Easy Vegan Nachos

Why have I been vegan for so long and not tried to make nachos?

Maybe it's the memories of an overload of cheese and sour cream. I'm not generally a big fan of trying to replicate non vegan foods by using 'substitute' foods such as soy cheese.

However, now that we are ruled (happily and benevolently) by our almost 2 year old daughter Sylvia, I try to think of meals that will be fun for her to eat.

This meal is a winner because Sylvia's favourite phrase at the moment is "Sylvia do it!". Translation: Sylvia will try most foods if she can eat them on her own. Even if most of the food is sliding off the spoon on its way to her mouth, she refuses assistance. This makes for very messy but entertaining mealtimes!

Sylvia loves the novelty of using the corn chips as a spoon by herself. She then offers the soggy chip to mummy or daddy to eat, but at least she's getting the most nutritious parts of the meal in her mouth, right?

Although there are a few elements, this is a pretty fast and simple meal once the beans are cooked, and could be even faster is using canned beans. I don't add chilli powder because of Sylvia, but I'm sure it would be a nice addition if cooking just for adults. 

Easy Vegan Nachos

Beans

2 cups dry beans, cooked (I used a mixture of white and black beans because that's what I had in the cupboard; other types of beans and canned beans would be fine too)

1 onion, chopped

2 tbsp oil

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp ground cumin

2 tsp sugar (or to taste)

1 tsp salt (or to taste)

2 cups passata (tomato puree)

corn from 2 cobs of corn

2 carrots, chopped

Quick guacamole

1 avocado

1/2 tsp garlic powder

dash of salt

Cashew Sour Cream from this recipe

Prepare cashew cream first - it's nice have to this in the fridge for a while before eating it.

Now to the beans. In a large saucepan, fry onion in oil for a few minutes, then add carrots and corn and cook for a further few minutes. Add cumin, paprika, salt and sugar and cook for few seconds. Add beans and passata and simmer for about 20-30 minutes, stirring every now and then. I used a bit of the cooking liquid from the beans in ours, so you may need to adjust the amount of passata depending on how saucy you want the beans to be.

While the beans are cooking, mash the avocado, garlic power and salt together.

Layer the beans, guacamole and cashew sour cream and enjoy with corn chips!