Blackberry basil vegetarian nachos. This gluten-free snack is amazingly delicious, protein packed, kid friendly, healthy, and ready in 20 minutes or less. Perfect for snacking, a light meal, or even a fun appetizer for ANY occasion!
You should know by now that all my recipes are made with gluten free ingredients. But just in case you ever forget, here you go. Gluten free Blackberry Basil Nachos! Vegetarian friendly, or carnivore friendly if you want to pump up the protein even more.
Okay, now that my little “promo” for this nachos recipe is out of the way, let me tell how and why I made this dish. Yes, I am going to ramble and let you in on a little confession. Get ready.
I have been slacking. Slacking on getting in good recovery meals. I know, shame on me. I think the summer heat has zapped some brain cells. That and the crazy schedule we’ve been trying to maintain lately.
Breakfast, yes.. we can do that. Even on the go!
Dinner, no prob.. we got the crock pot on auto pilot, haha! But somewhere between mid morning and mid afternoon, we scurry. Which is not good when we both train or teach mid morning. We definitely eat our fair share of healthy bites samples, but some days, our post workout lunch/meal is just a smoothie or an array of random snacks. Time is definitely not on our side during those hours.
Well… sadly we were feeling quite sluggish. That shouldn’t be the case when you haven’t changed the intensity or the duration of your training in a while. In fact, we were both trying to train smarter, not harder.
Which lead me to re-evaluate our meal timing and really DIGESTING and absorbing our food. We needed more REAL FOOD based recovery meals. Foods high in antioxidants, protein, and glycogen.
Now, don’t get me wrong. You can cram a whole lot of REAL FOOD into a smoothie. But what I noticed (for us both) was that we needed more CHEWABLE food to go with it. Foods that fight oxidative stress and can calm down the inflammatory response after workouts or from high heat/environment exposure. Does that make sense?
Plus, when you are able to sit and properly chew your food, your parasympathetic nervous system can benefit —> REST and DIGEST.
Hence this nachos recipe!
It’s real food, real simple and real fast, so that we can sit and eat and be on our merry way. Properly refueled!
And oh my, these gluten free, vegetarian nachos are so good!
- Blackberries – anti-oxidant rich fruit. Good source of fiber, high in Vitamin C.
- Basil – refreshing herb. Great for immunity dues to its anti-bacterial properties. Plus it’s loaded with Vitamin K. Which we don’t get anough of these days!
- Aged Cheddar, Provolone, or Muenster cheese (or other low lactose or non dairy cheese of choice) – high in protein, B Vitamins, and calcium
- Non GMO Gluten Free tortillas – gluten free carb for restoring glycogen in muscles.
- Optional toppings – Chicken, Tempeh, or Beef would make it more substantial and higher in protein/iron.
Gluten Free Blackberry Basil Nachos
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 3 1x
Description
A healthy tasty appetizer that’s gluten free! Gluten Free Blackberry Basil Nachos
Ingredients
- 2–3 eight inch gluten free tortillas
- non stick cooking spray or foil
- 2/3 cup blackberries
- 2 oz Mozzarella, hard cheddar, provolone, or other aged cheese (see notes for vegans)
- fresh basil (chopped)
- dash of black pepper and sea salt
- additional toppings – chicken, tofu, beef, salsa, etc.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- Lay out your tortillas and slice them into wedges with a knife or pizza cutter. Place tortillas on a baking sheet with foil underneath or use non stick cooking spray
- in a separate bowl, gently smash your blackberries. Not much, but just enough to extract a little juice. Toss semi smashed berries in bowl with basil. about 1 tbsp chopped fresh and a little sea salt and black pepper.
- Next, slice your cheese into smaller strips and place on tortilla wedges.
- spoon blackberry mixture on top of each wedge/nacho.
- Add any additional toppings or seasoning.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes. For extra crispy, broil for the last minute.
Notes
Vegans have the option of using or daiya or non dairy cheese.
- Prep Time: 10 min
- Cook Time: 10 min
READY… SET… MAKE SOME NACHOS!
There, now I have no excuses not to make a good quick recovery meal or even a hearty snack for the us both! Even on the Crazy Cotter days. Um, which should hopefully die down soon. But for now, I’ll just keep thinking up crazy concoctions to fuel us through! Sound good?
Happy Meatless Monday!
What’s your go to quick recovery meal? We need more! Obviously.
Cheers,
