Corn and Avocado Salsa...& Vegan Nachos!

Corn and Avocado Salsa combines the flavorful tastes of cilantro, lime, corn, and red onion, with black beans (optional), tomatoes, and of course avocado. This is a great dish to have at home, serve at a party, or take to a pot-luck dinner! Serve it with chips, on top of burgers, or top of a salad, or even just with a fork!

Vegan Nachos use many of the same ingredients as regular nachos, but doesn't rely on meat or cheese for flavor. These nachos are quite delicious and make for a quick meal or snack! Because they don't require any actually cooking or chopping (just tear the romaine or leaf lettuce into pieces and omit the onion), a child could easily prepare these as an after school snack.

Ingredients

1 can corn (plain or with bell peppers)

1/3 cup of black beans (optional)

1 ripe avocado, chopped

½ to ¾ of a red onion, chopped

15 to 20 sprigs of cilantro, chopped

2 to 3 ripe tomatoes, chopped

1 1/2 tbsps of bell pepper, chopped (optional)

The juice from ¼ of a lime

1 tbsp olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

Chop and add to a bowl (in any order) the tomatoes, cilantro, bell pepper (if using), onion, and avocado. Also add the corn, beans, lime juice, olive oil, and salt and pepper to taste. Mix gently with a spoon, and enjoy!

Serve with chips (tortilla chips, black bean corn tortilla chips, pita chips, etc.)

Add all the ingredients to the bowl. Then gently stir together.

Serving suggestion: Corn and Avocado Salsa is great with chips! These could be regular tortilla chips, black bean chips, pita chips, etc.

If you are serving this at a party, why not purchase more than one type of chip and let your guests choose which type they prefer for themselves?

Shown in the photograph above are black bean tortilla chips on the left, and bite sized white corn tortilla chips on the right.

When selecting an avocado, look for one that is a very dark green, almost purplish color. Press gently with your thumb on the avocado. Ripe ones will be tender and give to the touch some, but not so tender your thumb makes a hole. If you have to buy one that's not yet ripe, store in in a paper bag for a day or two, and it should ripen quickly.

To cut an avocado, first wash it and then gently make a cut all the way around the middle (as if you were cutting it in half). Pull the two sides apart. One side should have the uncut pit in it. Then use the knife to loosen the flesh from the skin by slipping the knife between the two. This is just like loosening warm brownies or cake from the pan before removing them. Once you have all of the avocado flesh removed from the skin, cut the flesh into pieces.

To make Vegan Nachos, spread a layer of tortilla chips (any type, although the scoop ones work well for this dish!) on a plate. Top with black beans, cut onion, lettuce, corn, and store bought or homemade tomato based salsa. Who needs cheese? These are delicious!

Optional ingredients could include black olives, bell pepper, jalapeno peppers, avocado or guacamole, or anything else you enjoy on nachos!

If you like your nachos warm, put all the ingredients except the lettuce on an oven-safe plate and heat at 200 F for a few minutes. Add the lettuce once you remove the plate from the oven.

Sometimes I make these the same night I'm making the Corn Bean Avocado Salsa for a family member who doesn't enjoy the cilantro in the other recipe. That way they can have a meal with similar ingredients. Other times I prepare this for the whole family!