Healthy Loaded Fries

The cooler weather definitely lends itself to craving comfort food. A few weeks ago my kids were requesting ‘hot chips’ for lunch and as it happened, they weren’t the only ones feeling like crunchy spuds! As chips in our house is a side (not a meal) and because I didn’t want to go to too much effort, I thought I’d build on their craving for chips and create a one pan meal of sorts.

One of the ways that I have taught my kids to love a variety of foods is to take their favourites (in this case chips) and add in other healthy stuff (avo, nuts, tomato, coriander). Avocado on its own doesn’t overly appeal to my kids, but mashed into a dip and blobbed on these fries, they argue over it being divided equally – go figure!

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Take a look at the variations (below the main recipe) for suggestions to alter the recipe to suit any specific dietary requirements.

Healthy Loaded Fries

Prep 30 minutes

Cook 40 minutes

Total 50 minutes

Serves: 4 small serves

5 from 6 votes

So here we have it – my take on ‘heathy loaded fries’. A quick, easy, oh-so delicious snack or meal that the whole family will love.

Ingredients

• 4 tbsp butter, ghee or olive oil
• 1.5 kg potatoe/s (and/or sweet potatoes) scrubbed clean and cut into 'fries'
• 1 tsp sea salt
• ½ tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 30 g flaked almonds (¼ cup)
• 4 spring onion/s -white part sliced
• 40 g parmesan cheese (¼ cup) grated
• 40 g feta cheese (¼ cup) crumbled
• 2 roma tomatoe/s -seeds removed and diced
• 1 avocado/s (large) mashed
• ½ bunch fresh coriander leaves -picked from stems
• 1 lime/s cut into wedges, to serve

Method

• Pre-heat your oven to 220℃/430℉.
• In a large baking dish heat the ghee or oil for 5 minutes or until the fat is hot.
• Add the potatoes and toss to coat in the fat. Add the salt, oregano and smoked paprika and toss well again.
• Bake for 30 minutes or until they are starting to crisp up.
• Meanwhile, slice the spring onions and chop the tomatoes. Grate the parmesan.
• Roughly mash the avocado in a small bowl with a good pinch of sea salt.
• Once the potatoes are ready, top with the almonds, spring onion, parmesan and feta and pop back in the oven for another 5-10minutes.
• Remove from the oven, scatter over the tomatoes, blobs of the mashed avocado, coriander and lime wedges
• Enjoy immediately.

Serve

• with your choice of simply prepared protein.

Variations

Dairy-free and vegan

Bake the fries in coconut oil and replace the cheese with ¼ cup toasted cashews (processed to a meal), then mixed with 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast, a good pinch of sea salt and a pinch of garlic powder. You can also replace the feta with a vegan (cashew) cream cheese.

Nut-free

Replace the almonds with pumpkin or sunflower seeds (or omit). 

Onion-free

Omit the spring onion. 

 

I'd love to hear how you like my loaded fries? Post a comment below, I love receiving your feedback. 

Course: Main Course Side Dish

Cuisine: American