Loaded Potato Nachos

No-Waste Kitchen

My husband and I try really hard to have as close to a no-waste kitchen as possible. With only two of us in the house, this sometimes means we eat leftovers more times than we would like … and freezing leftover meals doesn’t work the greatest for us because we never remember to take them back out. In this episode of “What to Do with the Leftovers,” I made Loaded Potato Nachos!

Creative Uses for Leftovers

So, many times we get creative with leftovers and come up with what I think are some pretty good meals. This week, I had 6 small red potatoes that needed to be used, some peppers and onions on hand, and some leftover hamburger patties with no buns to go with them.  So, Loaded Potato Nachos were born.

Loaded Potato Nachos

First, I took the potatoes, pricked a hole in each one, and microwaved them for about 3 minutes. This kickstarts the cooking process and makes it so you don’t have to fry them for so long.  Once they were cool enough to touch, I sliced them into 1/4″ slices. The only knives in our kitchen are Rada Cutlery and Cutco – both made in the USA! Shown in the photo below is one of my Rada Paring Knives.

Here is a peek at a few of my “leftover” ingredients – 2 hamburger patties with cheese, grilled onions, and some peppers from our garden last year that I took out of the freezer.

Frying the Potatoes

I started with a nonstick skillet on medium heat and put 2-3 Tbsp of peanut oil in the pan.  I placed potato slices in the pan in a single layer, doing it in batches to ensure they cooked and browned evenly. (Add additional peanut oil as needed.) I also sprinkled salt and pepper on the potatoes while they were cooking.

As the potato slices were done, I placed them on a paper towel on a baking sheet to drain a bit of the excess oil off and let them cool.

When all of the potato slices were cooked evenly, I removed the paper towel, made sure the potatoes were in a single layer, and put the baking sheet in the preheated oven at 400 degrees. They will only bake like this for about 10 minutes or so, while you prepare the other ingredients.

Prepping & Cooking Other Ingredients

Next, I diced the sweet peppers, green peppers, and yellow onion (with the same Rada Paring Knife.)

I sauteed the diced peppers and onion in the same nonstick skillet on medium heat, stirring occasionally, and cooking until tender.

I diced the 2 leftover hamburger patties.

For the nachos, I grated about 6 ounces of Monterey Jack cheese. The pre-shredded cheese contains cellulose to prevent caking, so I always buy block cheese and grate my own. Cellulose is basically sawdust, so … no thanks. Anyway, I have the Pampered Chef Coarse Grater and love it!

When the diced peppers and onions were done, I added the chopped burger in and cooked for another minute or two to heat through. I also added 1 teaspoon of Penzeys Adobo Seasoning to the mixture. You can use whatever taco or southwest seasoning you have on hand, too – but I highly recommend Penzeys! Their spices are high quality and delicious, and they always run great sales too. (They actually don’t have an affiliate program, so I’m just saying that because I want to.)

Assembling the Nachos

At this point, I took the baking sheet of potatoes from the oven and topped them with the onion, pepper and burger mixture, and then topped with the shredded cheese. Then, I put it back in the oven for 5-10 more minutes, basically just to melt the cheese.

Time for Dinner!

We served them with some plain homemade Instant Pot yogurt (I haven’t bought sour cream in months), garden salsa, and some Skinnytaste Peruvian Green Sauce. Our garden grows volunteer cilantro like crazy in the spring, and last year I made a bunch of this amazing sauce to freeze. We like it on SO MANY THINGS. It really is delicious, and it freezes perfectly.

And there we have it – Loaded Potato Nachos!

This made 3 servings – my husband and I each ate it for dinner, and he had the 3rd serving for lunch. You could very easily adjust the recipe to make more or less – depending on what ingredients you have. You could also easily make it with other toppings – it would be a great meal idea following taco night when you have just a bit of everything left over!

If you like this recipe, please check out some of my other recipes too!