomatoes. Then, take your choice of salsa – I prefer a green salsa with medium spice – and spread it over the top. Finally, dab some sour cream up top. Grab a fork and you’re ready to go!
