Lunch

Nachos

Name: Nachos
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 30 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Mexican-Australian
Ingredients: 200 g corn chips; 300 g beef mince; 1 tbsp olive oil; 1 small onion, diced; 1 tbsp taco seasoning (or 1 tsp cumin + 1 tsp paprika + chilli); 1 × 400 g can diced tomatoes; 1 × 400 g can kidney beans, drained (optional); 150 g (1½ cups) tasty cheese, grated; Sour cream, salsa, avocado and jalapeños, to serve

Serves 4 Prep 10 min Cook 20 min Total 30 min

Nachos is a lunch staple we keep on Scoops & Dishes because it rewards a clear metric method: grams and millilitres, Australian cups (250 ml), and steps you can follow without scrolling past a novel. As written it serves 4. Budget about 10 min to prep and 20 min to cook or bake, roughly 30 min all up, across 9 ingredients and 3 method steps. Key building blocks: corn chips, beef mince and olive oil. If you need a substitute, change one thing at a time and expect the texture notes below to matter more than the timer. One practical flag before you start: Don’t drown the chips or they go soggy — thick mince sauce is best. The Notes section expands shopping, heat, texture, and leftovers so the page stays useful beyond a bare ingredient dump. Everything on this page is metric-first for Australia. If you are converting from cups on an old card, weigh flour, sugar, and butter whenever the ingredient line shows grams.

Ingredients

200 g corn chips
300 g beef mince
1 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, diced
1 tbsp taco seasoning (or 1 tsp cumin + 1 tsp paprika + chilli)
1 × 400 g can diced tomatoes
1 × 400 g can kidney beans, drained (optional)
150 g (1½ cups) tasty cheese, grated
Sour cream, salsa, avocado and jalapeños, to serve

Method

Heat oven to 200°C (180°C fan). Cook onion in oil 3 minutes; add mince and brown. Stir in seasoning, tomatoes and beans. Simmer 8–10 minutes until thick. Season.
Spread corn chips on a baking tray. Spoon over mince; scatter cheese.
Bake 8–10 minutes until cheese melts. Top with sour cream, salsa, avocado and jalapeños.

Tip: Don’t drown the chips or they go soggy — thick mince sauce is best. Serve immediately.

Notes

Putting it together for Nachos: work clean, taste as you go, and do not rush browning or reduction steps if they appear in the method. If you are cooking for mixed diets, plate sauces and toppings separately where practical. Keep this page bookmarked if it becomes a household regular — we update wording when cooks report a confusing step. Metric consistency across Scoops & Dishes means once you trust the cups and scales here, breakfast through dessert behaves the same way.
Make-ahead and leftovers: halve it for one, or double when the kids bring friends home. Leftovers of Nachos usually keep 2–3 days in a sealed fridge container; reheat until steaming hot in the centre. Label freezer bags with the dish name and date. Allergens sit in the ingredient list — always double-check if cooking for guests.
From our tested tip, expanded: Don’t drown the chips or they go soggy — thick mince sauce is best. Serve immediately. Treat that as the non-negotiable. If something still feels off — too wet, too pale, too tight — adjust one variable at a time (heat, liquid, or bake time) rather than changing three things at once.
Shopping and mise en place: read the full ingredient list once before you start. For Nachos, corn chips and beef mince are the items that decide whether the dish tastes flat or properly seasoned. Weigh where grams are given — volume cups are fine for liquids and some dry goods, but baking ratios are tighter if you use scales. Australian cups are 250 ml; a tablespoon is 20 ml and a teaspoon is 5 ml.