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Tag: fries

  • Rutabaga and Yam Fries with Garlic Dipping Sauce

    Rutabaga and Yam Fries with Garlic Dipping Sauce

    One of my all time favorite things we make at the deli I work at is sweet potato or yam fries.  They are so simple but so good.  So, often times I will make them at home.  I call them my bacon, because they are to me what bacon is to meat eaters.  Hard to stop eating and kind of addictive.  You know maybe if more people tried them they would think giving up bacon isn’t so bad!  I was making a recipe for work the other day, and I got to thinking, since yam fries are good, what about other veggies as fries?  The rutabaga I was using for a recipe sounded like a good thing to test out, so I bought myself some and decided to give it a go.

    The truth is I used to hate rutabaga back in the day and my Dad would always tease me and say that is what we were going to have for dinner.  I don’t know why I hated it, I think it was because it was a foreign veggie to me at the time and I had been told it was gross and maybe once my Grandma had made some and I didn’t care for it.  But then when I was in college and experimenting with cooking and all sorts of new veggies I decided to try it again and ended up loving it.  The recipe that I had made the first time was a vanilla scented mashed rutabaga and it was amazing!  But it is so good roasted and in soups too I quickly discovered.  It has a sort of sweet flavor to it.

    I figured it would be perfect made into fries.  I combined them with some yams I had on hand, because why not do two different veggies?  As far as I am concerned the more veggies the better when it comes to what I eat. I kept them simple, just tossing them with a bit of avocado oil, sea salt, pepper and cayenne and it was perfect to showcase the sweetness of the rutabagas and yams.  They would have been good just like that, but I decided to make a dipping sauce as well.

    For the dipping sauce, I wanted something creamy and garlicy so I whisked together some almond butter, garlic, lemon and salt with a bit of water to thin it out and it was perfect!  You could use a different nut butter or even tahini for a nut free version if you prefer and it would be delicious as well.  The fries were sooo good!  The sweetness of the root veggies was brought out even more by roasting and the garlic sauce was the perfect partner for them!  Definitely give these a try this winter, just be warned, you may eat the whole batch they are pretty darn addictive!

    Rutabaga and Yam Fries with Garlic Dipping Sauce
    Serves 2-4

    Ingredients:

    Yams:

    • 2 medium sized yams, cut into fries
    • 1 large rutabaga peeled and cut into fries
    • 1 Tbsp avocado oil
    • 1/2 tsp sea salt (or to taste)
    • 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
    • 1/8 tsp ground cayenne or chipotle powder

     

    Sauce:

    • 1/3 cup filtered water (or as needed)
    • 1/3 cup almond butter
    • 1/4 tsp sea salt
    • 1 tsp lemon juice
    • 1 garlic clove, minced

     

    Instructions:

    1. To make the fries, preheat the oven to 400F degrees, and line a sheet pan with parchment.
    2. Toss the fries with the oil, sea salt, pepper and chipotle powder until they are coated, and spread them out on the sheet pan.
    3. Place in the oven and roast until tender and starting to brown, about 45 minutes.
    4. Meanwhile, to make the dip, combine all ingredients in a bowl, and whisk until smooth (if you want it thinner, add more water since almond butters vary in texture sometimes).  Set aside.
    5. When the fries are done, remove them from the oven and serve with the dip!
  • Cinnamon Sugar Yam Fries with “Cream Cheese” Dipping Sauce

    Cinnamon Sugar Yam Fries with “Cream Cheese” Dipping Sauce

    Yam fries are my bacon.  As in, I love them so much I can’t stop eating them.  We make them at my work, and of course I always have to sample them every time to make sure they are up to par.  It is funny because when I was younger I couldn’t have cared less about sweet potatoes and yams, because of the way I was traumatized as a kid eating the canned ones in syrup.  But once I tried a roasted yam fry, from a fresh sweet potato, I was hooked.  This is the sort of thing I whip up a batch of if I want a healthy snack that tastes like it shouldn’t be.  It is usually just a little olive oil and sea salt and I am a happy girl with the more savory yam fries.  But I thought, hey why not make some sweet ones?!  Sweet yams can go so wrong.  I admit, I am not usually a fan of mashed super sweet yams for a savory dish because it tastes too much to me like pumpkin pie or something. But I was going for sweet this time, and they wouldn’t be mushy, they would be sweet, a little crisp and delicious!

    These actually ended up being oil free as well.  I tossed them with maple syrup, coconut sugar, cinnamon, sea salt (to get that sweet and salty thing going), and some chipotle powder to give it a little kick.  Because I am a fan of that sort of thing.  If you don’t like heat, you feel free to leave it out.  They smelled amazing while baking!  Like a cinnamony Autumn cake or something. Happy aromas coming from the kitchen are my favorite!  Especially when it is the smell of spice in the fall.

    I wanted a dipping sauce with these too.  As if they weren’t delicious enough as they were, because they could totally stand alone, but I wanted them to be over the top good.  I debated between a chocolate dipping sauce and a cream cheese dipping sauce, and the cream cheese won.  Because I can never resist cream cheese.  Vegan cream cheese of course.  My dip was a luscious mixture of cashew butter and coconut milk made sweet with a little more maple syrup plus a dash of sea salt and cider vinegar to make it taste like cream cheese.  It was so good!  And, even better with those delicious yam fries.  This reminds me of something you would get at the state fair but healthier of course.  If you are in the mood for a sweet snack, give these fries a try!

    Cinnamon Sugar Yam Fries with “Cream Cheese” Dipping Sauce
    Serves 2-4

    Ingredients:

    Yams:

    • 4 medium sized yams, cut into fries
    • 3 Tbsp maple syrup
    • 1/4 cup coconut sugar
    • 1/2 tsp sea salt (or to taste)
    • 1 tsp cinnamon
    • 1/8 tsp ground cayenne or chipotle powder

     

    Sauce:

    • 1/3 cup thick coconut milk
    • 1/2 cup raw cashew butter
    • 3 Tbsp maple syrup
    • 1/4 tsp sea salt
    • 1 tsp cider vinegar
    • 1 tsp pure vanilla extract

     

    Instructions:

    1. To make the fries, preheat the oven to 400F degrees, and line a sheet pan with parchment.
    2. Toss the fries with the maple syrup, coconut sugar, sea salt, cinnamon, and chipotle powder until they are coated, and spread them out on the sheet pan.
    3. Place in the oven and roast until tender and starting to brown, about 45 minutes.
    4. Meanwhile, to make the cream cheese dip, combine all ingredients in a food processor or blender and blend until smooth.  Set aside.
    5. When the fries are done, remove them from the oven and serve with the dip!
  • Vegan Loaded Chili Yam Fries

    Vegan Loaded Chili Yam Fries

    Yam fries are my favorite thing in the world. I know I have mentioned it before, but I could eat them for every meal of the day. So, I decided that I needed to make a legitimate (well sort of) dinner out of them and make it a full meal with other things besides just the fries. I have made a chili topped off with yam “croutons” before, but I decided to make chili yam fries. People put chili over regular fries, of course it is usually filled with disgusting meat…but mine wouldn’t be. It would be vegan and filled with delicious healthy black beans. I was dreaming about this dinner all day at work. Yam fries are easy to make, so is chili, so it was the perfect weeknight meal!

    Chili Yam Fries 1

    So, I made my yam fries the usual way, tossed with just enough olive oil to lightly (and I mean very lightly) coat them so that they don’t get soggy and oily. The purpose of that is to get them nice and brown at the edges. I just add a little sea salt and it is honestly the best thing in the world. Well at the time when you are eating them at least, so good. When I make them at work, there are always some missing from the pan, because everyone likes to “quality control” them. They are pretty addictive, good luck getting them to the table when making them at home, people like to stand around them and graze. Myself included.

    Chili Yam Fries 2

    I made a simple chili that takes only 20 minutes to top off these fries, with black beans because I had some on hand. I used that to top off the fries, and also a silky avocado sauce. Which sort of served as the cooling element (you know, like sour cream would be). Now I know I could have topped these off with cheese instead of the avocado, but I was really craving the avocado and not in a cheese mood. Lastly some green onions and cilantro. It was so good, just as it was. If you are looking for a legit way to have yam fries as a main dish for dinner, try this out! Sooo delicious!

     

    Vegan Loaded Chili Yam Fries
    Serves 2

    2 medium sized yams, cut into fries
    olive oil
    sea salt

    Chili:
    1/4 cup onion
    1 clove garlic
    1/2 tsp ground cumin
    1 tsp chili powder
    1/4 tsp chipotle powder
    1 cup diced tomatoes
    1 Tbsp tomato paste
    1 Tbsp cider vinegar
    1/4 cup filtered water
    1/4 tsp sea salt or to taste
    3/4 cup cooked black beans

    Avocado sauce:
    1 medium avocado
    juice of one lime
    sea salt to taste
    filtered water as needed

    Cilantro leaves and sliced green onions for garnish

    Preheat the oven to 375F. Toss the yams with just enough olive oil to coat them, along with sea salt to taste, and spread them out on a sheet pan. Roast yams for about 40-45 minutes until tender and browned at the edges.

    Meanwhile, to make the chili, add all ingredients but the beans to the pan, and bring to a simmer. Cook until the tomatoes are falling apart and the flavors have combined, about 20 minutes. Add the black beans and cook until heated through. Keep warm.

    Blend up all of the avocado sauce ingredients until smooth in a food processor (adding as much water is needed to make it a creamy but pourable consistency).

    To serve, place the yam fries on a plate, spoon the chili over them, and top with the avocado sauce, some cilantro, and green onions. Enjoy!