Ever crave nachos for dinner? These Greek Nachos with Ground Lamb are piled high with veggies and hummus, making them a totally acceptable dinner. Promise.
I try to never be ashamed of my life choices. Which is why I will openly admit to all of my fine readers here at We are not Martha that I do, in fact, eat nachos for dinner on occasion. I could give you a bundle of excuses (I’m SO tired. I've had a really long, hard day at work. I’m craving nachos. I heart cheese a lot. A LOT.), but instead I’ll simply embrace it. Gourmet dinners are grand, but sometimes nachos are better. And that’s a fact.
I should also clarify that when I say nachos, I typically means tortilla chips with melted cheese and lots of salsa. Super high class, obviously. But a couple weeks ago, I may have started to feel a bit guilty about my nacho habit and decided to do something to make them into an actual real honest meal. Time to call in the meat, if you will. I spotted ground lamb at my grocery store and immediately knew I wanted it on nachos. Greek nachos. With pita chips since you clearly can’t do tortilla chips with Greek nachos.
GREEK NACHOS WITH GROUND LAMB RECIPE
Let's be honest, part of the point of nachos is how simple they are to make and I certainly didn't want to over-complicate my lazy dinnertime routine with these Greek nachos with lamb. So, though there are more ingredients involved than in the typical nacho “recipe,” they’re still very quick and easy to make. But, to be honest, quite a bit more of a complete meal than your everyday nacho platter.
You'll want to start by making the nacho chips, which in this case are pita chips. Of course, you can always buy pita chips from the grocery store, but there's nothing quite like making your own... And they're super easy! All you do is split the slices of pita bread and cut each slice into 8 triangles. Brush both sides of pita bread triangles with olive oil and place on a baking sheet. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Bake pita chips at 370 degrees for 8-10 minutes, until lightly browned.
In the meantime, in a pan over medium heat, add a tablespoon of olive oil and cook onion and garlic until softened and fragrant, about 5 minutes. Add lamb to pan and sprinkle on coriander, cumin, and oregano. Cook, breaking up with spatula, until no longer pink.
Now for the fun part! Arrange the pita chips into nacho formation and sprinkle feta cheese in between layers and on top. Feta cheese on nachos? YES, ma'am.
Broil for a couple minutes until feta gets melty. Top nachos with lamb and then sprinkle on chopped tomato, cucumber, and kalamata olives. Spoon hummus and Greek yogurt onto nachos for maximum scooping potential. You can sprinkle more feta over the top if you want, too.
Now are you with me in the fact that nachos are an acceptable dinner? Please?
If you really want to argue it, I’ll just tell you that in a sense, these nachos are basically like open-faced tacos. With pita chips. And probably even less cheese and more vegetables than your standard tacos.
Whereas you may be scooping up loads of sour cream and queso with regular nachos, you’ve got healthy Greek yogurt and hummus on these nachos. So scoop away, friends.
When it comes to how many servings this makes, that's a really tough question to answer. Because honestly, it depends on how hungry you are. And if you’re eating this for an appetizer or a meal. I’ll just say that two people could probably polish this off together. Not that I’m speaking from experience or anything. I'm not saying that you should... I'm just saying that you could. That you'd want to.
These Greek nachos also made me realize I need to incorporate more lamb into my life. And homemade pita chips. And probably kalamata olives, too. Basically, so many of my favorite things are piled up on this plate.
And that is how I justify nachos as a meal. Not that they need justifying. Ever. Tortilla chips with cheese and salsa will always be an acceptable dinner idea in my book. But it's now quite likely that Greek nachos with lamb will be landing in my weekly meal plan over and over again.
Do you have a favorite way of making nachos into a meal?
For more lamb recipes, check out my Coffee-Rubbed Lamb Chops and my Lamb Mint Flatbread with Feta. And for more delicious nachos, check out these Chorizo Skillet Nachos from A Dash of Ginger!
Greek Nachos with Lamb
Ingredients
- 3 pieces pita bread, each split and cut into 8 triangles
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- ½ red onion, chopped
- 1 clove garlic, chopped
- ½ lb. ground lamb
- ¼ tsp coriander
- ½ tsp cumin
- ¼ tsp oregano
- ¼ tsp salt
- ½ tsp pepper
- 2 oz. feta cheese
- ⅓ cup diced cucumber
- ½ cup diced tomato
- ¼ cup kalamata olives, chopped
- Hummus, for topping
- Greek yogurt, for topping
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.
- Brush both sides of pita bread triangles with olive oil and place on a baking sheet. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake pita chips for 8-10 minutes, until lightly golden.
- In a large pan over medium heat, add olive oil and cook onion and garlic until softened and fragrant, about 5 minutes.
- Add lamb to pan and sprinkle on coriander, cumin, oregano, salt, and pepper. Cook, breaking up with spatula, until no longer pink.
- Arrange chips into nacho formation and crumble feta cheese in between layers and on top.
- Broil for a couple minutes until feta gets melty. Top nachos with lamb and then sprinkle on chopped tomato, cucumber, and kalamata olives. Spoon hummus and Greek yogurt onto nachos for maximum scooping potential. You can sprinkle more feta over the top if you want, too.
yummy!!! Gonna to try this.
these are some classy nachos! love it. 🙂
Golly - does that sound yummy! I want to go get the ingredients and make it right now!! Alas, I have to finish my work day first, I guess.
the ground lamb was a great idea and out of the norm for some people, including myself. love it
Nachos for dinner happens more than infrequently in my house, too. Or if we're out to eat sometimes - it's usually a pretty inexpensive dish to order that we both share for dinner and leave us full. I like to add leftover grilled chicken chunks to the mix for protein's sake, but your version with ground lamb sounds so great!! We love the flavors of Greek food, so I bet we'd be a huge fan of these!
Nachos are definitely an acceptable dinner in my world! A dish like this just means more variety which means nachos should be for dinner alllll the time:-)
This is definitely a complete meal! One I'd eat every night!!
genius! this is such a great idea. You shouldn't think twice about enjoying this for dinner.
I love ground lamb and I can only imagine how full of flavor these nachos must be!! Bring me some please!!
This is something the kids will love! I have never had nachos as a meal at home and I think I should remedy that 🙂
Greek nachos sound awesome to me. SO many of my favorite ingredients!!
I love your new site so much! Beautiful!! These nachos sound amazing. What could be better honestly?!
My husband would love these nachos!
What a fun idea! I love that you used lamb.
Oh my. There will make the best Friday night dinner!
Gosh when you turn around, you do it up right. What a champion nacho meal----good that it is complete, but all the yummy stuff who cares! I hear you about the grand gourmet meals-----they are fun, but so are the simple ones. Contrast is the 'spice' of life, as it is touted.
I officially condone your nacho consumption! I was actually thinking of how to turn nachos into a legit main myself and now here you are with these. 🙂
Hi Sues, I would love to have that plate in front of me right now! Seeing how delicious and healthy it looks, I would eat it happily any time of the day:D
What a cool variation for nachos! I love that you used homemade pita chips as the base. I totally think nachos are an acceptable dinner. To be honest, one of my favorite quick, go-to meals is bean and cheese quesadillas with homemade pickled jalapenos. They take me no time to make (and they are basically an entire food group because I eat them so much) but man they are just so comforting after a long day 🙂 Kinda like nachos!