Yes, Nachos *Can* Be Brain Healthy!
Plus, your new favorite queso dip for Super Bowl Sunday
Hello brain health ambassadors! I am back home in my cozy kitchen after (book) touring around Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area. Sharing brain-healthy food at Kensington Senior Living was a highlight of my LA trip. It warmed my heart to see senior residents devour dishes from the BHK book. We made Cauliflower Tacos with Creamy Red Pepper Sauce, Stuffed Poblanos, and Roasted Strawberries with Vanilla Bean Cashew Cream.
I am excited to share more about how elder care facilities like Kensington are prioritizing brain healthy food. This would be a good topic to go into more depth in a later newsletter, but I’d love to hear your thoughts now.
Do you have a loved one living in a senior facility? If so, what do you think of the food?
Nachos you can feel good about
While I am not a football fan, I can’t ignore the fact that millions of people in the US will be watching this Super Bowl weekend. This year, I challenge you to infuse the celebration with a dose of brain-healthy food. I’ve picked the ultimate game day snack and revamped it with ingredients that boost brain health, including spiced veggies and beans, creamy avocado cubes, crunchy radishes, and generous dollops of Chipotle Cashew Queso.
The first step to making better nachos: shop strategically for good-quality chips. These could be chips made from corn, blue corn, sweet potatoes, or other root vegetables like cassava. The chips should be sturdy enough to serve as the necessary, scoopable vehicle for the toppings. And, the ingredient list should be free of added sugar, excess sodium, and trans fats. In the tips that go with the recipe, below, I list a few of my favorite brands.
Ditch processed queso forever
Store-bought queso dip is one of the worst foods for your brain. It is a good example of an ultra processed food—devoid of nutrients, full of added sugar, salt, and unhealthy oils, and with no resemblance whatsoever to real cheese. Foods like this have been proven to contribute to Alzheimer’s and dementia risk. In fact, a recent study out of Brazil shows how powerful the link is: reducing ultra processed foods by 10% reduced dementia risk by 29%!
Chipotle Cashew Queso for the win
That being said, nachos without a decadent topping are hardly worth eating, so I came up with a better idea. The Chipotle Cashew Queso that goes with the nachos invites you to keep dipping in. It has a luscious, creamy texture, thanks to boiled and blended cashews, and a nice kick from the earthy flavor or chipotle chiles in adobo, and inexpensive canned chile found in most grocery stores. I snuck in a judicious dose of nutritional yeast, too, for a cheese-like flavor and brain-boosting vitamin B-12.
Trust me, you’ll want to make a double batch of the queso to have on hand as a dip for fresh vegetables, or to fill these Roasted Broccoli Quesadillas from my website.
More Ideas for Better Snacking on the Big Day
If you have a copy of my book, I guarantee these brain-healthy upgrades to typical football finger foods will be devoured:
Family Style Hummus, page 235
White Bean Dip with Sweet Potato Fries, page 221
Spinach and Artichoke Dip, page 88
Turkey Zucchini Meatballs, page 296
Bison Cacao Chili, page 302
Cranberry Bean and Sausage Stew, page 229
Here are a few more favorite snacks from my website:
And be sure to make a big batch of Hibiscus Lime Sangria to keep everyone hydrated and happy.
Recipe: Loaded Black Bean Nachos with Chipotle Cashew Queso
Serves 4 to 6
Ingredients:
Two 6-ounce bags sturdy good-quality sweet potato, blue corn, or grain-free chips, about 8 cups, (see Tips)
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 small yellow onion, finely chopped
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
1 (15.5-ounce) can black beans, drained (1½ cups)
3 cups cherry tomatoes
½ cup diced green chiles (such as Hatch), from 1 (4-ounce) can
1½ cups Chipotle Cashew Queso (recipe follows)
2 avocados, cubed
4 to 5 radishes, sliced
½ cup loosely packed cilantro, tender stems and leaves coarsely chopped
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 400ºF with a rack set in the center position. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper then top with the chips in an even layer; set aside.
In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onion and ¼ teaspoon salt and cook, stirring often, until golden brown, 10 to 12 minutes. Add the black beans and tomatoes and cook until the beans are warm and the tomatoes start to collapse, 5 to 7 minutes. Stir in the green chiles.
Spoon the black bean mixture evenly over the chips. Bake until the beans and tomatoes are hot and bubbling, 8 to 10 minutes.
While the nachos bake, warm the queso sauce in the microwave, stirring every 30 seconds until warm but not boiling. Or, warm in a small saucepan over low heat (being careful not to bring it to a simmer) until warm, 5 to 7 minutes.
Just before serving, drizzle the nachos with the queso and top with radishes, avocado, and cilantro. If you have extra queso, place in a small bowl on the side.
Chipotle Cashew Queso
Makes 1½ cups
1 cup raw cashews
½ cup fresh water, plus enough water to cover the cashews
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
1 medium chipotle pepper canned in adobo + 1 teaspoon adobo sauce
1 large garlic clove
½ teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
Place the cashews in a small saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil, cover, and set aside from the heat for 15 minutes. Strain, discarding the water.
Combine the drained cashews, ½ cup fresh water, nutritional yeast, chipotle pepper, adobo sauce, garlic, and salt in a blender. Blend on high until very smooth and creamy, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the blender, and adjust salt to taste.
Tips:
When shopping for chips, look for sturdy rounds or triangles with no trans fats and no added sugar. The ingredient list should be short. Organic is a definite plus for corn chips if you want avoid GMOs. A few of my favorites chips are: Terra Sweet Potato Chips, Siete Grain Free Tortilla Chips, Late July Multigrain Sea Salt and Lime, Late July Organic Blue Corn, and Garden of Eatin’ Blue Chips.
Make the Chipotle Cashew Queso ahead of time; I recommend a double batch! Or, if you want to pour it warm from the blender (no reheating required), boil and set aside the cashews before making the nachos. Once drained, blend the queso while the nachos bake.
Adjust the spiciness. Canned chipotles in adobo are very spicy. One medium pepper (about 1 teaspoon finely chopped) makes the sauce mildly spicy. For more heat, use an additional half-pepper, or an additional teaspoon of the adobo sauce they come in.
Leftover Chipotle Cashew Queso sauce is also good on its own as a dip for crudité or chips. Think of it as your new all-purpose queso. Drizzle on tacos, quesadillas, grain bowls, Southwestern-style chopped salads, or scrambled eggs.
Want to turn nachos into supper? Sure! Nestle cooked chicken, shrimp, or your favorite plant-based protein amongst the beans.
Valentine’s Day Menu
If you are celebrating Valentine’s Day next week, this month’s BHK Cookbook Club menu is a nice choice. We’re making the chocolate chip cookies that are a great, shareable treat for all the loved ones in your life.
And finally, I can’t write a newsletter mentioning football without sharing this new research from at Boston University: 92% of former NFL football players had CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy), a type of dementia caused by repetitive blows to the head. It’s no coincidence that they chose to release this research this week. It is an effort to raise awareness that CTE is preventable and to spur action to modify American football to save players’ brains.
That’s all for now. I’m looking forward to being home for a few weeks before I head to Dallas for Brain Health Kitchen book tour events. I’ll be posting a detailed calendar on Tuesday. Also on Tuesday: what you need to know about buying dark chocolate to avoid exposure to heavy metals. I wish you all a luminous weekend, friends.
Love,
Annie
These nachos were absolutely delicious and so satisfying. Even the men loved them. The ingredients were so fresh and the flavors so vibrant. No one missed the dairy at all. These are a WIN WIN. Thank you so much for creating and sharing.