Zucchini Nachos

 A sarcastic comment made by my brother Brad a few weeks ago inspired this idea.  My mom and I were sitting around discussing new recipe ideas like taco sushi, when Brad piped in and said

" Geeze Kristen, why don't you just transform every food item into everything its not"

Well, I guess that's what I do.  Turning a vegetable that pares traditionally with Mediterranean flavors with Taco flavors. Transforming a healthy vegetable into a chip.  Sounds like fun!  





The best thing about eating Zucchini Nachos is that it feels like a guilty pleasure.  But it's not at all! 

If you are a reader of my blog, then you know that I consider zucchini, especially roasted zucchini somewhat of a vice.  Paring roasted zucchini slices with smokey salsa, spicy ground turkey and melty cheese was one of the best ideas I had in a long time.  ( well besides my Tuna melt on an apple slice, remember that?) 

I made Zucchini Nachos for lunch last Sunday afternoon, .  When I make a low carb recipe, and my husband doesn't reach for a bowl of cereal afterwards to " Fill himself up", I consider it to be a success.

When thinking about how I was going to make Zucchini Nachos, I considered cooking the zucchini two different ways. 

1) Roasting it in the oven with olive oil  and spices.  Have it be How zucchini should be. 
2) Making " Zucchini Chips".  Like These Zucchini Chips

Both would be fantastic. 

I decided that a " Zucchini Chip" might get a little soggy from all the toppings anyway, so I decided just to roast the zucchini in the oven the traditional way.  Perhaps I will try this with Zucchini Chips next time.

I always use ground Turkey instead of ground beef.  Its healthier and I am just not much of a beef eater anyway.  I added some dimension to my Zucchini Nachos by adding red pepper flakes to my ground beef. 

How to make Zucchini Nachos
Ingredients
3 Whole Large Zucchini, sliced
1 cup of your favorite salsa
1/4 cup of cheese. Whatever you prefer.
1/4 cup black beans
1 1lb ground turkey
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
Other spicy or taco seasoning for the zucchini. Optional

1) Cut your zucchini up into small slices and bake in the oven at 425 F for 25 minutes
2) Saute groud beef. Add red pepper flakes or seasonings of your choice.

3) When the zucchini and grond turkey are done cooking, arrange them on a serving plate.
4) Top with cheese, black beans and salsa.
5) Eat. and with you had more.

I feel as though these photographs don't do this dish justice.  I am working from my old computer for a few days, as my lovely cat Max chewed through my computer power cord of my regular computer. Hopefully I will be back to normal next week.