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No guilt recipe for healthy french fries cooked on the stovetop using a traditional fat and blanching of the potatoes to minimize starchy toxins. No fryer necessary!
Love french fries? Who doesn’t? The video and recipe below show you a way to make healthy french fries at home the traditional way.
By using this method, you can enjoy them and not feel like your arteries are clogging with each bite like you would if you ate them in a restaurant!
Just be aware that french fries are made from potatoes, which are nightshade vegetables. Some folks with digestive issues can sometimes be sensitive to this category of vegetables.
The great news is that old-fashioned burger joints are starting to pop up all over that are making french fries with healthy fat too!
By the way, if you take the time to make healthy french fries, be sure to use homemade fermented ketchup as the condiment.
Blanch the Potatoes First
One step that nearly everyone omits when making french fries at home is to blanch the potatoes before cooking them.
This greatly reduces the amount of carcinogenic acrylamide that forms during frying.
Anytime starch is cooked, fried, broiled or baked, this chemical forms. This is the case even when a healthy fat is used.
Thus, it is important to take the necessary steps to eliminate it from your food as much as possible.
Below is a picture of heirloom purple potato french fries that I cooked up recently.
Best Fat for Frying
Cooking healthy french fries is all about selecting the right fat for frying.
Tallow, sometimes called beef suet, is the absolute best fat for making french fries!
There really isn’t another traditional fat that comes close to the crispiness and flavor of tallow-cooked french fries in my experience.
You can either render tallow (suet) at home or buy it to make the french fries recipe below. You will typically receive chunks of tallow when you split a cow with a friend from a local pastured beef farm.
If you wish to buy, this brand and this brand of tallow are both excellent.
No Guilt Stovetop French Fries Recipe
No guilt recipe for french fries cooked on the stovetop using a healthy fat for frying. Includes traditional scalding of the potatoes first to minimize the formation of acrylamides.
Ingredients
- 2 medium potatoes preferably organic
- 1/4 – 1/2 cup tallow
- filtered water
- sea salt
- ketchup optional
Instructions
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Thoroughly clean and chop potatoes into finger size pieces. Leave the skin on.
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Place cut potatoes in a pot and add filtered water to cover.
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Place uncovered pot on the stovetop and turn on the heat to medium-high. As the water begins to simmer, lower the heat to keep the water just barely simmering.
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Remove the pot from the heat after 10 minutes, and drain the water.
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Dry the potato pieces thoroughly.
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Add tallow to a small fry pan and turn on the heat medium-low. Make sure the tallow is about 1/2 to 1 inch in depth in the pan.
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Add a handful of blanched french fries to the hot oil and let cook for 3-5 minutes or until golden brown.
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Remove the cooked french fries with a stainless steel slotted spoon and place on a plate covered with a paper towel. Sprinkle on sea salt while they are still hot.
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Top up the oil in the pan so that it is the proper depth if necessary and then repeat steps 7-8 until all the blanched french fries are cooked and lightly salted.
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Serve immediately.
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Refrigerate any leftovers after coming to room temperature.
Recipe Video
Would you please supply the link to order the mail order list catalogue you show?
Thank you.
oooh!! i got it, i think the key is too not put too many in each batch. thanks!
Hi, Sarah! Your blog is spectacular!!! Thank you! When I make these in tallow, mine tend to get all stuck at the bottom and in your video this didn’t happen. My temp is at medium low (4). Maybe I am not puttiing enough oil and too many french fries. I will try that. If you can think of anything else, any input would be appreciated. Thank you!!
Can you comment on the temperature of your frying. You advocate keeping the temp “low” but I thought that hot oil keeps the food from “absorbing” the oil and fat and is actually better for you. Now you have said the opposite so I’m confused….
Hi Sarah!
Can you substitute with ghee or is the lard a must?
Thanks!
Asta
I heard that duck fat is also great for! I watched a food network video once (they do have a few ideas I like) where they soak them in water overnight to break down the starches. Then they fry them to just a lightly oil state and take them out of the the fryer to sit in under a warmer for at least an hour before frying them to ‘finish’. The first fry up is only to blanch them- the second is when they’re actually cooked- but all that ‘prep’ gives them an airy inside and crisp outside. That was more about flavor than nutrition though. But as I watch this video I’m thinking the night soak and breaking down the starches may be an awesome thing?
I’ve always heard this is how the French do their French fries…..frying them a second time just before serving them….
I’m getting ready to make my first batch of guilt free french fries to go with the ribeye steak recipe on page 332 of Nourishing Traditions!
Hi Sarah,
I would like to know if eating one potato everyday is unhealthy due to it being a nightshade. I don’t react to nightshades at all, and potatoes are the only nightshades that I consume.
You talk about not frying at a high temp. What would you consider too high?
Over 400F or so.
is this the same oil you would use for frying other things??? We don’t eat fried food often but we do like fried chicken and breaded shrimp!!!
Hi Jackie, tallow is overall the best frying oil I have found by far.