French Fry Friday!

It’s Vegan Mofo Day 12!  And today I decided to make it French Fry Friday!

This was supposed to be my post last week, but then I got busy with my dad and didn’t cook anything… so here it is!  I’ve mentioned my macaroni and cheese addiction already, but I was also addicted to something else.  And that something is FRENCH FRIES!  Growing up as a vegetarian, I didn’t always have many options when I went out to eat.  Often it was just a bland salad.  So I would “jazz” up my meal by ordering a side of french fries.  I loved going out and trying every places fries.  I can never say no to fries.

Once my health problems happened, it wasn’t always the best idea to get fries.  I would eat them and love them, but I’d also get terrible stomach aches and sometimes worse.  Boo!  So I set out on a quest to make the best french fry in the oven.  Many of my early attempts were terrible.  Fries would come out limp and gross.  After much research though, I think I have perfected it.  And I want to show you all how to do it now too.

I am going to show you how to make THE best oven french fries you’ve ever tasted!

These fries are made with absolutely NO oil.  They are low fat, crispy, and delicious!  What you are going to need is a Russet potato, a knife, an oven, and a baking sheet.  It’s that simple!

There are a couple tricks to making the best oven french fries.  First, you need to cut them to the right size and shape:

You want your fries to be about a 1/4-inch.

Next you submerge them in COLD water for at least 15 minutes:

This removes the starch on the outside of the fries, and enables them to crisp up really nicely in the oven.  While your fries are soaking, preheat your oven to 400 degrees.  Once they are done soaking, drain them, and pat them as dry as you can get with a paper towel (or two!)  Then I place them on a nonstick pan and put them in the oven.

Here  is where you can get a little bit creative with them.  I’m cooking them to be low fat.  If you aren’t worried about that, you can coat them with a bit of oil, and add whatever seasonings that you’d like.  I personally don’t like to season my fries, but feel free to put salt and pepper, and whatever else you love on them!

I cook them for at least 30 minutes, and check every 10 minutes to flip them.  Depending on your oven and how thick you cut them, you could bake for upwards of 40 minutes.  If you aren’t using oil to grease the pan like I did, you might want to check them before the first 10 minutes are up, or else you’ll end up with fries stuck to the pan like I did:

Even though they stuck to the pan initially, I was able to get them unstuck, and continue cooking.  The crisped up real nice this time.

So it is possible to get really great, crispy fries in your oven without the use of oil!

Hooray!  This totally hits the spot for my crispy french fry cravings.

I hope you enjoyed this French Fry Friday!  Do you love french fries?  What is your favorite way to make them?

Until next time!