Nachos w/ Vermicelli, Zucchini, & Avocado

The other day I made Vermicelli Salad w/ Cucumber, Zucchini, & Garden Peppers. Vermicelli salads are one of my favorite dishes to make. They're essentially an Asian take on an Italian pasta salad with a hefty amount of produce marinated in tamari and rice vinegar. This might not sound like the most typical of things to toss onto a bed of tortilla chips and douse with cheddar cheese. Although, as much as "fusion" is kind of a dirty word in the culinary world? It's one of the ways that innovation happens. We all have a vast amount of culinary influences. Especially if you grow up in multicultural communities. It's inevitable that the melding pot is going to take bits and pieces from different parts of the world and turn them all into a new medley of something absolutely delicious! Hence vermicelli nachos.

Now, nachos might not be the most innovative of dishes in the world. But it was created out of the need to toss something together quickly and easily on the fly. So, it only makes sense that we continue that tradition of tossing anything and everything on hand, cover it in cheese, and add in some avocados just for good measure. Really, a wide variety of dishes go incredibly well with tortilla chips. So, I highly encourage experimenting with what you have when you have it and make something new and interesting. Or just find fun and new ways to utilize leftovers in a haphazard lackadaisical way! Regardless, as long as it's delicious to you? Absolutely go for it!

Gallery

Nachos w/ Vermicelli, Cucumber, Zucchini, & Avocados

Variations of Vermicelli Nachos

I don't always put vermicelli into my nachos. It certainly isn't the first time that I've done it and will not be the last! I really just turn absolutely anything and everything into nachos. So, it's inevitable that whatever I have on hand is going to end up in the concoction at some point. Nachos are a great way to utilize leftovers in a new and fun way. So many times we think of nachos as being a party food during the football game or something of that sort. Although it's about time that we make upscale nachos just because they're delicious.

Nachos w/ Rice Wine Rice, Spinach Dip, & Avocados

Nachos w/ Vermicelli, Lettuce, & Avocado Dip

Vermicelli, Lettuce, & Avocado Dip Nachos

Nachos w/ Brown Rice, Black Beans, & Lettuce

Nachos w/ Vermicelli, Zucchini, & Avocado

These Vermicelli Nachos consist of cucumber, zucchini, banana pepper, jalapeño, & habanero w/ tamari, rice vinegar, peanut butter, and avocado. Nachos are a great way to utilize leftovers. There are very few things in this world that don't taste absolutely spectacular on a bed of tortilla chips, covered in cheese, and topped with avocados and hot sauce.

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Prep Time 5

Cook Time 15

Course Main Course, Side Dish

Cuisine Asian, Italian, Japanese, Latin American, Mexican

Servings 2 servings

Equipment

Baking Sheet
Oven

Ingredients

Vermicelli Salad

100 g. vermicelli
1 cucumber diced
1 zucchini diced
1 banana pepper diced
1 jalapeño minced
1 habanero minced
3 tbsp. tamari
3 tbsp. rice vinegar
1/3 c. peanut butter (or tahini)
1 avocado diced

Enchilada Sauce

20 Thai dragon peppers (or other small pepper of choice)
3 tomatoes quartered
4 cloves garlic
1/2 red onion halved
1 tsp. cumin
dash salt
dash pepper
3 c. water (divided, 2 c. + 1 c.)

Avocado DIp

6 avocados
3 Thai dragon peppers (or other small pepper of choice)
6 cloves garlic
6 limes juiced
1½ c. Greek yogurt
2 c. almonds
1/4 c. olive oil
dash salt
dash pepper

Nachos

1/2 c. vermicelli salad
~2 handfulls tortilla chips
1/2 c. cheddar cheese
dollop avocado dip (optional, or sour cream)
dollop enchilada sauce (optional, or hot sauce)

Instructions

Prepare Ingredients

This Vermicelli Salad w/ Cucumber, Zucchini, & Garden Peppers recipe requires a large bowl, large pot, skillet, stovetop, and paper towels. It takes about a 15 to toss together, most of which is spent cooking the vermicelli. As the rest of the salad is raw and simply mixed together.
For the hot sauce on this, I used Enchilada Sauce w/ Thai Dragon Peppers. These recipes take less than an hour and require an air fryer and a large pot on the stove. You can easily substitute your own salsa or hot sauce of choice. But I am quite fond of making it from scratch!
I also topped this with Potluck Avocado Dip w/ Thai Dragon Peppers. This is entirely optional. You can easily substitute sour cream or omit it entirely for a more vegan recipe. Although this avocado dip is my new favorite thing and I highly recommend giving it a try. It's kind of a mix between hummus and guacamole. And is absolutely delicious!

Cook Nachos

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Meanwhile, lay out tortilla chips across a baking sheet.
Cover until you can't see the baking sheet any longer. They should be touching, but not overlapping too much. You really just want to be able to add toppings to every chip without it getting too much on the baking sheet!
Exactly how much chips you use is largely a matter of personal preference as well. I've never sat there carefully measuring chips! Roughly two handfuls usually equates to about a serving. I tend to cook far more than I actually need, though. So, as always, adjust to personal preference!
Spread vermicelli evenly across the tortilla chips.
Sprinkle with cheddar cheese.
Bake for 15 minutes, or until the cheese melts and the chips begin to toast.
Once the nachos are done cooking, remove from the oven and top with avocado dip and hot sauce.
Serve immediately. Once the nachos begin to cool down, the tortilla chips will absorb too much moisture and soften. Once this happens, there isn't a lot that you can do to crisp them up again!

Tips, Tricks, & Notes

For a more in-depth article on nachos, check out my article on The Fundamentals of Making Nachos. I make suggestions on settling the microwave vs. oven debate and give suggestions on serving size, topping order, and potential reheating tips and tricks.

This Page Contains Edited Images

As a general rule, I don't like to edit my images and I am firmly against alteration of images in food blogs. It's not something that we generally think about when it comes to recipes. But food styling, editing, alteration, and even faking entirely is just as rampant a problem in the recipe realm as anything else! Cooking is a very visual art and you can tell when a lot of foods are cooked based on the color. So, when this is altered and you can't use the coloration as a gauge, it makes it quite difficult to follow some recipes. I have an entire article about Food Styling and Unrealistic Expectations of Recipes.

Because of this, I try very hard not to alter any of my photos. I like to take photos with natural sunlight during the day. Ordinarily this is very true to color and I don't edit the photos at all. However, since my place is very warm with a lot of yellow lighting, sometimes my camera overcompensates and ends up with an unnatural blue tone. In the following images on this page, I adjusted the levels and hue to try and make this more true to color. In the interest of transparency, these are the before and after photos.