Ready for National Tortilla Chip Day

I’m so serious, too.

Perhaps you weren’t aware that February 24th is National Tortilla Chip Day, but I am, and lucky for you I have come up with a cracker (Monterey) jack recipe with which to celebrate. And in advance, no less! So I’m checking in tonight to post this recipe, lest the holiday pass us by without me making my homage public. Perish the thought!

Of course, snacking on chips and salsa/guacamole is a perfectly acceptable way to acknowledge National Tortilla Chip Day, but I’m thinking outside the bag. Historically, one of my favorite uses for tortilla chips has been to pick at a nice gooey plate of nachos, but things like cheese and ground beef are scarce chez moi these days. Instead, I find myself thinking…to myself…that I love cornbread, I love pie and I love tortilla chips. I’m gonna make it happen…all at once.

Nacho Pie (Vegan)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup cornmeal
• 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1 cup black beans
• 1 tbsp chili powder
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
• 1 cup non-dairy milk
• 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1/2 cup mild salsa
• 1 oz (1 serving-ish) tortilla chips, crushed

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350*. Grease a 9-inch round baking dish or pie plate and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, combine cornmeal, flour, baking powder, salt, black beans, chili powder and nutritional yeast.
3. Pour in the milk, applesauce and salsa. Stir until just combined.
4. Pour batter into your baking dish and top with crushed tortilla chips.
5. Bake 30-40 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean when poked in the middle of the pie.

Serves 4-6

Definitely top your slice with plenty of guacamole if at all possible—it’s a fairly amazing combination.

This is nacho mama’s chips and salsa, that’s for sure, but methinks I wouldn’t be much of a food blogger if I’d gone out and bought chips and salsa from the store and expected you to be inspired. Just try and tell me you don’t want to celebrate National Tortilla Chip Day now!

(…words I didn’t ever expect to type…in that order…ever…)

And what’s a celebration without a visit from the booze fairy? PAMA Pomegranate Liqueur, in this case.

(Thank you for this free sample, Kathe!)

Mixologist I am not, that’s for darn sure, but something I am? A cheap date.

I poured a half-ounce of PAMA into a champagne flute, filled it the rest of the way with seltzer and added a squeeze of fresh lime. Fortunately, the mass quantities of cornmeal in my belly prevented me from catching a buzz off of the whole half-ounce of booze in this drink, so I was able to enjoy it as a tart, fruity complement to my spicy slice of nacho pie.

I have to admit, National Tortilla Chip Day will likely go down in history as one of the more bizarre food events I’ll ever celebrate, but then again, it’s nacho average holiday in the first place, is it?

How would you celebrate National Tortilla Chip Day?