Baked White and Sweet Potato Fries with Spinach and Roasted Garlic
Baked Potato and Sweet Potato Fries with Roasted Garlic
Sometimes i can see that i am not going to have much time to cook supper in time to put some potatoes and/or sweet potatoes in the oven about an hour before we want to eat. I start preparing them about an hour and a half before we want to eat, as the preparation takes a little time, and the cooking varies a bit. I also keep veggies in the freezer, both from leftovers and just bags from the store, for quick meals. With catsup, kim chee, or other condiments, this meal takes 20 minutes or less to prepare, and we enjoy it frequently.
For those of you who do not know about baked fries, here is the simple recipe:
Scrub about 2 potatoes and/or sweet potatoes per serving. Peel if you like and have time. Slice into eighths or smaller if you want them to cook faster or to be crisper. (Parchment paper on the baking sheet makes clean-up easier, though if you don’t use it, all you have to do is soak the pan about 45 minutes and lightly scrub off the potato bits.) Bake at 350° about 45 to 60 minutes if peeled and 60 to 75 minutes if unpeeled eights of large potatoes. Watch the last 15 minutes or so and poke them to see if they are cooked the way you like them. Some of us prefer them brown and crispy, others like them just cooked but still white. These are edible the next day, but not as good as fresh out of the oven.
It is very simple to set some garlic in with the potatoes or any other meal you’re baking, either to eat with that meal or another meal. Roasted garlic is good spread on bread, crackers, potatoes, veggies of all descriptions, or used in salad dressing or any sauce calling for garlic. You need to adjust the salty flavors in any sauce if you use the roasted garlic in them. I try to cook the garlic ahead so i don’t have to deal with a piping hot garlic head.
Cut off the top of a head of garlic so that the bulb tops are exposed. Look carefully for any rotten pieces and remove. Mix 2 T. low sodium tamari (or low sodium vegan bouillon for ½ c. liquid) with ½ c. water. Put the garlic head in a casserole with a cover or a small baking dish. Pour the tamari mix over the garlic. It should come up about 2/3rds of the garlic. Cover with a top or aluminum foil. You may want to put a piece of parchment paper between the garlic and the aluminum foil to keep the aluminum from leaching into the broth. Bake the garlic in 350° oven about 1 hour or until the garlic is very soft and medium brown. Cool if you have time or carefully squeeze the garlic out of the skin with thick heat proof gloves.
The garlic will keep refrigerated a day or two.
A small potato is about 134 calories, 3.6 g protein (10.7%), and .1 g fat (.7%) That’s about a cup of cooked potato.
A medium potato is about 168 calories/4.6 g protein/.2 g fat
A large potato is about 292 calories/ 7.9 g protein/.3 g fat
A two inch long sweet potato is about 103 calories/2.3 g protein (8.9%)/.2 g fat (.2%) That’s about 2/3 c. cooked sweet potato. A cup of cooked sweet potato is about 158 calories/2 g protein/.2 g fat.
Garlic is about 4 calories per clove, so 4 cloves would be about 16 calories, plus about 7 calories for 1 ½ t. tamari.