You are going to love how these easy vegan chili cheese fries taste, but also how fast they come together, completely from scratch.
Comfort food is a love language and yall, these easy vegan chili cheese fries are nothing but comfortable.
We’re combining three of our favorite recipes, for one epic meal that is easy, family friendly, and perfect for movie nights and more
First, we’ll be making our homemade fries, then show you how to make our vegan queso and a thick vegan chili topping for our recipe. We know you’re going to love it.
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VEGAN CHILI CHEESE FRIES INGREDIENTS:
Below are notes about the ingredients before we get into the full recipe located lower in this post on how to make these vegan cheese fries:
- Homemade Fries – We love making our own fries because they taste so dang good. It’s one of the easiest things you can make from scratch and you can completely change up the seasonings to your preferences.
- Vegan Cheese Sauce – We give you two options for vegan cheese sauce. One is a vegan cashew queso (this is what is shown in the photos). The queso is the more spicy of the two. The vegan nacho cheese is a bean based cheese sauce so no nuts are used. Both are delicious.
- Onions – We are using a yellow onion for this recipe. Yellow onions are great for sauteing and being the base of a dish, making them perfect here.
- Bell Peppers – Green peppers are the mildest of all colors and a little bitter.
- Vegan Meat Crumbles – We are using processed vegan meat crumbles for this recipe, In the photos, we are using Gardein crumbles. Morningstar would be another similar one.
- Seasonings – We’ve created this list of seasonings to compliment the dish and create a great depth of flavor.
- Tomato Sauce – This is just unseasoned pureed tomatoes and gives us that saucy texture to our vegan chili sauce.
- Tomato Paste – This is just concentrated tomato paste that gives a very bold tomato flavor. The combination of sauce and paste is ideal for this recipe
- Vegan worcestershire sauce – This increases the umami flavors of the dish
SUBSTITUTIONS AND VARIATIONS:
- Fries – You don’t have to shape as wedges, you can make any size that you want. Alternatively, you can use store bought bagged fries as well if you need a faster option.
- Vegan Cheese Sauce – You could buy vegan cheese sauce (like Wayfare nacho cheese) or just use vegan cheese shreds.
- Onions – Sweet onions would also work with this dish.
- Bell Peppers – Switch up the color with yellow, red, or orange
- Vegan Meat Sub – If you don’t do processed meat, try jackfruit, beans, tofu crumbles, walnut crumbles, mushrooms or a combination of a few
- Tomato Sauce – You can blend up any canned tomatoes – pureed fire roasted tomatoes would work great in this dish.
- Tomato Paste – In a pinch add more tomato sauce or even ketchup, but the taste will be slightly different.
- Vegan worcestershire sauce – If you can’t find this, you can use a vegan friendly steak sauce (like A1).
TIPS ON HOW TO MAKE THE BEST VEGAN CHILI CHEESE FRIES RECIPE:
- Serve this as soon as the fries are done – the faster you can serve it, the crispier the fries will be which makes the recipe even better
- Put the chili down first and then the cheese sauce – this helps the cheese stay on top of the chili and not make the fries soggy
- ALWAYS serve more cheese sauce on the side. Why do restaurants not do this we will never no but everyone wants more cheese sauce
- Chop the onions and peppers very small. It really helps makes this recipe more enjoyable
What are topping ideas for vegan chili cheese fries?
Of course you can just eat the vegan chili with vegan cheese and call it a day. But you can also take it up a notch. Here’s some topping ideas for chili cheese fries:
- green onions
- red or white diced onions
- diced tomatoes
- cilantro
- fresh lime juice
- vegan sour cream
- shredded vegan cheese
- black beans
- jalapenos (fresh or pickled)
- salsa
- diced avocado
Frequently Asked Questions about Vegan Chili Cheese Fries:
Yes! Use the bean based nacho cheese sauce and look at the list for meat substitution ideas for to replace the wheat.
For the worcestershire sauce – you could also purchase a gluten free version of the worcestershire sauce. Alternatively, you could use a steak sauce (most are vegan) like A1 that does not usually contain Top 8 Allergens.
You can prep the chili 3-5 days ahead of time, but we do not recommend making the fries ahead of time as they just don’t get as crisp.
If you have made the entire dish and need to reheat, we recommend adding to an air fryer at 450 degrees for 8-10 minutes
What other vegan comfort food ideas could I make?
If you love these vegan chili cheese fries, you’ll love these other vegan comfort food ideas too:
- vegan bbq cauliflower wings
- vegan grilled street corn
- spicy vegan cauliflower burgers
- vegan enchiladas stuffed shells
- 15 minute easy vegan mac and cheese
Get even more vegan recipe ideas!
Pin these easy vegan chili cheese fries for later!
Easy Vegan Chili Cheese Fries
Ingredients
- 1 recipe homemade fries, (or use a bag of store bought)
Vegan Cheese Sauce (Pick 1)
- 1 recipe nut free vegan nacho cheese
- 1 recipe vegan cashew queso
Vegan Chili Sauce Recipe
- 1/2 yellow onion, finely chopped
- 1/4 green pepper, finely chopped
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 7-8 oz vegan meat crumbles
- 1/2 tbsp chili powder
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
- 3/4 cup vegetable stock
- 8 oz tomato sauce
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 tsp vegan worcestershire sauce
- 1/2 tsp liquid smoke
- 1 cup kidney beans, OPTIONAL (drained and rinsed)
- any optional toppings (see post above for list of ideas)
Instructions
- Prep and cook your potatoes to make fries according to the recipe or, if using store bought, cook according to package.
- While fries are cooking, make choice of vegan cheese sauce according to the recipe.
- Chop the onion, pepper and garlic for the chili.
- Add oil to a large skillet over medium heat.
- Saute onions and peppers for 3-4 minutes or until soft.
- Add garlic and vegan meat crumbles. Cook 4 minutes, stirring often.
- Add in chili powder, cumin, onion powder, garlic powder, and smoked paprika and stir together.
- Add in vegetable stock, tomato sauce, tomato paste, vegan worcestershire and liquid smoke. Stir together well, making sure tomato paste is evenly distributed.
- Add in kidney beans if using.
- Cook 2-3 more minutes or until heated throughout and the stock has been soaked up. Taste and adjust seasoning if needed.
- Once fries are done, top with chili mixture and some of the cheese sauce.
- Add any optional toppings as desired.
Video
Notes
Let’s see your creations!
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So delicious and easily switched up to cater to what you have on hand! We didn’t have the butter beans so we used chickpeas and it worked amazing! I would definitely recommend trying this!
So glad you enjoyed
Absolutely delicious!!! Cannot even tell that they’re vegan! I am not vegan, but dairy free and love to throw in vegan dishes as much as possible. I have loved every single recipe I have made from your site, you’re my new go to! Also love the YouTube channel:)
Thank you so much for that, it means a lot! Glad you’re enjoying everything
This recipe came at the perfect time; I was really needing a solid comfort food. I made the chili already and it’s SO good and easy!! I have leftover nacho cheese from the other day so I’m glad you gave me something to use it up on. Delicous!
We are so happy you loved it! Thanks so much for taking time out of your day to leave a review, we really appreciate it!
This meal SCREAMS comfort but also a big treat yourself. It’s literally super easy and fast to make. It was my very first time making chili and turned out perfect.