Twice Cooked Thyme Fries w Tofu Feta

Phoebe Thorburn -

Bloomin' heck, I haven't tasted food this good in I don't know how long! You all know, my standard for ‘good-food’ is pretty flippin' high to begin with, so it's got to be off the charts for me to be shaking my head in disbelief at what I'm getting to eat! I’m convinced these are the crispiest potatoes you could ever possibly achieve in an oven, infused with thyme and garlic and topped with a cold creamy vegan feta which has a dairy-like twang (crazy cool!) and even melts for you after a minutes or so. 20/10 these are! 20/10.

And yes they are a bit of effort, but that's semi the point - they're worth every moment of it!

This recipe is inspired by and closely adapted from Yotam Ottolenghi's 'Oven Fries with Oregano & Feta' and Erin Ireland's 'The Best Tofu Feta Ever, Hands Down!'.

Ingredients

Chips

  • 1.5 kg waxy potatoes (aka ones with a yellow-ish flesh colour, instead of grey/white fleshed ones)
  • 3 tbsp grapeseed oil (or other light flavoured vegetable oil)
  • 3 tsp salt/1 tbsp flaked sea salt
  • 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
  • 6 garlic cloves, thinly sliced OR 1 tbsp minced garlic
  • 2 tsp dried thyme

Tofu Feta

  • 170g very firm tofu
  • 70g refined coconut oil (refined so the coconut taste doesn't come through), melted
  • Juice of 1 lemon
  • 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp onion powder

Method

  1. Make your feta in advance by draining your tofu and adding it to a food processor with all other Tofu Feta ingredients. Blend until super smooth and combined, scraping down the sides of the processor as needed. Transfer the mixture to an air-tight container and chill for 3 hours minimum.
  2. When the feta is set and you're ready to make your chips, pre-heat your oven to 230C.
  3. Scrub your potatoes clean, but don't peel them. Chop them up into thick fries. Add them to a large pot and cover with just boiled water, add a pinch of salt & bring to the boil. Boil the potatoes until they start to soften (approx. 7-8 minutes). Drain and let them steam dry on a tea-towel for a few minutes.
  4. Toss all potato chips with the grapeseed oil and salt, then spread them out over two trays, so not to over-crowd them.
  5. Bake in the pre-heated oven for 40-50 minutes, stirring/flipping/moving around twice in that time.
  6. When they're looking practically done, take a small saucepan and add the olive oil and garlic. Fry the garlic until smelling sensational and lightly golden. Take the potatoes out of the oven, pour the garlic oil over the chips, toss once more and return to the oven to cook one last time for 5 minutes.
  7. Sprinkle the dried thyme over the chips, along with the feta you made (crumble it slightly before sprinkling). Toss gently to combine, then top with more of the feta and eat up my friend!!