Nachos are the perfect weekend food. Great for football watching, easy to make, and ideal for sharing. Every restaurant in the world has a nacho appetizer. I’ve taken part in many nachos and have learned there are right ways to do nachos, and there are wrong ways to do nachos. Unfortunately, restaurant nachos are usually a disappointment. I find the ratio of toppings to chips to be far too heavy on the chips. Well, let me tell you, these healthy sweet potato nachos are heavy on the toppings and the sweet potato chips are so amazing, it’s almost like they’re both a topping and a chip.
Now you might be wondering why I’m posting about a weekend food on a Tuesday? Well, it’s because I’m wishing it was still the weekend. And if I eat weekend foods during the week, I can pretend that Monday never happened. It’s not that I don’t like Mondays…it’s because the weekends just go by so fast.
I’ve made these healthy sweet potato nachos a few times. Awhile back I made them for practice pictures when I was first learning how to use a DSLR camera and Photoshop. Then when I first started Bound by Food, I was going to post my original pictures. But when I went back through them….well, let’s just say they weren’t the best. Maybe a little too much Photoshop and everything shot in automatic mode.
So I’ve been meaning to remake the sweet potato nachos for some time and finally made them this weekend. Luckily for me, Kris is traveling for work so I had them all to myself. The nachos themselves are easy to make, the sweet potato chips, on the other hand, take a little time. Baking them being the only tedious task to this amazing dish.
When you bake the sweet potato chips, you just have to watch them closely. They can go from being beautifully light brown to black as death in five seconds, I kid you not. I watched it happen. You bake the sweet potato chips for 10 minutes, then flip them oven and bake for another 10 minutes. Then I recommend checking the chips every minute or so and pulling chips off the baking sheet as soon they’re crispy.
Once all the sweet potato chips are done baking, arrange half of the chips on a medium-sized baking sheet, top with seasoned ground beef, half the onions and peppers, and half the cheese. Then repeat the layer. Layering is key to good nachos. The worst is getting a mountain of chips with the goodies only on the top layer. After you’ve properly layered the nachos, place them in the oven to bake, heating them just enough to melt the cheese. Then top with sour cream, salsa, and fresh cilantro.
- 2-3 medium sweet potatoes yams peeled and sliced into 1/8 inch rounds
- 2 tbsp Avocado oil/olive oil/coconut oil - your choice. I used avocado.
- 1-2 tsp salt
- 2 tsp cumin
- 2 tsp garlic powder
- 1 pound of ground beef
- 2 tsp chili powder
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes optional
- Medium onions diced
- Green bell pepper diced
- 1/2 cup - 1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese depending on how cheesy you want your nachos
- Sour cream for topping
- Salsa for topping
- Fresh cilantro for topping
-
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
-
Place sweet potato rounds in a large bowl. Toss with oil, salt, garlic powder, and cumin.
-
Arrange sweet potato slices on parchment lined baking sheets. I ended up using 3 baking sheets. You may need to cook them in batches.
-
Bake the sweet potato rounds for 10 minutes, then remove from oven and flip the rounds over.
-
Next, return the chips to the oven and bake an additional 10 minutes. You might want to check the chips at 5 minutes as any smaller chips might be done baking at this point. Remove any chips that are starting to brown and slightly crispy. Continue baking chips, checking every minute or so until all chips are cooked.
-
Allow chips to cool. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees.
-
While chips are baking, brown ground beef in a skillet over medium heat. Season with salt, pepper, chili powder, cumin, garlic, and red pepper flakes.
-
To assemble nachos, arrange half the sweet potato chips on a medium baking sheet. Layer the chips with half the ground beef, half the onion, half the pepper, and half the cheese. Repeat the layer.
-
Finally, bake at 350 degrees for 5-10 minutes, until cheese is melted. Remove from the oven and top with salsa, sour cream, and cilantro.
-
Enjoy!
Leave a Reply