As you may have noticed I took last week off from writing my blog. I had a date night with my other half, a small party that Sunday and Thanksgiving. There seemed too much food and not enough time to write. Taking a week off was good but I am ready to jump right back in and so here I am.
On Saturday we spend the day working on making gingerbread cookies. We were supposed to make gingerbread men but my daughter had other ideas and wanted to use every cookie cutter we owned to get a good variety of shapes. Truthfully, this made it easier for me to eat a few as well. Making full sized gingerbread men the recipe should only have made about 10 cookies. Making a bunch of different shapes and sizes meant 28 cookies and some were pretty small. Therefore, I got to nab one on Saturday and another on Sunday without the guilt of eating so many calories all at once for a single cookie. Even my husband, who rarely does much in the kitchen, helped decorate for a bit.
Once everything went back to normal yesterday I had a craving for one of my favorite things. I had mentioned in the previous blog that I have always loved potatoes. I will expand on that and say I have also always had a special place in my heart for loaded potatoes... especially when they are french fries. When I moved to South Carolina I was shocked that they did not have as many fry options as I was used to having available. Growing up in Maryland I could always go in the local diner and find gravy fries, cheese fries, disco fries, pizza fries, crabby fries and more. When I moved to the south I discovered that was a regional thing. In fact, there are a lot of things I thought were everywhere but found out differently when I moved.
Since that time I did find a food truck in the area that makes chorizo fries and they have become a huge favorite. In fact, my best friend in South Carolina has also begun to have an obsession with these chorizo fries and so I needed to find a way to make them at home without going too overboard in the calories department. Chorizo is already a greasy type of Mexican sausage and so it is hard to cut any fat or calories while eating that but the other ingredients are easy enough to control that as long as you stick to a single serving of the sausage you can have these loaded fries without going too overboard.
In order to bring the calories down to a more reasonable number the first thing I did was open my early Christmas present from my husband. He bought me the new Ninja Foodie 8 quart 9-in-1 Deluxe XL. This is able to pressure cook and air fry and do all manner of other things. For this recipe I used the sautee function and the air fryer function. As I start playing with all the features and functions I am sure you will be seeing more recipes featuring this product just because I love to play with new kitchen gadgets whenever I have the chance.
Once we had our method of cooking I pulled out my main ingredients. Turnip to replace the fried potatoes, a single link of chorizo, frozen seasoning blend vegetables and reduced fat Mexican blend cheese. I like using the frozen seasoning blend vegetables for this simply because I didn't want to spend a lot of time chopping when I was only making a single serving of something for myself. If I had been making a larger batch I am sure I would have actually chopped some onions and peppers to mix in but when I am not making a lot at once I don't always see the point in putting in the extra work when there is a simple solution.
In order to get started I turned on the sautee function of my Ninja Foodie. You can obviously also do this on the stove top. Pull casing off of the chorizo and add the meat as well as 1/4 cup of frozen vegetables to your Foodie or to a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Break up the meat and cook until browned and vegetables are soft. Remove from cookware to a plate on the side for topping the fries in a few minutes. If you see pieces of fat in the chorizo as you cook it and want to remove those that is perfectly fine. I try to do so as it is already a greasy sausage and if I can reduce that a bit I will. Also, you can feel free to drain it over paper towels in order to obsorb some of the fat and grease while you work on your fries.
Once your chorizo is cooked and on the side it is time to work on your fries. Yay! There are many times I have made my turnip fries without loading them with chorizo or anything else. This part is great for beating those fry cravings and just dipping in some sugar free ketchup. They may not be a perfect replacement but it certainly helps when the cravings strike hard.
Peel your turnip and cut it into french fry shapes. I then seasoned mine with a 1/2 tbsp of grapeseed oil and a sprinkle of seasoning from Red Robin restaurants. You can season yours however you like. A sprinkle of salt & pepper, a dash of garlic powder, a different type of seasoning salt or whatever works for you. Also, use whatever oil you have on hand. I like the grapeseed oil for this as it is a high heat oil and the flavor does not seem to get in the way of the other flavors in this recipe. I have also used a spritz of Pam cooking spray, olive oil or canola oil in the past. Whatever oil you have on hand will be fine.
Once I have seasoned the fries place them in the air fryer and cook at 390° for 10 minutes. You may want to give the basket a toss at about the half way mark if your fries are overlapping in the basket. You can also bake them in the oven until they begin to brown. If I am eating them with ketchup I may leave them for a couple extra minutes but since we're loading these up I don't want them to be overdone.
Once you have your fries and your chorizo all cooked it is time to load everything on top! Use a piece of aluminum foil for your base as you'll be placing these back in your air fryer to melt your cheese and make sure everything is toasty.
Place the fries, then the chorizo and then a couple tablespoons of shredded cheese on your foil. You may want to fold up the edges a bit so it will be easier to remove from the air fryer once you are finished. If there is anything else you want toasted with is feel free to add it at this time. I have added tomatoes, extra onion and other things in the past. Remember, this is your treat. Add whatever you really want on top of it.
Once you have everything loaded the way you want put it back in the air fryer for about 5 minutes. Feel free to check it and adjust the time as needed. You want the cheese to be melty and maybe even a little browned. Once it comes out move it to a plate and top with your favorite condiments. I used a bit of salad I had previously cut, some salsa and my Mexicali Dip (which can be found here https://pamperedlinny.wixsite.com/coffee-required/post/trips-to-aldi-mexicali-dip if you would like to make it as well). Pico, hot sauce and sour cream are also all fantastic toppings to these fries.
Cravings for all the things that aren't healthy are killer when you are trying hard to stay on track and I am a huge fan of finding a way to still have what I am craving without having to give up or fall off course. This plate was 475 calories. It may be a bit high for your every day snack but it is half of what it would be at that food truck that we love. If I ever find chorizo that is less that 200 calories for a link I will be able to bring that down even more. I hope you enjoy this one as much as I do.
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