Who doesn’t love the gooey, communal experience of eating nachos with their hands?
Even Paleo peeps can enjoy nachos by swapping corn chips for savory (green) plantain chips. And because plantain chips are so versatile, you can also use them to make dessert nachos.
It’s a novel and fun idea that only takes a few minutes to assemble if you use packaged ingredients like mini marshmallows, carob or chocolate chips and savory plantain chips.
You can also always make your own Paleo marshmallows, chocolate chips and dehydrated plantain chips at home but I bought all my ingredients on Amazon.
Below, for you DIY types, I’ll share the methods for making all the ingredients at home. And for those who want convenience I’ll share the links to the healthy products I used.
Plantain chips
Plantain chips are the base for these dessert nachos. I used chips made from green plantains by the Inka brand. They’re available here on Amazon. They’re fried in Paleo-friendly palm oil and lightly salted.
The green skinned plantains that these chips are made from are starchier. Their flavor resembles that of a potato chip. Yellow or brown skinned plantains taste sweeter with a flavor that resembles bananas.
I love the combo of sweet and salty so I chose to use the savory plantains for this recipe, but you can use sweet or savory.
You can make your own plantain chips by dehydrating thinly sliced plantains in a dehydrator for 24 hours at 100 degrees. If you don’t have a dehydrator you can leave them in the oven for about 10 hours (check on them after 8 hours) at 150 to 200 degrees. Just make sure to spread them out on parchment paper or grease your cookie sheet so they don’t stick.
Carob chips
This recipe can be made with either chocolate chips or AIP-friendly carob chips. You can purchase carob chips here or make them yourself by mixing equal parts of melted coconut oil and carob powder.
Spread a thin layer of the carob coconut mixture on a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet refrigerate for an hour or two. Remove and break apart into chunks with a knife or fork.
Unlike chocolate, carob is naturally sweet so you don’t need to add any sweetener.
Marshmallows
Melted marshmallows is what makes these nachos irresistible. I used this brand because they only had a few ingredients: mostly fish gelatin, sweetener and tapioca or arrowroot flour.
You can make your own AIP-friendly marshmallows using this popular recipe.
Play with it
I love to improvise with recipes and this recipe just begs for it. Add or remove ingredients to suite your taste. I put raw cashews in my nachos, but you can substitute toasted coconut chips, chopped dates or dried cranberries.
And if the ratio of marshmallows to carob chips to plantain chips doesn’t suit your taste, change that up too!
I put these in the oven for 10 minutes to get the marshmallows soft and gooey and melt the carob or chocolate. This makes these nachos truly irresistible.
Ingredients
1 cup of plantain chips
1/4 of an apple, diced
A sprinkle of cinnamon
1/2 cup of marshmallows
1/2 cup of carob chips
1/4 cup of coconut butter, finely crumbled (if the coconut butter is too soft chill it in the fridge for half an hour then crumble it on top of the nachos with a fork)
1/4 cup of chopped dates, coconut chips or cashews
How to
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Dice the apple into fine cubes or strips and sprinkle with cinnamon.
Assemble the nachos by pouring the plantain chips on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet.
Top with marshmallows, coconut butter, carob chips and either dates, cashews or coconut chips.
Add diced cinnamon dusted apple to the very top.
Pop the nachos in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes until the marshmallows start to brown and the carob begins to melt.
Remove from the oven and let cool for a few minutes.
Transfer the nachos to a large plate by sliding the parchment paper gently from the cookie sheet onto the plate.
***An alternate way to prepare this recipe is to pour carob or chocolate sauce on top instead of adding chips.
If you’re making the carob at home simple pour the melted coconut oil/carob mixture over the plantain nachos. If using carob or chocolate chips heat the chips in a pan with a tablespoon of coconut oil and pour the melted sauce over the nachos.
This serves 4 hungry people. Enjoy!
- 1 cup of plantain chips
- ¼ of an apple, diced
- A sprinkle of cinnamon
- ½ cup of marshmallows
- ½ cup of carob chips
- ¼ cup of coconut butter, finely crumbled (if the coconut butter is too soft chill it in the fridge for half an hour then crumble it on top of the nachos with a fork)
- ¼ cup of chopped dates, coconut chips or cashews
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Dice the apple into fine cubes or strips and sprinkle with cinnamon.
- Assemble the nachos by pouring the plantain chips on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet.
- Top with marshmallows, coconut butter, carob chips and either dates, cashews or coconut chips.
- Add diced cinnamon dusted apple to the very top.
- Pop the nachos in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes until the marshmallows start to brown and the carob begins to melt.
- Remove from the oven and let cool for a few minutes.
- Transfer the nachos to a large plate by sliding the parchment paper gently from the cookie sheet onto the plate.
- ***An alternate way to prepare this recipe is to pour carob or chocolate sauce on top instead of adding chips.
- If you’re making the carob at home simple pour the melted coconut oil/carob mixture over the plantain nachos. If using carob or chocolate chips heat the chips in a pan with a tablespoon of coconut oil and pour the melted sauce over the nachos.
