Low-Fat Favorite: Oven Fries

So last night, we were making Cajun catfish and warm green beans, and decided that we should also make oven fries. I had never made oven fries but I had earmarked this recipe in the Moosewood Restaurant Low-Fat Favorites and thought it would go well with our evening meal. This recipe is fairly easy to prepare but requires about 40-50 minutes of oven time. You can make these with Idaho potatoes. For a twist, I suggest sweet potatoes, which is what I did. The flavor is really quite nice and is a nice compliment of sweet and salty.

Makes 4-6 servings
Cooking Time: 15 minutes for prep, 40-50 oven time

Ingredients
- 2 lbs potatoes (or sweet potatoes)
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp paprika
- 1 tsp ground cumin
salt to taste

Preparation
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Wash the potatoes well and peel (I didn't peel... too lazy). In a large bowl, stir together olive oiled, paprika, and cumin and set aside. Cut potatoes lengthwise into slices no thicker than 1/2 inch. Then cut through the stacked slices and make 1/2 inch-wide strips. Toss the potatoes in the oil and spices until well coated. Arrange potatoes in a single layer on a baking sheet prepared with cooking spray or lightly oiled. Bake for 45-60 minutes (for Idaho potatoes), stirring occasionally, until fries are golden and crisp. Sprinkle with salt and serve immediately.

If you using sweet potatoes, bake for 25 to 40 minutes.

Suggestions
I made the paste with 1 tbsp of olive and it was rather thick, so much so that I thought it would not coat the potatoes so I added another 1 tbsp of olive oil to thin it out. Also, at 40 minutes they were soft but not crispy so I left them in for another 10 minutes. It got them a tad more crispier but not really. Perhaps adding a bit more oil would make the crispier? I guess the trick is to not add so much oil they get greasy.

Over all, we loved this recipe and would make it again. No pictures -- we ate them before we could!