Chilli Cheese Fries

Difficulty: Medium

Serves 6

These Chilli Cheese Fries were another of my brother’s birthday requests and being the awesome sister that I am, I prepared them lovingly for his dinner last weekend. The chilli itself could be served on its own and so could the fries but together with some Cheezly this dish is an explosion of junk food indulgence. If you don’t have a deep fryer, you can get away with frying in a large pan, or for a healthier touch you could even use oven-baked fries.

Ingredients

• Oil for deep frying
• 8 large potatoes, washed and cut into sticks
• 2 cups TVP
• 2 cups boiling water
• 1 beef style stock cube
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• Fresh chopped chilli (determine the amount depending on the heat you would like your chilli to be)
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 can kidney beans
• 1/2 red capsicum, chopped
• 1 can crushed tomatoes
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1/2 block of Cheezly, grated

Method

1. Heat oil in deep fryer and add potatoes, you may need to do this in batches depending on the size of the fryer.
2. In a small bowl, combine the TVP, boiling water and beef style stock until the liquid has been absorbed.
3. In a frypan, fry the onion, garlic and chilli before adding the paprika, cumin and TVP.
4. After the TVP has begun to brown, throw in the kidney beans, capsicum, tomatoes and tomato paste.
5. Once mixture is boiling, allow to simmer for a further 8 or so minutes, more if you would like less liquid.
6. Drain the potatoes in the basket before allowing to drain further on some paper towel, add some salt too.
7. Serve the fries in bowls before spooning a generous amount of chilli on top and sprinkling with Cheezly.