Meatless Nachos

Here it is the very first day of my meatless, plant based meal challenge and I'm already having to make adjustments to my menu. 🤦🏻‍♀️ I didn't want to bail on my plant based diet but we ended up having a dinner guest tonight. 🤷🏻‍♀️  I mean, how can I serve a black bean and lentil filled tortilla to a guest who would prefer a spicy beef taco loaded with cheese, guacamole and sour cream?  🌮 You can see my dilemma.  😬
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Hesitant to serve a plant based taco to our dinner guest, I considered ditching the meatless nachos that I had planned to make and prepare more traditional ("company worthy") beef tacos instead.  Even though I hated to ditch my meatless meal challenge on day one - I also didn't want to risk making a brand new vegetarian recipe which may or may not be a complete failure.  😬 

I found the answer to my meat vs. meatless taco dinner dilemma in a book that I received from a friend on my birthday called "Beautiful Boards."  Think charcuterie boards taken to a whole new level.🤣  The one that caught my eye was a "build your own" taco board.  Why not pull together all of our favorite taco ingredients and arrange them all on one beautiful board with both meat and vegetarian options?  

What started out as a build your own taco board turned into a tacho board.  (A taco/nacho combination for those of you who don't speak "Amy.")  I won't take the time to list all of the things that were on my board - I think that most of the ingredients are pretty obvious from the pictures. 🥑The only thing that you probably don't recognize is the bean and tomato mixture in the center.  That, my friend, is the black bean, tomato and lentil mixture that I added as the plant based option for our meal.  

Meatless Nachos
olive oil
1 onion, thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tablespoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon coriander
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/3 cup red  wine
1 can brown lentils, drained and rinsed
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
2 (14.4 ounce) cans petite diced tomatoes
1/2 cup water
1 1/2 Tablespoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons chicken bouillon 
1/2 teaspoon salt
Tortilla chips
fresh cilantro, chopped
avocado, smashed

Heat 3 T. oil in skillet.  Add onion and cook 10 minutes. 

Add garlic and cook another 2 minutes.  Add spices and cook 2 more minutes. 

Add red wine and bring mixture to a boil.  

Stir in lentils, beans, tomatoes, water, sugar, bouillon and salt.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes. 

Season with salt to taste. 

Soon bean mixture over a bed of tortilla chips,

spoon into a tortilla and serve with fresh avocado slices 

or add to a build your own tacho board.  😋

​Here's the good news about this recipe:  It's easy enough to put together that I felt like I could make this AND make some meat options for our tacos as well.   
Here's the bad news:  I didn't LOVE the spice combination in this mixture.  It wasn't terrible  - just not my favorite.  Don't take my word for it though - try it for yourself.

​Ciao!

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