I had my youngest sister in mind when I created this salad.
One day my sister and I had a conversation about salads. I have no idea how we even got on the topic. Anyway, we said that everyone knows that a salad is supposed to be healthy. Therefore we concluded that you could put whatever you wanted on it and the entire plate of food would still all healthy. Let’s add ice cream, doughnuts, and cookies! Yes, in our minds, if it’s on a bed of lettuce, all that junk food instantly becomes healthy. 😉 Unfortunately, we both know that’s not the reality but it was still fun to joke about it.
Along similar lines of thinking, I was trying to think of a fun way to enjoy a salad, knowing full well that it might not be a healthy one. As much as I love my desserts, I couldn’t imagine eating ice cream on a salad so my mind turned to french fries, one of the world’s ultimate comfort foods.
Exceeeeeept, I baked the french fries in the oven! Does that mean that this salad is healthy? 😉
If you don’t like my idea of a french fry salad (and why not?) then feel free to use an awesome french fry recipe without the salad. I once again called in my husband for his ninja cutting skills with these. They were so consistent that there were almost none of them that ended up too crispy or limp. Obviously when you are making your own homemade fries you’ll have better luck if they all look the same.
Back to the part where we pretend this is a fun salad… The french fries sort of act like croutons in a Ceasar salad. Can you see where I’m going with that or is it just me? These fries have so much flavor going on that all you need is a simple dressing and some lettuce to seal the deal. I found this vinaigrette dressing and I loved that I already had all of the ingredients. I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it because I’m not a fan of mustard, but somehow it works with the seasoned fries and it’s amazing! (Don’t tell my husband I liked something with mustard, he’s been trying to break me down with that for years.)
Have I convinced you that a french fry salad is worth trying? Don’t worry if the answer is no, because my husband gave me a funny face when I mentioned this idea to him. Perhaps it’s the creative food blogger in me or maybe I’ve just created the next best thing… Move over greasy hamburger! 🙂
French Fry Salad Recipe
(Makes 2 servings)
Ingredients for Crispy Baked French Fries:
- 3/4 tablespoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
- 1/4 teaspoon dried basil
- pinch of black pepper
- 1 potato
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 1 tablespoon Parmesan cheese, grated
Ingredients for Classic Vinaigrette Dressing:
- 1 and 1/2 tablespoons vinegar
- 3 tablespoons oil
- 1 tablespoon shallot, minced
- 1 tablespoon mustard (I used spicy brown mustard)
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
Ingredients for Salad:
- about 2 cups lettuce (I used romaine lettuce)
- Crispy Baked French Fries
- Classic Vinaigrette Dressing
- sprinkling of Parmesan cheese, grated
Directions for Crispy Baked French Fries:
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
- Line a baking sheet with tin foil, parchment paper, or a silicone mat and set it aside.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the salt, chili powder, dried basil, and black pepper and set the seasoning aside.
- Peel and wash the potato.
- Cut the ends off and julienne the rest of the potato, about 1/4 inch wide.
- Place the potato pieces in a bowl of water and let them soak for about 30 minutes.
- After the potato pieces have soaked, drain and rinse them. Lay them down on a paper towel an blot the top with another paper towel to absorb the excess moisture.
- Place the potato pieces on the prepared baking sheet.
- Pour the oil on top of the potato pieces.
- Sprinkle half of the seasoning on top of the potato pieces and toss them around, making sure to coat them all with the oil and seasoning.
- Arrange the potato pieces into a single layer on the baking sheet.
- Bake them in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, turning them over half way through the cooking time.
- Turn the oven heat up to 425 degrees F and cook for an additional 10 to 15 minutes or until golden brown. (Note, I kept the potato pieces in the oven while it was going from 400 to 425 degrees.)
- When you remove the potato pieces from the oven, sprinkle with the remaining half of the seasoning and the grated Parmesan cheese.
Directions for Classic Vinaigrette Dressing:
- In a small bowl, whisk together the vinegar, oil, minced shallot, mustard, salt and black pepper.
Directions for Salad:
- For each plate, lay down about 1 cup of lettuce.
- Top with some Crispy Baked French Fries.
- Pour half of the Classic Vinaigrette Dressing on top.
- Sprinkle with grated Parmesan cheese.
Crispy Baked French Fries adapted from: Layers of Happiness
Classic Vinaigrette Dressing source: My Recipes
French Fry Salad Source: Tina’s Chic Corner
Here are some other sassy salads.
Now that is a good way to ‘pimp’ up a salad. I love it! 🙂 I’d be waaaay more inclined to eat a salad that listed one of the ingredients as a french fry.
Wahoo!
What a crazy good idea! Loving it
Thank you!
Umm…this is PERFECT. Before you even mentioned it I was thinking to myself “well they’re kind of just like giant croutons…”. Great minds 😉 But really though. Those fries look amazing and I’m totally on board with this french fry salad!
Great minds think alike! 🙂
Love it! Everyone knows everything is better with potatoes! I will think of your baked fries as croutons. It makes perfect sense to me!
Hehe… I’m glad it makes sense to someone other than me. 🙂
My friends always laugh at me because my favorite meal, when we go to Old Chicago, is their side salad–which is just lettuce, tomatoes, red onion, cucumbers, carrots & croutons, though I tell them to leave off the croutons–and french fries. I think french fries and salad are the perfect combination. Now I can just tell them the fries are my croutons! I am definitely going to have to make this recipe!!
Lol! Love that! 🙂
Hi. I live in Pa. We have steak or chicken salad with fry’s on Yummy.