In this episode: A grande platter of nachos doesn't have to ruin your waistline come Superbowl season, especially when you use ground turkey, pureed vegetables and part-skim mozzarella as the topping. Bake a batch of these satisfying nachos, accompanied by pickled jalapeno salsa, with help from a professional chef in this free video on healthy cooking.
Hi, and welcome to "Food Courting." I'm Jennifer Iserloh, the Skinny Chef. Join us today as we make the ultimate super bowl party platter. We're making nachos grande with pickled jalapeno salsa. Sure to fire up your taste buds and ignite that home team spirit. Join me for a day to learn about everyday healthy cooking. We are taking those fast foods or food court favorites and turning them into delicious healthful meals that are friendly to your waistline and your tongue. This is "Food Courting." Now, football games can be a great opportunity to get friends and family together. But many times, the meal options are pretty unhealthy. Store-bought junk food and take-out can be really unkind to your waistline. But that doesn't mean that you have to give up your love of gooey melted cheese nachos. So, let's get started with a pickled jalapeno salsa first. You'll need some jarred pickled jalapenos, and these are pretty traditional. You can see these at concession stands, and you can get them in the pickle aisle at your grocery store. We are going to add some fresh lime. Now, what makes this salsa really unique is I add spinach. And spinach is one of the most nutritional vegetables out there. And I just add it raw, 'cause once you blend it in, it's really tender, and people won't even know that it's in this salsa. But, it adds tons of nutrition. Next, we are going to add some avocado. Now, most people love avocado; it's the base for guacamole. And it's going to add richness, creaminess and fiber to this. Look at the color. I'm going to add a little bit of salt and some fresh cilantro to add a little bit more vitamins, and that Mexican flavor. I've got a great stick blender here. Now, our salsa is ready to go. So, we are going to start the base for the topping. And I have some broccoli florets here, loaded with vitamin C, believe it or not. And you can find them already cut up like this in your grocery store. So, I'm going to add that to a food processor. This is a really easy way to chop up your veggies. And then, you can just pop this in the dishwasher when you are done. I have some carrot and some garlic. And the garlic is going to add a lot of flavor, and the carrots are going to add some vitamin C. So, these guys are ready to chop up. We are going to cook this along with turkey, instead of beef, because it's a great way to cut away back on the fat. And I'm going to show you a perfect tip for cooking turkey that's going to make it taste more like beef. So, here's the tip that you are going to want to remember every time you are cooking something with turkey. Make sure that you really heat up your skillet, because getting a nice sear on the meat is what's going to give it plenty of flavor. I'm going to put a little bit of olive oil. And I've already heated the skillet over high for about two minutes. And then we'll add our turkey. And next, we can add our vegetables around the edges. So, I've got some taco seasoning here, and you always want to look for the one that doesn't have MSG. And they also have the low sodium versions out. And I sprinkle that right on top. I add it now while the meat is browning, and that helps to bring out the flavors in the spices. Speaking of spices, here I have one of my secret ingredients. It's star anise. And you might know this spice because usually you find it in sweet baked goods. But it adds a sweet, delicious flavor to this turkey topping. So, you want to add just one star anise pod. And before you are ready to serve this, you'll remove that. But it will impart all the flavors to your mixture. Kidney beans are a great thing to add to this dish because they are going to round it out without adding any fat, but pack in tons of fiber that's going to help to fill you up. Now, here's my trick for making the turkey taste a lot more like beef. And it also helps it to look more like beef. I add some low sodium beef broth right from the can. And it imparts that rich beefy flavor without adding any fat at all. Now, you are going to want to let this cook down for about 20 minutes until most of the sauce is gone, and it will be ready to use as your topping. But to save some time, I already have some topping made up. And next, I'm going to spread out some chips. I have two types of tortilla chips here. So, here's the topping that I've already made up. And look how much it looks like beef. When I serve this to my guy friends, they don't even know the difference. We are going to top it off with some part skim mozzarella. That's another way to cut back on the fat. So, it's ready to go in the oven. It will bake for 10 minutes, and it will be ready to go. So, it's been 10 minutes, and I can smell the browning tortilla chips. Let's get them out of the oven. Now, I like to serve these with our salsa that we've already made up. And I've got some low fat sour cream here on the side as well. And we are just going to transfer these right onto our platter. So, there you have it. A healthy nachos platter that will be a hit with your home team. I'm Jennifer Iserloh, the Skinny Chef. And I'll see you next time on "Food Courting."
