Nachos

It was meant to be an appetizer but a plateful of nachos turned out to be filling enough to serve as a complete meal. After lunch on Saturday, my older girl, Sam, announced that she just ate for three people.

Refried beans is a traditional component of nachos, and I bought two cans intending to use them, but my daughters do not like beans so I just omitted the refried beans. If you want to add refried beans to your nachos, when you assemble each plateful, add the beans before the ground beef and follow the rest of the procedure.

Sour cream is a traditional topping; we substituted yogurt.

Serves 4 to 6.

Ingredients:

tortilla chips (we used blue and yellow)
500 g. of ground beef
4 cloves of garlic
1 large onion
salt
pepper
4 to 6 plump juicy tomatoes
12 to 15 sweet basil leaves
2 to 3 sprigs of oregano
juice of one lemon
a large bunch of lettuce, shredded or torn
250 g. (or more) of sharp cheddar cheese
1 to 1-1/2 c. of yogurt

Start by crushing and peeling the garlic cloves.

Chop. Finely or coarsely, it’s up to you.

Peel the onion.

Slice thinly then chop.

Heat a frying pan. Add the ground beef. If you’re not using a non-stick pan, you may have to coat the bottom with a little olive oil.

Cook the beef over high heat, stirring to separate, until the meat changes color.

Add the onion and garlic.

Continue cooking, stirring, until the vegetables soften and the mixture is almost dry. Cool.

While the meat cools, roughly chop the tomatoes. Preheat the oven to 425F at this point as well.

With one hand holding the tip of the sprig of oregano, lightly place the thumb and forefinger of your other hand near the top of the sprig and slide down to remove the leaves. Discard the stems; roughly chop the leaves.

Make a basil chiffonade, add to the tomatoes with the oregano, some salt and the lemon juice. Add a little extra virgin olive oil, if you wish. Toss.

Grate the cheese.

Start assembling the nachos. Cover the bottom of shallow oven-proof bowls with tortilla chips. Pile on the cooled beef mixture.

Smother with cheese. Pop in a 425F oven for five minutes or until the cheese melts.

Arrange some of the lettuce around the tortilla chips. Spoon the tomato mixture over the melted cheese and pour the yogurt over the tomatoes. Serve while the cheese is hot and gooey.

P. S. My daughters helped me with the nachos. Sam took all the photos; Alex grated the cheese.