Every whole food plant based blogger worth her weight in nutritional yeast has a version of oil-free fries that they love.
I’m happy to report that my version requires no special gadetry (e.g. air-fryer). Just 2 simple ingredients, your favorite knife, a baking sheet and your oven.
Finding yourself eating french fries after only two ingredients is all the reason in the world to celebrate!
Take a moment to watch my quick Oil-Free Steak Fries recipe video below, and let’s get jazzed about making these happen in your kitchen:
And I hope you’ll read on for lots more helpful info on these Oil-Free Steak Fries:
- whether you should eat potatoes when you’re following the nutritarian plan
- what kind of nutritional yeast to use (fortified or unfortified)
- my favorite dips, mashes and sauces that take these fries to the next level
- how I incorporate these Oil-Free Steak Fries into my nutritarian meals
So, let’s address the elephant in the room first…
Are these fries really Nutritarian?
If you’re still unsure about what exactly a nutritarian is, take a look at my start here page!
The main goal of the nutritrian diet is for you to eat for health excellence by choosing the most nutrient-dense fruits and veggies and eating lots of them. While also eating less non-nutritious foods.
Dr. Fuhrman doesn’t consider potatoes (except the sweet variety) to be a high-nutrient food. He also advises that not all people are candidates for eating these less-nutritious potato varieties.
I’ve written a whole Nutritarian Potato Primer that discusses, in detail, Dr. Fuhrman’s position on eating potatoes while following an Eat to Live diet.
After all the research I did for that guide, I’ve found there is definitely a seat for potatoes at the table and I enjoy them almost daily while following the plan.
You DO NOT need to be afraid of white potatoes as a nutritarian. And keep in mind that there’s some contention about this quasi-anti-potato stance in the broader whole food plant based community.
After doing the research for the Nutritarian Potato Primer this is how I enjoy potatoes as a nutritarian:
If you’re consistently meeting your 1 pound raw and 1 pound cooked veggies daily, you can have white potatoes as part of your 1 cup “whole grains” daily quota if you’re following the Aggressive Weight Loss Plan. Furthermore, in his maintenance plan, Dr. Furhman allows for 100 to 200 calories of low-nutrient or processed foods daily–so why not make potatoes part of that built-in leeway?
At the end of the post I’ll share with you exactly how I eat these fries “responsibly”–because I’m not going to lie, I could straight-up-100% eat the entire batch of these Oil-Free Steak Fries in one sitting.
Let’s take a Moment to Discuss Nutritional Yeast
You have two options with nutritional yeast (a.k.a. “nooch). Fortified and unfortified.
The story here on the fortified versus unfortified debate is folic acid. Dr. Fhurman has a wonderful article about the dangers of folic acid in your multivitamins that you can read here. Fortified nutritional yeast has folic acid added to the inactive dry yeast. Other vitamin additives in fortified nooch include B3, B6, B2, B1 and B12.
When I’m super ahead-of-the-game with stocking my pantry, I order un-fortified nutritional yeast online (because it’s heck-a-difficult to find it in stores).
These are my two favorite brands of unfortified nutritional yeast brands:
1. Sari Foods Co. Pure Natural Non-fortified Nutritional Yeast Flakes (8 oz.)
2. Dr. Fuhrman’s Unfortified Nutritional Yeast
But I’m going to be real with you guys.
With the amount of recipe development, pictures and videos I create for Hello Nutritarian, I often use plain, ordinary, find-it-easily-at-the-store, fortified yeast. Folic acid be damned.
I justify eating fortified yeast with the fact that I used to eat at Wendy’s daily in my SAD (Standard American Diet) years. If the only thing I have to worry about now is some free-radical-esque folic acid, I’m doing loads better than I used to.
The message here is use the yeast that’s right for your life right now–no judgments. Because, no matter the type of nutritional yeast you use, these Oil-Free Steak Fries are going to taste amazing!
Now, let’s talk about how it’s done…
How to Bake Oil-Free Steak Fries
How to Bake Oil-Free Steak FriesOne of the most popular recipes here on Hello Nutritarian are these Crispy Tofu Fingers. The nutritional yeast is what gives both the tofu fingers and these nutritarian steak fries a crispy-textured exterior and a creamy, soft interior. Cause that’s pretty much the hallmark of an awesome oil-free fry dontchathink?
You make these 2-ingredient oil-free fries happen by crusting them with nooch and baking them at 375° for about 30 minutes. I don’t own an air fryer but if you give this method a try using yours please let me know how they turn out in the comments below!
The result from using a basic oven is a lightly-crispy-textured crust followed by a tender, baked-potato like middle.
Get Your Dip On!
Actually, one of the things I love most about these Oil-Free Steak Fries is that you don’t really need to dip them in anything. The nooch really provides a savory flavor I love without requiring any salt or seasoning.
But what’s the fun of eating fries if you don’t get to dip them in something delicious?
And since we’re all about low-sodium, oil-free goodness around these parts, here are my favorite compliant dips to enjoy with these Oil-Free Steak Fries:
- No-Oil Nutritrian Cheese Sauce
- Extra-Creamy No-Oil Hummus
- Nutritrian BBQ Sauce
- Nutritrian Hot Sauce
- Cilantro Cashew Cream Sauce
- smashed Hass avocado
- Dr. Fuhrman’s Nutritarian Ketchup
Dr. Fuhrman’s Nutritarian Ketchup Product Review
I’ve been asked by readers to review some of Dr. Fuhrman’s products. And after attending his Culinary Getaway in 2017 and tasting recipes made with his products, I definitely wanted to start getting that feedback out to you.
So, first up is this Nutritarian Ketchup:
With just 7 whole food and organic ingredients it’s pretty much the cleanest ketchup you can get short of making it yourself. It’s sweetened with dates instead of sugar or high-fructose corn syrup (which is standard practice for all the ketchup on the market).
I thought it was a great nutrified version of ketchup!
It works beautifully with these Oil-Free Steak Fries and I also see it working well on a bean burger or a meatless loaf.
Enjoying Fries on a Nutritarian Diet
I like to eat my Oil-Free Steak Fries with my giant main-course salad (as you can see above). They make the most glorious “reward” for finishing your salad! But I also love adding these fries directly to my salads. Can we make “fralads” a thing now?
It’s impossible to go wrong here guys, BECAUSE YOU’RE EATING FRIES!
Oil-Free Steak Fries
These 2-ingredient oil-free baked fries are super easy to make and have no added fat or sodium!
Ingredients
- 4 red potatoes (about 1,476 g or 3" to 4 1/4" diameter)
- ¼ cup nutritional yeast
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 375° and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or Silpat mat.
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Wash potatoes and cut into "steak fry" wedges. Cut potato in half length-wise, then cut that half in half length-wise again. Now you have a wedge that's 1/4 of the potato. Cut that wedge into three sections (see video for guidance on cutting). Each potato will yield 12 fries for a total of 48 fries.
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Pour nutritional yeast into a flat dish. Dip each potato wedge into the nutritional yeast on each side. There's no need to coat the skin of the potato.
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Arrange coated potato wedges in a single layer on your prepared pan. Bake for 18 minutes then rotate the try. You do not need to flip the fries. Bake for another 17-18 minutes or just beginning to brown.
Recipe Video
Recipe Notes
Serve immediately while hot.
Recommended serving size if following the Aggressive Weight Loss nutritarian guidelines is 12 fries.
You can keep these fries in the fridge (in glass storage container) for up to 8 days but the texture will change if reheated in the microwave. I recommend toasting them up in a moderate oven for a few minutes for optimal texture.
I can’t wait to hear what you think of these Oil-Free Steak Fries! Please leave a rating and comment below!
Kristen, you are the BEST! Love the well thought out comments and details that you include. I am more of a sweet potato girl(…really, I yam!), tho’ I def wanna try this recipe with white potatoes 🙂
Hi Rosemary,
I’m SO happy to hear you enjoyed this recipe and thank you so very much for taking the time to review and leave such a lovely comment! I’m excited you’re going to try this with savory potatoes–although I’m sure it would work just as well with sweets!
xo, Kristen
I made these last night on my air fryer. Just one large potato cut up in to steak fry size for my wife and I. I rolled each piece in nutritional yeast as per this recipe. I do want to add that it was rather bland. My wife did not care for them at all. They were dry and no flavor. The way I normally make fries is to coat them lightly with avocado oil and season lightly with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Hands down much tastier than the nutritional yeast. I realize that salt is not a mainstay on the eat to live way of living but for the sake of comparing this recipe to the way I make them- there is no comparison taste wise. Needless to say I most likely will not re-use this recipe for my french fry recipe. What I probably will do, however is to add the nutritional yeast on top of my recipe for added nutrition.
Hi Joe, yeah I don’t think you compare oil-cooked potatoes to oil-free potatoes. The oil sends a signal to the brain that the food is more calorie dense and it sets off more of our pleasure receptors.
I will say that I didn’t design this recipe for the air fryer and if you use the same cooking times as recommended for the oven they will be too dry. But thanks for giving it a try and sharing your thoughts!