Pumpkin Nachos!

Ok, I know, two nacho posts in one week is a little bit ridiculous.  And even I am getting a little sick of them (really? yes, really.), but a commenter from the turnip nachos post, FoodFeud asked ‘And next – pumpkin nachos?’.  I was excited about the idea, filed away for another day.  But then!  Choirqueer practically forced me to try by saying ‘Pumpkin nachos?!  Someone invent this, please!’  Challenge accepted, friend.

done!

But where is the pumpkin, you ask?  It’s in the cheese sauce.  Sneaky, eh?  I never got around to carving my Halloween pumpkin, so we had one lying about.  In to the oven to be roasted it went!  Then, I combined my two favorite cheese sauce recipes and formed one amazing powerhouse of deliciousness.  The semi-vegan boyfriend told me, ‘That’s the best that sauce has ever tasted.’  Indeed, sir!  And it was so easy.  The pumpkin flavor doesn’t dominate the dish, but it does add an earthy, mellow tone to the sauce.  It has never tasted quite so…indulgent.  And really, it’s just a Mexican-izing of this recipe, but my spice combo comes from that recipe in Yellow Rose Recipes for nacho sauce that I’m always praising.

Pumpkin Nacho Sauce

1 cup pumpkin puree (canned, or make your own by roasting a real, live pumpkin)

1 Tbsp vegan butter (like Earth Balance, but I used Blue Bonnet Lite because I was out of EB – p.s. next time I’m going to try to eliminate this extra fat)

1 cup unsweetened and unflavored soymilk (or almond milk)

1 Tbsp cornstarch

1/3 cup nutritional yeast (heaping)

2 tsp Dijon mustard

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp onion powder

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/8 tsp turmeric

3/4 tsp salt

freshly cracked black pepper, to taste

6 slices of pickled jalapeno

juice of 1/2 a large lime

Ok!  Start on the stovetop by melting your margarine in a medium pan over med-low heat.  While that’s happening, whisk together your soymilk and cornstarch until no lumps remain.  Once the margarine is melted, add the soymilk mixture alone with the nutritional yeast, mustard, garlic powder, onion powder, cumin, turmeric, salt, and pepper.  Mix well, and whisk regularly until thickened.  You may need to turn the heat up a bit to get it bubbling, but once it bubbles, it thickens up fast!  Don’t let it get all gummy on the bottom!

Transfer the mixture in the pot to a blender and add the pumpkin puree, jalapenos, and lime juice.  Blend blend blend until it is completely smooth.  Pour back into saucepan and heat gently, stirring often.  Serve over nachos, or as a dip with tortilla chips.

As you can see, I used blue corn chips, black olives, black beans, mushrooms, corn salsa, and some guacamole as my nacho fixings.  And the pumpkin sauce was a really incredible take on the usual nacho sauce.  I know you’ve got at least one pumpkin hanging around from last month.  Roasting it is easy!  And since this recipe only uses a small portion of the puree you’ll get, you can freeze the rest to use in whatever pumpkin recipes you like for the rest of the winter.  Also, feel free to substitute any sort of winter squash.  I find that they all taste about the same.  Oh, and since it’s getting colder, you’ll just love having your oven on for the better part of an hour to heat up your icy cold kitchens (am I the only one?).  There is no losing in this game, people!

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