Irish Nachos
Get into the St. Patrick’s Day spirit with a batch of these Irish Nachos – waffle fries loaded with cheese, salsa verde and chopped corned beef!
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Well that was a strange 12 months. It’s been about a year since the pandemic completely changed our way of life. Here in upstate New York, it was mid-March 2020 when Laura and I made the decision to keep Robbie home from preschool. Laura also made the transition to working at home, too. At the time, I remember thinking, “How are we going to make it for 2 weeks!?” Hah. Try 52 weeks. Little did we know at the time…
As terrible as the pandemic has been, there have been some silver linings over the past year. Laura and I have gotten the chance to drink our morning coffee together each day. And we’ve eaten lunch and dinner together as a family every day, too. Oh, and we adopted two rescue pups from Mississippi.
The other day, I stumbled across a poll on Nextdoor.com about Pandemic Purchases. According to the caption, they noticed 4 unusual items made regular appearances on the list of pandemic purchases. Fire pit. Ice cream maker. Sewing machine. Bidet. Ok, we’re guilty of one of those purchases – a new fire pit. But a bidet!? Really? Did that many people really buy a bidet during the pandemic!? I mean I guess I can see the connection with the lack of toilet paper and all…but still…
Speaking of COVID-19 changes, how about eating out at restaurants? Laura and I used to go on date nights a couple times each month, but we haven’t set foot in a restaurant since last February. We have ordered takeout on occasion, though. But takeout just isn’t quite the same. One of our favorite local restaurants is an Irish pub that’s located just down the street from us. It’s in an old house, which adds plenty of character to the restaurant. We’ve done takeout a couple of times from there, but I miss going into that pub for some classic Irish food and a pint or two of Guinness!
Irish Nachos
Irish NachosOne of my favorite dishes there actually comes off of their appetizer menu. Irish Nachos. In true Irish form, Irish Nachos use potatoes as the base instead of tortilla chips. And then they get loaded with Monterey Jack cheese, chopped corned beef, sour cream, pickled jalapenos…and salsa verde. The salsa verde might sound like a strange addition to this line-up, but the flavor combination is incredible! These nachos wouldn’t be the same with a traditional tomato salsa.
While the pub serves their Irish Nachos with chopped corned beef, I used pastrami for this version here at home. There are two reasons for this: (1) The extra spices on the pastrami bring flavor to the nachos and (2) We have a ton of pastrami in the freezer. (Our homemade pastrami is simply smoked corned beef, so I feel like it’s close enough to the original recipe. In fact, Laura argues that this version is better than the one from the pub thanks to the smoky flavor from that pastrami.) On a side note, if you like pastrami then this is the time of the year to pull out that homemade pastrami recipe. Corned beef always goes on super sale right before St. Patrick’s Day, and that’s when I stock up to make another big batch of pastrami.
This Irish Nachos recipe turned out so well that Laura and I have now made it on several occasions. It’s a bit messy, so we eat it with a fork, but talk about some delicious comfort food! If you’re looking for a tasty way to get into the St. Patrick’s Day spirit, then whip up a batch of these Irish Nachos and crack open a cold Guinness. Cheers!
Did you make these Irish Nachos at home? Leave a comment, or snap a photo and tag me on Instagram (@Spicedblog). I’d love to see your version!
Irish Nachos
Ingredients
For the Salsa Verde
- 16 oz. tomatillos
- ¼ cup diced white onions
- 1 tsp minced garlic
- ½ cup chopped fresh cilantro
- 2 tsp fresh lime juice
- 1 jalapeno pepper stemmed, seeded and chopped
- 1 tsp kosher salt
For the Nachos
- 1 22-oz. frozen waffle fries
- 1½ cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese
- 2 cups chopped corned beef
- ¼ cup pickled jalapeno peppers
- sour cream
- sliced green onions
Instructions
For the Salsa Verde
- Remove the papery skin from the tomatillos. Slice each in half and place cut side down on a foil-lined sheet pan.
- Broil for 5-7 minutes, or until skins of tomatillos have begun to blacken.
- Transfer tomatillos into a food processor or blender. Add onions, garlic, cilantro, lime juice, jalapeno and salt; pulse until smooth.
For the Nachos
- Bake waffle fries according to package directions. (Note: I often bake these for 4-5 minutes longer than instructions so they are extra crispy.)
- Using a large plate, layer baked fries with shredded cheese, salsa verde and corned beef. Top with pickled jalapeno peppers, sour cream and sliced green onions.
Looking for more fun St. Patrick’s Day recipes? Check out these other favorites, too:
will be making this soon with few subs i never had irish nachos before as am a vegan will dm you if i make this and let you know how it goes Thanks Ramya
Hey Ramya! This recipe was inspired by our local Irish pub, and it really is quite tasty. Perhaps you could sub out the pastrami for marinated mushrooms?? Let me know how it turns out if you make it!
That’s so weird about the popular purchases. Goodness. Maybe because it was hard to find toilet paper??!!! I love nachos of any kind, and these are really fun. I had no idea where you were going with these! When I read your posts on my iPad, a significant portion of the text is covered up by ads. I hope you don’t have to re-do your blog, because I had to do that a while back. I don’t have ads, but my blog design didn’t allow for various formats. I don’t think changing out blog design ever goes smoothly, unfortunately. But you might want to check into it.
Yeah, I’m with ya, Mimi. Some of the popular purchases are pretty obvious – but the bidet!?
I appreciate you sharing the feedback on the ads. I’ve actually checked into this with my ad team, but they can’t replicate the problem. Do you mind if I ask what version iPad and browser you are using? I want to replicate this problem so I can get it fixed!! I certainly don’t want ads covering up the text!
I use an IPad Pro 10.5” Air. Right now it’s a W-S ad that’s blocking your post/text, but at least it’s only in the upper right hand corner and square, blocking about 25% of the screen. Typically, cause I’ve mentioned this to you before, the adds are vertical rectangles, so they block 75% of the screen. Oops. It just switched to “Color the World” and it’s blocking how I mentioned. Wow, I didn’t know they switched so much. Not it’s Brilliant Earth, blocking 75%. I could take a pic os what it looks like if you want.
Ok – this is super helpful, Mimi! Thank you! And if you don’t mind taking a screenshot, that would be awesome! I will forward it over to the ad team ASAP. David {at} spicedblog.com. THANK YOU!!
Every dark cloud has silver lining and these hard times too have been a blessing in disguise as far as spending time with family is concerned. My daughter was to join college (in another city) last year and due to the pandemic, we got to spend an extra year with her. Although she is not too happy losing a year of college experience, sitting home 😀
The irish nachos do sound delicious although I would pick out the beef and make a vegetarian version for myself 🙂
I can’t believe it’s been a whole year of lockdown mode! At the time, I remember thinking, “How are we going to make it for 2 weeks like this?!” Hah. But, yes, the silver linings were unexpected, but really quite wonderful.
And I do highly recommend these nachos! Perhaps you could sub in some marinated mushrooms for the pastrami? I feel like that would still bring the ‘umami’ feel to these nachos! Thanks so much for taking the time to comment!
I’m cracking up right now that I’m seeing an ad for a bidet…lol! Those advertisers are smoothies. The buying that’s come from this pandemic is so crazy – I’ll never forget the people with at least a year’s worth of TP piled into their baskets at Costco. Just the strangest response.
Anywho…nachos!! I love nachos any way I can get them and these, with waffle fries instead of corn chips. Oh baby! They look incredible.
I totally agree with you, Marissa – the pandemic buying trends are absolutely crazy. But bidets!? Really? Did that many people buy bidets last year?
Either way, I love all versions of nachos, too, and using waffle fries as the base was a HUGE hit here. These were ‘fork-and-knife nachos’ but totally worth it!
Ohh, can’t believe we’ve been at home for a year now. And homeschooling 2 kids. Ehehe. But that means cooking a lot at home… and eating whatever you want! 😉 I love the idea of Irish nachos! I’ve got sour cream and all the fixings… now off to find some corned beef!
Oh man, had we only known a year ago what we were getting into! I remember thinking I would never last 2 weeks…hah.
So I highly recommend these nachos! They were inspired by a favorite appetizer from our local Irish pub, and I have to say that they are quite amazing. Perhaps a bit messy, so you’ll need to fork and knife it, but totally worth it! Thanks, Michelle!
While pandemic has bad effects primarily, there were good things out of it, like you said, more time with family and catching up with friends that we havent communicated for so long, and yes a lot of baking.
Those Irish Nachos is something new to me, looks great and I like it.
Ah, yes, so much baking during the pandemic! I got the chance to go back to baking bread – that’s a favorite of mine, but I never had time before. Being stuck at home so much gave me the time! It also gave me the time to re-create this appetizer from our local Irish pub. It’s SO tasty, Raymund!
Sewing machine? Haha, I think that were the people who decided to start making and selling masks!
Now, I am not much familiar with Irish foods, except for stew and soda bread (And of course Irish cream lol), but these nachos look and sound amazing. I think I’m missing out a lot so I should be paying more attention to Irish cuisine.
Hah – you might be right, Ben! I remember when this pandemic first started, I had to order face masks on Etsy. Now you can find them in nearly every store.
I highly recommend jumping into Irish cuisine, Ben. I suspect you would love it…starting with pastrami. You can find thinly sliced pastrami at delis, but we like ours a bit thicker. Almost like cubes of pancetta. Give these nachos a try sometime!
I have to say that this idea of Irish nachos didn’t land on me until it sunk in that the base was a bed of potatoes. Count me in! I may not be Irish, but I can eat potatoes like no one’s buisiness.
Hey, I don’t own a bidet, and I realize it a bit off the beaten path in the US, but I would not knock it.
It has been a long year, hasn’t it? I’m glad that you and your family are making the best of it.
I’m with ya, Jeff – I remember raising an eyebrow when I first saw Irish Nachos on the menu at the pub. What exactly are Irish Nachos? The potatoes + corned beef (pastrami for me) + salsa verde (b/c it’s green??) all work together. In fact, Laura just suggested that we make this one again on an upcoming weekend – I’m in!
Thanks so much, my friend. It has been a long year, but we’re trucking along over here so far…and I think there might be a light at the end of the tunnel now.
We too have found a few silver linings during this past year. Your puppies are a huge one, bringing happiness into your family’s life for years to come.
The nachos are so unique and sound delicious! I’m in. Happy early St. Patrick’s Day! 🙂 ~Valentina
That is absolutely true about the puppies, Valentina! They weren’t really a pandemic decision, although we did get them during the pandemic. (It was more that our previous pups had moved on, and we were ready for pups in the house again.) And these nachos? Another silver lining! (I’m kinda kidding about that, although these nachos really are quite delicious.) Happy early St. Patrick’s Day right back at ya!
ooh yes i was going to say something similar to Mimi. Sooooo many ads all over the screen; so distracting In fact i can’t see this screen at all. so heaven knows what i’ve written..
I’m sorry about the ads, Sherry. Mimi sent me some screenshots, and I’ve forwarded them off to the ad team. I couldn’t recreate the problem on my end, so we needed the screenshots. It should all be fixed now!
i don’t know what frozen waffle fries are – but i can imagine:) anyway, this all sounds so very delicious!
Ah, I’m always caught short when you mention an ingredient or food that isn’t available down there. Waffle fries are, well, fries cut into small waffle shapes. They are amazing! However, these nachos could totally be made with ‘regular’ fries, too. 🙂
P.S. can you give me a hint as to what sort of cheese monterey jack is? is it like a cheddar or something else? also re tomatillos – do you get them in a tin? or fresh? we don’t really see them here…
Monterey Jack is an excellent melting cheese. It’s a semi-hard cheese (like most cheddar), so it can be shredded easily. However, it’s much milder than a sharp cheddar, and it melts well – think mozzarella. I know you guys can’t get Cabot cheese down there in Australia, but here is a link to Cabot’s Monterey Jack for a better description: https://www.cabotcheese.coop/product/monterey-jack-cheese/
Also, we get tomatillos in the produce section here. They come wrapped in a crispy paper that gets peeled off. They look like small green tomatoes – about the size of a golf ball. I did a quick Google search, and it appears that tomatillos are available in Australia. The season is November – April. And with that said, there are some versions of canned (tinned) tomatoes out there, too.
Oh my goodness…what a year indeed! It’s good to focus on the silver linings – because there is always good in every situation. What a beautiful gift to spend additional time with your family. I have missed eating out, but finding new thing to make, while eating in has been fun! These nachos are just what I need for St. Paddy’s day! So fun!!!
I agree that it’s good to focus on the silver linings. It’s easy to get caught up on the opposite side, but that doesn’t really help anyone.
Like you, I really miss eating out. We have a vacation planned for June (fingers crossed!), and Laura and I were totally stalking restaurant photos on Yelp this morning. Haha. Making restaurant-inspired recipes at home has been a lot of fun, though, and these nachos are a great way to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day! Thanks, Kathy!
As soon as I read this recipe name I thought Whaaaaaatttt this is the BEST THING EVER. !!!!!!! What a clever and delicious idea David! And so perfect with St. Patrick’s Day coming up. We will definitely be making these! Oh my goodness it’s crazy that it’s been a full 12 months. I remember thinking the same thing about it being just a couple of weeks. And here we are! Those top four purchases are absolutely fascinating!
Hey, I can’t take credit for inventing these Irish Nachos! That honor goes to the Irish pub down the street. These nachos are a fun way to get into the St. Patrick’s Day spirit. And waffle fries as a the base for nachos? Best.idea.ever. Thanks so much, Shannon! And happy early St. Patrick’s Day to you!
Yes David. A REAL pint of Guinness. I seriously miss that too! Yesterday I had part of a bottle of Guinness the remainder of which went into a recipe I’m doing, but it just wasn’t the same as the real thing. Love your Irish Nachos! I really should change up my old nachos recipe, yours looks like a good way to do that!
Oh man, I miss a good pint of Guinness from the tap! The cans are pretty decent, and I just had one this past weekend. (Also, speaking of Guinness, they’ve recently started selling mix packs of different ‘styles’ that Guinness has made over the years. I don’t know if they’re available in Scotland, but if they are you should grab a pack! Here’s a link from a store here in the States just for the photo – https://www.totalwine.com/beer/variety-packs-gift-sets/variety-packs/guinness-200th-anniversary-vty-pk/p/201980117)
In other news, I highly recommend making a batch of these nachos, Neil. And perhaps serve it up with a pint of Guinness? 🙂
LOL – I love using Nextdoor – especially since we moved to Convington – all sorts of interesting “articles” like the one you stumbled on! BTW our Costco was out of bidets shortly after the toilet paper shortage hit – just saying 🙂
I’m with you on the silver linings of the pandemic cloud – I got to work from home during the early part of the pandemic and LOVED hanging out with our doggos and Lil S. Now onto these nachos – seriously brilliant combo of toppings – gosh, I want a plate of this now – even though Ive had 2 breakfasts today!!
Oh man – those Nextdoor articles. We’ve learned a lot from following those threads, but they can also be a real time suck. I couldn’t help but laugh when the bidet popped up as one of the top purchases of 2020! I get it – I do. But still.
I highly (!!) recommend these nachos, Shashi. As I said in the post, they were inspired by our local Irish pub. I would never have thought about pastrami and salsa verde on top of fries – but holy cow!!