These vegan walnut meat cheese fries combine delicious vegan meatless crumbles with homemade vegan nacho cheese sauce for an incredible appetizer or dinner idea! A must make!
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These vegan walnut meat cheese fries combine 3 of our absolute favorite things to make one epic dinner (or lunch or appetizer or late night snack – the choice is yours).
Vegan Nacho Cheese
Vegan Walnut Taco Meat
and Fries
I mean who doesn’t love fries? Am I right?
While we kept the photos simple to really showcase those 3 things, feel free to load up on all your favorite toppings to make these the loaded vegan cheese fries of your dreams.
We have listed a ton of tips for making our vegan walnut taco meat and our vegan nacho cheese, so click each of those links to learn more.
Can I make this Top 8 Free Vegan Cheese Fries?
We can easily tell you how to make this Top 7 free, but the base of the dish is walnuts, making it hard to say it’s easily Top 8 Free. But stick with us.
For the nacho cheese, make sure that you are using a soy free dairy free butter like Earth Balance soy free in the red tub. In addition, make sure that you are using a Top 8 Free milk like oat, flax, or hemp. To be honest, we prefer using oat.
For the walnut meat –
The soy sauce is the only other ingredient that we are concerned with. Depending on the allergies you have, you can replace the soy sauce with gluten-free tamari, coconut aminos or a Top 8 no soy sauce (click links to see each).
While it will taste different and the texture won’t be the same, you could also pulse chickpeas down and replace the walnuts to make it Top 8 Allergy Free.
Can I prep ahead vegan walnut meat cheese fries?
You can make both the nacho cheese and the vegan walnut meat at least 3 days a head of time; however, we don’t recommend you putting the entire dish together until ready to eat.
We have listed a ton of tips for making our vegan walnut taco meat and our vegan nacho cheese, so click each of those links to learn more.
What are the best types of fries to use?
What love using a thicker fry for cheese fries like crinkle cut or steak fries because they will hold onto more toppings when eating.
But honestly, it’s whatever fries you want and love.
What are topping ideas?
Like we said above, we kept this pretty simple; however, here’s more topping ideas:
- diced tomatoes
- avocado
- guacamole
- salsa
- fresh or jarred jalapenos
- green onions
- corn
- black beans
- vegan sour cream
- diced red onions
- sliced radishes
- cilantro
- black olives
Pin these vegan walnut meat cheese fries for later
Vegan Walnut Meat Cheese Fries
Ingredients
- 32 oz bag of fries
Vegan Walnut Taco Meat
- 2 cups walnuts
- 1 red onion
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1/4 cup sun dried tomatoes in oil (*See post if avoiding oil)
- 1 tbsp avocado (or olive) oil
- 1 tbsp taco seasoning
- 2 tsp soy sauce (*See post for soy free options)
- 1 juice of a lime
For the Vegan Nacho Cheese
- 1 15oz can Butter Beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 4oz can diced jalapenos (see notes for spice level)
- 1 cup unsweetened dairy free milk (we prefer oat)
- 1/2 cup nutritional yeast
- 1/4 cup vegan butter
- 2 tbsp oat flour
- 1/2 tsp fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp chili powder
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder
- 1/4 tsp smoked paprika
- 1/4 tsp turmeric
- 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1/8 tsp onion powder
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees (or the temperature listed on your bag of fries).
Vegan Walnut Taco Meat
- Soak walnuts in a bowl, covered with boiling hot water for at least 30 minutes. *See post for tips on prepping ahead
- Once the walnuts are done soaking, place fries on a baked sheet in an even layer. Bake according to the bag instructions but reduce time by 5 minutes.
- Drain walnuts. Put them into a food processor and pulse until you have meat like crumbles. *Be careful not to over process or you will end up with walnut butter.
- Chop onions, garlic, and sun dried tomatoes very fine.
- Add oil to a skillet, and saute your onions until translucent (about 2-3 minutes).
- Add in the garlic for 1 more minute.
- Sprinkle the taco seasoning across and stir to combine.
- Add in sun-dried tomatoes. Cook for 1 more minute.
- Add in the crumbled walnut and stir very well.
- Pour in the soy sauce (or substitute) and the lime juice. Stir well.
- Cook for another 4-5 minutes.
- Take off the stove and set aside while you make everything else.
For the Nacho Cheese
- Pour all ingredients into a high powered blender.
- Blend for 5 minutes or until a thickened, creamy, well-combined sauce.
- Pull fries out 5 minutes before they should be finished cooking.
- Add desired about of walnut taco meat and nacho cheese*You do not have to use all the walnut mixture or nacho cheese (save for another recipe like tacos or loaded baked potatoes)
- Place back in oven for remaining 5 minutes of cooking or until heated throughout.
- Remove from oven and top with any additional toppings (see post for topping ideas)
Notes
Nutrition
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We enjoyed this very much! I appreciated the nacho cheese being nut-free. Great recipe!
So happy that you enjoyed! Thanks for taking the time to leave a review, we appreciate it. have a great day!
OMG, this was soooo good.
We’re so happy to hear that. Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment. We appreciate it so much! Have a great day!