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Vegan Bell Pepper Nachos with Cauliflower Taco Meat & 10 minute Vegan Nacho Cheese Sauce. Veggie full Nachos! Soy-free Recipe. Can be Gluten-free Nut-free
Its still hot on most days in Seattle and baking gets postponed in favor of skillet cooking. Summer makes me crave lighter meals especially for dinner. They make be feel full enough and make it easier to catch a good sleep. These Nachos came about when I had a bumper of bell peppers and assorted veggies to use. But I was also craving some comfort food. So, comfort food Cheesy Nachos, veggified = These fabulous nachos!
The peppers are cooked on a grill or skillet until golden brown. The cauliflower is shredded and lightly cooked with the taco spices. The nacho cheese sauce is super Easy, just mix everything and bring to boil to thicken. You will want to drizzle it over roasted veggies, tacos and everything!
Use other premade toppings or make your own. Assemble in any format (nacho style, or fill up tacos or a bowl) and done! Add some spiced up black beans or add some walnuts to the cauliflower to amp up the protein.
Easy, Veggie-ful, flavorful and Comforting!
For variation, you can toast some nachos and assemble the layers on the chips. Add some pickled jalapenos, black beans, vegan sour cream and other favorite toppings. To make these grainfree, use cashew milk for the nacho cheese sauce and 1 tbsp arrowroot or other starch. Make these nachos your own! Do leave me a comment about how everything turned out.
I use my own chili powder blend to flavor the cheese sauce and taco “meat”. The blend is plenty smoky, hot and garlicky. If using other blends, you might need to add more garlic powder and smoked paprika for smokyness.
More Mexican Inspired recipes from the blog including Chilaquiles, Enchiladas, Barbacoa, Jackfruit tacos here
Hope you all stayed safe during the eclipse.
Bell Pepper Nachos with Cauliflower Taco "Meat"
Ingredients
Bell Peppers:
- 2 tsp oil
- 3 medium bell peppers , , thinly sliced
- salt, , pepper and smoked paprika to taste
Cauliflower Taco "meat"
- 1/2 tsp oil
- 1/2 cup chopped onion, , 1/2 medium onion
- 2 cups shredded cauliflower, (scant 3 cups chopped will yield that much)
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 to 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 2 tsp or more chili powder, (recipe below)
- a dash of lemon or lime
Nacho Cheese Sauce:
- 1 tbsp olive oil, , extra virgin
- 2 tbsp flour, (white flour or use 1 tbsp rice flour and 1 tbsp arrowroot to make glutenfree)
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 to 1.5 tsp chili powder blend, below, or use 1/4 tsp each of smoked paprika, garlic powder, cumin, chipotle pepper, oregano and 1/8 tsp onion powder
- 3/4 cup almond milk, or other non dairy milk
- 2 to 3 tbsp nutritional yeast
Instructions
Bell Peppers:
- Heat a large skillet or grill pan over medium high heat. Add oil and spread. Add the bell pepper slices and cook until golden brown on the edges. Cover for 2-3 minutes to steam after a minute to cook faster, then uncover and continue to cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Add a dash of salt, pepper and smoked paprika and mix in.
Cauliflower Taco "meat":
- Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add onion and cook until translucent. Add the spices and mix in. Add cauliflower, salt and garlic and toss well. Cover and cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Add lemon, fluff well and cover. Take off heat. Let it sit for another 2 minutes to continue steaming. Taste and adjust salt and flavor and mix in before serving. *
Nacho Cheese Sauce:
- Heat oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add flour and cook the flour in oil for 2 minutes. Mix in the spices and cook for a few seconds. Mix in the non dairy milk and nutritional yeast and cook until thickened. I use my homemade chili blend which has a good smoky flavor, heat and garlic. Taste carefully and adjust salt and flavor, more cumin or smoked paprika for smokier, chipotle for heat, additional garlic ). Add a pinch of turmeric for color if you like and mix in.
Assemble
- Assemble the peppers on a serving plate. Add a good helping of the cauliflower filling. Add a good drizzle of nacho cheese. Some other toppings like pico de gallo or salsa of choice, avocado, pickled jalapeno etc and serve. You can also serve these layers in tacos or add to a bowl with crunchy lettuce or greens or over roasted potatoes.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
More Veggie filled meals from the blog
Veggie Tikka Bowl or Wrap with Coconut Chutney Dressing
8 Spice Veggie Stir fry, serve as wraps, bowl or side with Dal.
Black Eyed Pea Sweet Potato Harissa Hash, serve as bowl or over toast with avocado.
Carrot Veggie Fried Rice with brown rice and riced carrots.
This made for a surprisingly easy and tasty weeknight taco meal. The cheese sauce is absolutely lip smacking, although i did increase the proportions of spices since we like a kick in our foods in this household. I am usually not a big fan of cauliflower but this recipe transformed it and will be repeating this recipe regularly.
I used the cauli meat as main taco filling and added leftover chickpeas to it. Topped the tacos with the charred peppers, fresh crunchy shredded cabbage and onions with healthy thick drizzle of that awesome sauce and it was heavenly!
Yum! Thanks for sharing!
Amazing! My husband and I had it for dinner and then again for breakfast!
He had it with corn tacos and I had it on coconut wraps. Yummy!
awesome!
Hi Richa,
I made this tonight. So much flavor! Wow!!!
I threw it all together and made burritos with this. What a winner recipe – thanks so much!!!!
Hi Richa,
This looks so delicious! I’m looking forward to making this. When you shred the cauliflower do you use your food processor? When I’ve used mine in the past, it makes the cauliflower more like rice. Is that how it should be?
Also, do you think about 1/2 the cauliflower is used? Or less.
This was excellent!!!! Hubby and I devoured every morsel. So easy to make!! Thanks for sharing.
Awesome!!!
I love colorful this looks! It must taste super delicious. I’m saving this post here so I can try the recipe later. Can’t wait! =)
it is! thanks
I am definitely going to try this. I am fairly early in my vegan journey and finding a nacho cheese sauce recipe is a win! Thanks 🙂
I bet that roasted sweet potato slices or potato slices would taste AMAZING underneath this vegan taco meat! I would totally eat the entire skillet–well, its contents, that is!
yes totally, some nice taco spiced potatoes!
Wow, this looks phenomenal. The answer to healthy nachos. Definitely going to try this soon. Would some nutritional yeast added to the sauce spice ingredients maybe up the cheesiness?
Thanks so much!
good catch. it has nooch. i forgot to add it in the ingredient list. omg how can i forget it !! i think subconsciously i just add it everything cheesy mentioned or not . heh