No-potato fries, and NZ vs US sweet potatoessteemCreated with Sketch.

in #recipes7 years ago (edited)

We don’t go well on potatoes in our house. Unless you call excruciating pain “going well”. But we love fries, or chips as we call them in New Zealand. After all, who doesn’t?

So I make “chips” out of a variety of different vegetables. Really, they’re just roast veges, but cut them in fingers and they can be called chips. Or “chups” if you have a strong kiwi accent.

french-fries2.jpg

If you’re doing GAPS, SCD or any other starch-free diet, pumpkin is the closest you’re going to get, especially butternut. I’ve experimented with other vegetables like carrot, zucchini, daikon radish and even eggplant. @sift666 likes zucchini chips the best, especially if they get nice and caramelised, but usually they come out more soggy than chip like.

More chip like, which would be Paleo or whole food, but not starch free, are kumara or yam chips. But NZ yams are completely different than US yams, and if you’re outside NZ, you may not have even heard of kumara (sometimes spelt kumera). So first we need to distinguish between different types of what can loosely be grouped together as sweet potatoes.

First let’s look at the botanical groupings.

They fall into three different families:

• These are all sweet potatoes from the Morning glory family (Ipomoea batatas), but with different characteristics. Some are dry fleshed and some are moist fleshed.
o The vegetables commonly called sweet potatoes in the US. These come with different coloured flesh (white, yellow and even purple) and are usually dry fleshed.
o The vegetable called a yam (or sweet potato yam) in the US. These are actually moist fleshed sweet potatoes and not true yams at all.
o The different varieties of NZ kumara are all sweet potatoes. Some are dry and some moist fleshed.

• The vegetable called a yam in NZ and Australia is also not a true yam. It comes from the South American Andes and is also called an oca (Oxalis tuberosa). As its name suggests, it contains oxalates, which are not neutralised when cooked. The traditional method of reducing oxalates is to leave them out in the sun for several days, after which they can be eaten raw or cooked.

• A true yam is of the Dioscorea family and these are not widely available, at least in NZ. The wild yam that is used for balancing female hormones is also in this family.

If you have an NZ recipe and want to convert it to US types

This photo from the website http://www.vegetables.co.nz/ shows gold, orange and red kumara.

Kumara-Red-Gold-Orange.jpg

• Red kumara (or Owairaka Red) is the most common. It has red skin, creamy white flesh, and is quite dry. From what I can tell it’s Closest US equivalent would be the Sweet Potatos: White or yellow fleshed; Jersey; or Kotobuki Japanese
• Gold kumera (or Toka Toka) has light golden skin and flesh. It’s sweeter than red, fairly dry. Possibly most like a US garnet yam.
• Orange kumera (or Beauregard) has a dark orange skin, orange flesh. It’s much moister with a sweet flavour. Possibly most like US Beauregard or Jewel yam.

This photo from the same website shows the three different yams types available here. In the US, look for Oca, NZ yam or tuberous shamrock.

Yams-Varieties.jpg

If you have a US recipe and want to convert to NZ types:

I got my info about US sweet potatoes and yams mostly from this website. I’ve eaten sweet potato fries, but that’s my only experience with US types. So this is what I would try, but I am largely guessing! Please feel free to add your comments below if you can clarify further.

• Sweet potato seems to mean a dry-fleshed sweet potato, so try a red or gold kumera. For sweet potato fries, although the colour is different, I think the gold would be best.
• If the recipe says yam, or yam-sweet potato, or sweet potato yam, this seems to mean a moist fleshed variety – I’d try an orange (Beauregard) kumera

Now, finally, on to the recipe!

I used apricot yams, but other colours come out just the same. If you can’t find NZ yams, you can make the same recipe with sweet potatoes, you’ll just have to cut each one into more pieces.

I don’t usually use baking paper when I’m roasting veges, but yams have a habit of sticking, so this time, I lined my roasting dish with baking paper.

Then I tossed in a generous dollop of pork lard and put it into the oven (set to 175C / 350F) for the fat to melt. Duck fat, chicken fat, or tallow would all work fine as well. I like to use animal fats for roasting as they are safe to cook at higher temperatures. But if you don’t use animal fats, you can use coconut oil, which is a safe fat for heating, but will give a bit of a coconut flavour. Olive oil is ok, but you will lose some of the nutritional value of the oil.

While the fat was melting, I chopped the ends off the yams, and cut off any manky bits. Then I cut them into quarters lengthways. Into the roasting pan with a good sprinkling of sea salt, and then toss the veges, fat and salt together well. (manky = rotten or nasty looking)

yams1.jpg

Cook for about an hour till they are soft when poked with a sharp knife. Half way through, turn them and mix them round again with a large spatula.

We had them with steamed broccoli and mince patties, but you can use them anywhere you’d use chips (fries).

yam2.jpg

Thanks for reading

Photos by myself or from Pixabay, unless otherwise stated.

Follow me for more health, nutrition, food, lifestyle and recipe posts.

Contact me in SteemitChat to ask about one on one nutritional coaching or EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) sessions by Skype. (But don’t just say Hello. Tell me straight away why you’re messaging, without waiting for me to say Hello back.) Steem, other altcoins or Paypal accepted.

Some of my previous RECIPES AND KITCHEN TIPS:

BREAKFASTS –
Choc Blackcurrant Smoothie
Feijoa Pear Smoothie
Cashew Porridge
Other Breakfast ideas
BREADS & BAKING -
Grain free, dairy free Pumpkin & Cashew Bread
Grain Free Banana Cashew muffins
Carrot Almond bread
Vegetable muffins
Grain free cheese muffins
Happy birthday to me! with birthday cake recipe…
Grain Free Apple Cashew Walnut Muffins
Carrot Cashew Blender Bread
Stove top grain free bread
Apple Walnut Coconut Flour muffins
SOUPS & DINNERS –
Warming winter soup
Paleo Cottage Pie
I judged the Steemit Culinary Challenge: Paleo
SNACKS & FINGER FOODS –
Healthy Chocolate & Fudge
Jerky with vegetables
Choco-mallow protein bars
Grain free Fruit & Nut bar
Finger food for a gathering
Real food ideas for snacks and road trips
FESTIVE –
Festive smoothies for Xmas morning ~
Orange Cranberry Xmas Breakfast Muffins ~
Crisp & crunchy Xmas cheese stars
Best ever (and easiest) Christmas cake
Xmas menu ideas
Planning your holiday eating to be a bit more balanced
Paleo Easter Buns (coconut-almond flours, gluten and starch free, lowish carb)
Even yummier Paleo Easter Buns
KITCHEN TIPS & MENUS –
Tip for storing ginger & tumeric ~
Equipment for the real food kitchen
For MORE RECIPES and my 15 step Whole Food cooking course, see my recipe website.

If you’re from New Zealand (Aotearoa) and are looking for other kiwis, see the list on this post. Let me know if you want to be added, or want to add your location.

Sort:  

mmm chips of all types..yum :)

Can't go wrong with some fush and chups, eh bro?

haha I can't stop laughing!
but you forgot the chur in eh chur bro!

That's me - behind the times, lol.

lol, hard to keep up, it's changing too fast

Hello @kiwideb I've written an article about you check it out if you can thanks.

30 Best Steemians Of The Day To Follow 19th July 2017

https://steemit.com/funny/@jzeek/30-best-steemians-of-the-day-to-follow-19th-july-2017

Yum! Yesterday I cut a sweet potatoe in thin round slices and cooked it at a medium temperature on a baking tray coated in olive oil and they turned out looking almost exactly like potatoe crisps. And they were delicious, they needed no extra flavouring.

Oh, that would be yummo! You can also do a little mini pizza thing with the rounds, or a grain free "bun" for burgers. Beetroot makes yummy crisps too.

I will try them. I like the pizza idea.

I wonder if we have those in the Philippines hmm Looks delicious! We have sweet potato, not sure about yams though. Is there any way to quickly tell if something has starch without researching them on the internet?

Yes, put a drop of iodine on it. If the iodine stays golden, no starch. If there is starch it will go either dark brown or black, depending which kind of starch.

Remember that no-starch is a remedial diet for people with gut problems (or if they've had the AMY1 gene test done, and know they genetically produce very little amylase) - there's no need to avoid starch if you digest it fine.

Ohhh that's interesting, put iodine on the object or do I have to dip it in liquid first?

Drip iodine on the item. Here's a pic of some foods that I've dripped iodine on, some are starch free and some have starch. See the cauli is still quite golden but the bread in front of it has black.

starch_test.jpg

Oh wow! I didn't imagine it to look like that! If you haven't told me, I swear I would think the food had gone rotten. It's still safe to eat even with the iodine, right? The black marked ones looks so unappetizing. There's science for you, folks haha!

No, that's for the purposes of testing only. Test a small portion and eat the rest. It would be not very nice tasting with the iodine.

Ahh I see. Yeah, I remember iodine splashing on my in chemistry class. Not a taste I would want to repeat. So bitter. But, is it hazardous to eat though?

As long as it's food or pharmaceutical grade , no it's not hazardous. In fact, so many people are iodine deficient, it's probably beneficial. But that's not how I would take supplemental iodine. I usually put it on my skin to absorb at it's own rate, or would take it in water. If ingesting, you need to gradually increase your dose, then later on gradually decrease it again.

Your hubs sent my over to look since I'm on natural methods to ease Rheumatoid Arthritis. I was in California and now in Bangkok. The sweet potatoes are different here too, but I have never seen anything like yours! Those look fantastic.

I tried to eat clean in California, but it was so hard! Now I get delicious sweet potatoes steamed on the street for cheap and they are a staple. I have no way to cook, so I have to rely on my food vendors.

I do miss my sweet potato fries though :)

Upvoted, resteemed, and I was already following.

I saw your comments on his post and have been meaning to pop over and say hello to you. When I was first here, I posted about the GAPS diet, and was meaning to post about AIP (Autoimmune Paleo) but never quite got to it.

Having to rely on food vendors must make things difficult, but good to know that Thailand is easier.

Some other people you might like find interesting: @jenncapestany @alanfreestone @sallylloyd @rebeccaryan

Thank you so much, Deb. I am so lucky to be here and to know what I can and cannot eat. Thanks for the callouts :) Much appreciated.

We do another way, can't remember what it's called though.
dipping veges like eggplant, carrots, courgettes into cornflour then frying them in oil, so yummy and crispy but oily.

Those would probably have a better crispy outside than my way. Always good to have options!

Great post, thanks for sharing it with us always love the old fish and chips. Thank you from across the ditch.

Don't we all, mate? Just been over checking out your blog - gotta try my take on your Hummingbird cake.

I have started making zucchini "chips" this summer, and I also tried avocado "chips" too! I love avocado, but I didn't like them baked as well as fresh. I loved the zucchini ones! I make sweet potato fries frequently and love those as well. Thanks for sharing!

You have to try different things cos you never know what will work out. I don't think I'd go for the avocado ones either!

Honestly, there was a very "fishy" taste to them. And I really dislike fish!!! So if you do like fish, you may enjoy them! I'm not sure where that taste came from, because I can gobble fresh avocado by the mouthful.

I fell for you coz fries are so yummy! These I bet are tasty too. They look great. As an aside, I have substituted mashed cauliflower for mashed potatoes and it has worked well:)

Ah, yes, faux-tatoes are very handy for those who can't have starches or nightshades. You might like my recipe for Paleo cottage pie that I posted a few moths back:
https://steemit.com/recipes/@kiwideb/paleo-cottage-pie-low-carb-nightshade-free

Oh yes very good. That was 11 months ago! Time does fly here on Steemit!

It certainly does. Almost a year has flown by and soon I'll be doing a "happy first Steemit birthday to me" post :0)

What I do when I do roast potatoes or roast sweet potato wedges is nuke them in the microwave for 1/3rd of the usual cooking time... then roast them. Gives a crispy outside, mash inside finish... in half the cooking time..not sure that would work for yams tho.

That sounds like an excellent technique.

Being rather a purist, if that's the right word in this case, I went from being an early adopter of microwaves to being wary of them. There is some evidence of them damaging proteins, but maybe they are ok for carbs. Ok for you healthy buggers*, who don't have to be too particular, anyway ;-)

* bearing in mind that bugger is a term almost of affection here

Back with another quality post!! Thanks for some really useful information @kiwideb.

Coin Marketplace

STEEM 0.28
TRX 0.12
JST 0.034
BTC 63463.10
ETH 3243.17
USDT 1.00
SBD 4.45