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Shoestring fries: Crispy, golden piles of super thin tangled potato fries. This Clean eating potato dish makes a yummy snack on it’s own or a great potato side. They’re easy to make and cook fast as they’re so thin, and I’ve not come across a child yet who turns these down!

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Shoestring Fries

Did you ever buy a spiralizer? You know, those must have kitchen gadgets you get all excited about and then never actually take out of the drawer again? Me too. While I never quite used it frequently for making vegetable spaghetti as it was intended, it’s very good for making these shoestring fries.

These are at their best when you start with long, curly very thin potato fries and the only way I’ve found to do this without owning any professional cooking equipment is with a spiralizer. I have a spiralizer like this, certainly nothing fancy, and it does the job well.

If you have an attachment for a food processor, it’ll be a piece of cake to make these. It does take a good ten minutes to shoestring a batch of 7-8 potatoes, but I don’t worry about peeling them and only wash and dry them before I start.

I bake these fries in the oven, so I can use a little (or a lot!) less oil than I would need to if I deep fried them, as many recipes do. There are literally just potato and very little oil, baked in the oven, and they crisp up like a dream!

The Best Potatoes

I use waxy potatoes for these fries as you need the potato to keep it’s shape. The floury potatoes I usually use for roasting, or wedges don’t work well for these. Because they’re so thin, if the potato starts to break down (as it does with floury potatoes) then the fries will become just a tray of shredded potato.

Grab the FREE 18 Meal Ideas CHEAT SHEET Here!

How To Cut Shoestring Fries

While I’m sure there’s something ‘proper’ to make shoestring potatoes, as a Mom and not a professional chef I use my spiralizer and it works just fine! If you don’t have one, you could cut these by hand with a very sharp knife, but I wouldn’t have the patience or time that’s going to take, so it might be a better idea to stick with regular fries!
Shoestring potatoes are characterized by their length and thiness, and I’m not convinced a knife would be able to replicate this.

You can buy a spiralizer like mine for under $10, or you can spend way more on something a bit fancier.

How To Make Shoestring Fries

Ingredients

Waxy potatoes – Use your judgement here. I use one medium potato per person. If you’re unsure, always add another couple of potatoes to the batch. With these, too many’s better than too few!
Olive oil – For every 6 potatoes you use, add 2 tbp of Olive oil
Sea salt – Once these are cooked, add a pinch or two of sea salt for the ultimate can’t-stop-eating-them bowl of fries!

Process

Wash and dry your potatoes
Heat the oven to 210/450
To spiralize, you may have to cut the potatoes to make them fit. If like mine, your spiralizer is quite narrow, simply cut the potato until it fits into the spiralizer opening. Repeat until all your potatoes are shoestring fries!
Lay the raw fries on some kitchen paper and dry them as much as possible. You want to get as much of the water out of them as you can. Add the fries to a bowl
In the bowl add the Olive oil and using your hands, mix the oil into the fries and make sure there’s a thin coating on all the potato
Lay the fries on a flat baking tray. You want to make sure they’re not piled too high on top of each other, or they won’t evenly cook. You may have to cook these in two batches, or use two trays in different shelves in the oven
Cook for 10 minutes. Take the tray out and using a fork, gently turn the fries and put them back in the oven until golden brown

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