Elevate your plate: Santa Maria’s new Nachos solution for out-of-home operators

With 83% of consumers ordering nachos when eating out¹ and 62% looking to spend money on experiences rather than material things², there is an opportunity for out-of-home operators to create an elevated food experience and tap into the ever-growing Mexican food trend, to drive revenue and profits.

To help restaurants, pubs and casual dining operators enhance their menu offering, the nation’s leading out-of-home food provider Santa Maria has launched its latest solution: Nachos.

With a fifth (19%) of consumers eating nachos once a month³ and the tasty Mexican dish featuring on 80% of pub and bar menus in the UK⁴, the Nachos solution helps operators that don’t already offer nachos easily bring them onto their menus, and enables operators who do already offer them to take their nacho recipes to the next level.

The solution includes a range of irresistible nacho recipes, that tap into the mega trends of customisation, experience and indulgence. The recipes all follow a three-step formula of base, toppings, and garnish, making them easy for any operator to create in their kitchen.

With quality ingredients at the forefront, resulting in superior dishes, the recipes include classic and gourmet nachos through to plates inspired by world flavours and loaded with toppings, offering variety to the menu. The solution also offers expertise on different tortilla chips – the foundation of any nacho dish – and the must-have accompaniments such as salsa, Cheddar cheese sauce and jalapenos.

Alongside the nacho recipes, there are also ideas on how to add nachos to existing menu dishes to add an extra crunch, dish presentation suggestions – such as Trash Can Nachos – and clever product hacks that speed up the creation process in the kitchen including spice mixes, sauces, pre-sliced frozen avocado slices and guacamole.

Santa Maria’s Taste Creator, Barnaby MacAdam, says: “Mexican food is a mega trend and is now the number one emerging world food flavour⁵. Not only are nachos incredibly popular, they are versatile too and can be offered on the menu as a snack, a sharing platter or a full meal, and are easily scaled through loading up or down.

“A big appeal of nachos is the additional revenue opportunity they present. They typically represent good value to the consumer whilst at the same time being affordable to create in the kitchen. Our Santa Maria products – the tortilla chips, the sauces, spices and rubs – along with our recipe combinations bring bang-on flavours and quality to the table so operators can justify a slightly higher price point on the menu, resulting in a decent profit margin. The fact they can be loaded up and create a visual spectacle on the table, further enhances the perceived value of the dish.”

World Flavour Nachos

K-Nachos are inspired by Korean influences, the second most popular world food flavour, topped with caramelised red chilli and ginger pork belly and kimchi slaw and then drizzled in Korean-style BBQ sauce, spring onion and lime. Sunshine Nacho Plate, which uses Jamaican Jerk seasoning to bring flavours of the Caribbean to the dish, is loaded with Jamaican Jerk chicken thighs, smoky sweetcorn riblet, spring onion, mango salsa, red chilli and lime wedges to garnish.

The Tinga Nacho Plate is inspired by the popular Mexican dish ‘Tinga de Pollo’, which sees homestyle nachos loaded with shredded chicken cooked in tomato and chipotle sauce, jalapenos, guacamole, chipotle sauce and coriander. The Kerala Nachos uses Kerala curry chapati chips as the nacho base, topped with chicken mixed with kerala seasoning and natural yoghurt, spinach, mango chutney, mint raita and pomegranate pearls.

Add The Crunch!

Operators can liven up classic pub dishes on their menus by adding crunchy nachos to create another layer of flavour and texture. The Nacho Burger sees a plant-based burger topped with spiked salsa, vegan Monterey jack cheese, pickled red onion, avocado slices and salted tortilla chips and the Nacho Crispy Chicken sees bite-sized chunks of chicken coated in crushed tortilla chips and served with chipotle and BBQ sauce for dipping, creating a succulent, indulgent treat.

Operators looking to offer lighter options could opt to build a Nacho Salad Bowl, mixing fresh spinach, red cabbage, red onion, avocado slices, jalapenos and salsa with tortilla chips or offer a Skinny Nacho Plate, featuring chargrilled tortilla chips topped with salsa, avocado slices, fajita yoghurt and garnished with coriander.

Festive Nacho Plates

Although nachos work on everyday menus, the Festive Nacho Plate creates a stand-out dish – ideal as a starter on the Christmas menu or as a yuletide bar snack to enjoy with drinks. This dish sees nachos topped with pulled turkey seasoned with herbs, orange and pepper salsa, pigs in blankets, drizzled in cranberry cheese sauce and sour cream.

Nachos don’t always need to be savoury; the Sweetest Thing Nachos sees tortilla chips deep fried and tossed in vanilla sugar and cinnamon, topped with caramelised banana, caramel sauce, biscuit dust and vanilla sugar.

To download the Nachos solution please click here

1 Vypr Santa Maria Survey Nov 2022, Sample Size 502

2 Lumina Intelligence, Eating & Drinking Out Panel, Menu Tracker, October 2022

3 Vypr Santa Maria Survey Nov 2022, Sample Size 502

4 Lumina Intelligence Menu Tracker April 2022

5 Lumina Intelligence UK Market Dec 2021