No, the Greeks didn’t invent nachos… But one of our readers from Canada was feeling creative and found a way to put a fresh and flavorful spin on this classic Mexican dish.
Jenny S, also known as “The General Jen,” originally shared her creation on Instagram through an IG story. But she has generously offered to share it with readers of The Pappas Post.
See below the ingredients and instructions for her “Greek nachos” and prepare an appetizer that will be a guaranteed hit in any food scenario.
NOTE: Quantities for the ingredients are “eye-balled,” as the specifications of the dish depend on the consumer’s preferences — e.g. more beef vs. less beef; more cheese vs. less cheese; etc. Quantities also depend on the number of people being served.
Ingredients
- Halloumi cheese
- Can of gigantes (big beans) or fasolada
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 lb ground beef
- Garlic 3 cloves smashed and chopped fine
- All-purpose seasoning as needed
- 3 tablespoons tomato paste
- Water as needed to get the sauce to bubble and start simmering gently
- Finely diced cucumber
- Finely diced and de-seeded tomato
- Finely diced red onion
- Finely chopped Italian parsley
- Sea salt
- Olive oil
- 1/2 cup full fat Greek yogurt
- Splash of milk
- Juice of half lime
- Dill
- Parsley
- Black pepper
Garnishes
- Green olives
- Black olives
- Tapenade
Instructions
Step 1 – Preheat oven to 375 F.
Step 2 – Make the ground beef the way you would for makaronia. And then leave it to gently simmer on the stove top as you prep the other elements.
Sauté the olive oil with garlic, then add the ground beef and your seasoning. Once the ground beef is thoroughly cooked, add the tomato paste and keep stirring to incorporate and then slowly add warm water as needed to create just a little bit of moisture to start simmering flavors.
Step 3 – Open a can of gigantes (I’m sure fasolada could also work). Puree it in a blender if it’s too thick and add some olive oil to help. Warm the bean dip up in a pan on the stove top.
Step 4 – Cut and dice the halloumi cheese. Leave it to the side.
Step 5 – Make the yogurt krema. In a small bowl whisk the Greek yogurt, milk, lemon juice, water, dill, parsley, olive oil and black pepper. Once it’s stirred then slowly start adding in salt as needed to make it flavorful. Pour the krema into a Ziploc bag.
Step 6 – On a heat-proof platter, arrange tortilla chips, then add the ground beef over the top of the tortilla chips. Garnish with the halloumi cheese. Place into the oven to start allowing the cheese to melt.
Step 7 – In a bowl, mix the tomato, onion, cucumber and parsley, then add the sea salt and olive oil. Mix this really well and allow the flavors to bind. This is the secret, as we want this to taste like cucumber in a Greek salad, not just a cucumber as garnish. The juice of any salad is bliss and we need that “oomph” to create magic.
Step 8 – When the cheese has softened, and without burning the tortilla chips, remove from the oven, garnish with the Greek salad and then cut a really small tip off the Ziploc bag. Allow the Krema to drizzle out of the bag and over the nachos.
Step 9 – Place the gigantes bean dip on the side.
Step 10 – Garnish with green olives, black olives and tapenade.
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