This vegan nacho recipe is loaded up with healthy veggies and made with flavorful vegan chorizo and optional vegan queso. A wholesome, no-guilt nacho recipe that is delicious, and easy, baked in the oven. Vegan and Gluten-free!
There is no greater power than to be in harmony with oneself, which is to fully embrace all that we are.~ Panache Desai
I’m a little embarrassed to tell you how often this nacho recipe happens for dinner around here. My husband practically begs for them, and over the years I’ve played with fun and different ways to make them a little less heavy and more of a meal.
Long ago I cut out the meat and switched to vegan chorizo, and Brian really didn’t take too much notice. Then I experimented with adding a lot of fresh things to the top of the nachos and using vegan queso cheese. Using little dollops of refried beans and adding avocado give them a delicious creaminess.
This latest incarnation is made with “Walnut Chorizo” which only takes 5 minutes to make! Brian gave it the double thumbs up, so I thought I better share it here.
What you’ll need ( Ingredients)
Vegan Chorizo
- Walnuts ( or you can make this Vegan Chorizo with Lentils)
- Spices: kosher salt, granulated garlic powder, cumin, coriander, smoked paprika, chili powder, ground chipotle ( or sub cayenne),dried oregano ( or thyme)
- Tomato paste ( or sub a canned chipotle pepper, or the adobo sauce from the can)
Nacho Ingredients
- Tortilla chips (enough to line a 13 x 18 inch sheet pan) I love this brand!
- Refried beans: canned or make your own, or use canned black beans.
- Melty vegan cheese- or make our vegan queso
Nacho Toppings
- Cherry tomatoes, Avocado, Radishes, Cilantro leaves, Pickled onions or pickled jalapeño, hot sauce, vegan sour cream
How to make Vegan Nachos (instructions)
Step One: Make the vegan walnut chorizo.
The walnut chorizo is basically blended up walnuts with “chorizo ” spices like cumin, coriander and smoked paprika and a little tomato paste. You could also use the adobo sauce from a can of chipotles. Make this as spicy or as mild as you want.
(For this Vegan Nachos recipe, I’ve partnered with California Walnuts to create a nutritious, flavorful recipe featuring walnuts.)
Earthy, meaty walnuts become the flavorful base of this recipe. The awesome thing is, you will find a hundred other uses for this Walnut Chorizo – think tacos, breakfast burritos, enchiladas, taquitos, burrito Bowls…. you get the idea!
For added protein, you can add cooked lentils- like we do here in our Vegan Chorizo Recipe. But what I like about this walnut chorizo is that there is no cooking involved- so it is very quick and easy!
The walnut chorizo has so much depth and flavor, such a great meat substitute!
Step two: Assemble the nachos!
Line your baking tray with parchment paper so the cheese doesn’t stick.
My favorite Tortilla Chips: This Siete Brand offers organic, non-GM corn tortilla chips made with avocado oil and is available at most upscale grocery stores.
Sprinkle with the vegan chorizo, vegan cheese (or this vegan cheese sauce), and small dollops of refried beans or scatter with black beans.
Step three: Bake!
Bake the nachos in a 375F oven for 12 minutes or until the cheese is melty and the tortillas and chorizo are warmed through.
Step four: prep the toppings!
Vegan Nacho Toppings!
While the nachos are baking, prep the fresh ingredients that will go on the top! Just pick a few.
- Red onion, Pickled Onions or Pickled Jalapenos (or sliced jalapeños)
- Diced tomatoes
- Chopped Cilantro
- Sliced Avocado
- Sliced Radishes
- Quick Hot sauce
Step Five: Load them up!
Top with any or all of the fresh toppings, and your favorite hot sauce. And there you have it…..delicious, guilt-free, Vegan Nachos! Time to dig in.
Let us know what you think of these in the comments below!
More Recipes you may like!
Vegan Nacho Recipe
- Prep Time: 20
- Cook Time: 15
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 6 1x
- Category: appetizer, vegetarian, vegan
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: Tex Mex
- Diet: Vegan
Description
Vegan Nachos! These loaded vegan nachos are made with flavorful “walnut chorizo”! A healthy, delicious nacho recipe that is baked in the oven. Vegan-adaptable and Gluten free!
Ingredients
Walnut Chorizo
- 1 cup walnut
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon granulated garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon coriander
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1/2 teaspoon ground chipotle ( or sub cayenne), more to taste
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano ( or thyme)
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste ( or sub a canned chipotle pepper, or the adobo sauce from the can)
- 1 tablespoon water, and more to desired consistency
Nachos
- Tortilla chips ( enough to line a 13 x 18 inch sheet pan)
- 1 cup refried beans (optional) or black beans
- 1 1/2 cups vegan cheese ( 4-6 ounces) or make this vegan queso
- 1 batch vegan chorizo
Fresh Toppings
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes, sliced
- 1 avocado, sliced
- 3 radishes, sliced
- 1/4 cup cilantro leaves
- Garnishes: pickled onion and jalapeño, hot sauce, vegan sour cream
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375F
- Make the Walnut Chorizo. Place walnuts, spices, salt and tomato paste in a food processor and pulse until it is the texture of course sand. Add a tablespoon of water, and pulse again, until just combined. ( see notes) Set aside.
- Line a ½ sheet pan ( 13 x 18 inches) with parchment paper. Cover with tortilla chips. Drizzle chips with a little hot sauce. Spread out small spoonfuls of refried beans over top. Sprinkle with the cheese and spread out the walnut chorizo. Place in the oven until warmed through and cheese is melted, about 10- 12 minutes. While it’s baking prep your garnishes.
- When the cheese is melty, sprinkle it with tomatoes, cilantro, radishes, avocado, cilantro, and any other garnishes you like.Pickled onions and jalapeños are nice. Sour cream or yogurt also good. 🙂
- Eat immediately! These are best served right away, before cheese unmelts!
Notes
If using the walnut chorizo as taco filling or in burritos, where you might heat it up in a skillet, feel free to add a another tablespoon or two of water, so it doesn’t dry out in the pan. For extra richness you could even add a drizzle of olive oil.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 ½ cups
- Calories: 412
- Sugar: 3.1 g
- Sodium: 687.8 mg
- Fat: 24.5 g
- Saturated Fat: 5.6 g
- Carbohydrates: 41.7 g
- Fiber: 8.7 g
- Protein: 9.8 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
This was excellent! My husband, who used to eat meat, but now is plant-based, said that the walnut chorizo was better than real chorizo. Putting this in our meal rotation.
Awesome to hear Amy!
I love walnuts but sadly, can no longer eat them as l’ve developed some sort of allergy to them and, equally bizarrely, bananas. I’d still love to try these as l’m trying to cut down my meat consumption and they sound great. What nut would you suggest as a substitute please? I have no problem eating any other nuts. Thanks.
How about brazil nuts (similar oil content as walnuts) or pecans? You could even do a combo of nuts adding in a few almonds too.
Nice! I’ve never made nachos before and I guess I haven’t ever ordered them in a restaurant either! I didn’t use refried beans because of the usual fat (often pork?) mixed in so I used plain rinsed black beans instead. I should have blitzed them a bit but instead put them in whole. My husband said the beans didn’t stick to the tortilla chips so they were a bit of a “fail”! I disagree but I should have pulsed them a bit to make them more of a refried beans texture anyway. The slices of avocado looked gorgeous in your photo so I did same but again he said “why not make guacamole so it sticks to the chips better?” Geez. 🙄 and he also mentioned the grape tomatoes cut in half. Said they were tricky to pick up. Usually he says almost nothing so I didnt want to shut him down…(!) and some of his points were valid. I’ll adjust the recipe for next time as we all tend to do anyway after the first go, and I’m sure I’ll be back to a peaceful quiet dinnertime again in no time! I liked the recipe a lot btw, and also made my own melty nacho cheese sauce for the top from cashews etc. ..so it was a bit more of an effort to put together but quite tasty. So thank you!
thanks for the feed back. The refried beans do make this stick together better- and just an FYI, there are many fat-free and vegan brands these days. We also have a recipe to make your own which is more work but yummy! Love the nacho cheese idea!
This has become one of my favorite recipes. It’s so healthy and yummy. I’ve also fooled two people into thinking they were eating beef.
Aweseom Rayanne!
Made this for dinner tonight along with a salad. I was skeptical that the walnut chorizo would work out but it is genius! I sliced a small head of cauliflower 1/8″ thin to sub for half of the tortilla chips–dried them out in the oven for a few hours at 175 deg F, but probably didn’t need to do that since some of it got a bit too burnt in the final baking after assembly. I made healthy refried beans from scratch using a great recipe from someone else’s blog, and spooned on some salsa from a jar after pulling it out of the oven–and found that I really didn’t miss the cheese (I did add cheese for part of the tray but found it didn’t really improve how tasty the nachos for me, as much of the magic is in the chorizo + salsa. Just as well as I need to minimize my cheese consumption for health reasons).
Thank you for this recipe–it made my husband really happy too!
Thanks, Margaret- thanks so much and happy you enjoyed this.
So easy to make and super yummy. Made them with the vegan chorizo :))) But be careful, they are pretty filling!
They are filling- best for sharing. 😉