Two-Bean Sheet Pan Nachos

Two-Bean Sheet Pan Nachos

The weather, up until recently, has been rather frightful: cold and damp and endless snow. I've been thinking about the idea of forcing the season, food wise, after I saw my friend Kate's Facebook post of a souffle she made with asparagus a week or so ago. This gave me great pause; Kate is a master gardener and a scientist and she's married to a civil-environmental engineer. These are thoughtful, sensitive people, not the type who play fast and loose with seasonality. I knew when I saw that dish that we were all hurting; it felt like a call to arms. We want lighter, brighter food, even if it's not 100 percent appropriate quite yet. I'm waiting for the earth to thaw this week so my favorite farmers can bring carrots to the market; a carrot ginger soup is on the horizon, methinks.

I wanted to make tacos but forgot to buy more tortillas to supplement what we had, so instead, I turned what we had into homemade chips. I heated them up with a little oil in my cast iron skillet and then cut them into triangles. Or you can brush them with oil, salt them lightly and stack them in a 400° oven for about 10 minutes, until they are crispy. With corn and tomatoes, plus rice tossed with lime juice, nachos don't feel like winter food for me.

Ingredients

• Half dozen corn and/or flour tortillas, prepared as directed above or:
• 3-4 handfuls of store-bought tortilla chips
• 1-2 T. coconut oil
• 1 bunch scallions, chopped and rough green tops discarded.
• 1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 can dark red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
• 2 cups frozen (or fresh, in season) corn, defrosted and patted dry with paper towels
• 1/2 tsp. cumin
• 1/2 tsp. dried oregano
• 2/3 cup cilantro, chopped
• 1 cup grape tomatoes, halved
• 1 cup cheddar or Monterrey jack cheese, shredded
• 1 avocado

 Oven-baked corn and flour tortilla chips

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Instructions

Serves: 4 as a main course or a crowd, for a party

1. Preheat the oven to 375° Fahrenheit.
2. Arrange the chips—either pre-cooked or store bought—in a single layer across the sheet pan.
3. Heat up 1-2 T. coconut oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat, and cook the scallions for 1-2 minutes until they soften. Add the beans, corn, cumin, coriander, oregano and cilantro, and warm them through for another minute or so.
4. Spoon the bean-scallion mix evenly over the chips. Scatter the halved tomatoes across the mix, followed by the cheese. Bake at 375 degrees for about 10 minutes, until the cheese melts.
5. Roughly chop half of an avocado, place it in a small bowl and sprinkle it with kosher salt and some black pepper. Remove chips from oven and sprinkle the avocado chunks on top. (Black olives would work here, too.)