Baked French Fries w/ Sun-dried Tomato and Garlic Aioli

      I've never made homemade baked fries before, and to stray away from the deep fryer we decided to give it a shot. We made these baked fries to accompany avocado stuffed burgers and they were so delicious and simple. I made a sun dried tomato and garlic aioli to go with them and it was so good as well! It's sweet but you can add a kick with cayenne pepper or chili powder and it is super tastey - it also goes GREAT on a burger, especially with avocado! (There's something about avocados and sun dried tomatoes...MmmmMm I'll have to work more with that combination!)

  

       Baking them at a high temperature still allows them to crisp up nicely, and with such a flavorful sauce, deep frying them really isn't necessary! (Never thought I'd say that...) Only three potatoes makes a large cookie sheet full! That would generally feed four or so people as a side, but we were real hungry.....I'd be ashamed to say only two of us ate the whole pan buttttt I'm not because they were too good! Addicting! It's not my fault!

So next time you're thinking of deep frying some fries, turn the oven on instead! 

Baked French Fries

(To make a large cookie sheet full)

Ingredients:

3 medium baking potatoes

3 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp onion powder

1/2 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp chili powder

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Peel potatoes (optional) and cut into slices of desired thickness (1/4 inch-1/2 inch). Toss in bowl with olive oil and spices to coat. Spread flat on baking sheet and bake in preheated oven for about 30 minutes - depending on thickness - taking them out to turn every 8-10 minutes. 

Sun-dried Tomato and Garlic Aioli

Ingredients:

1/2 cup mayo

1/4 cup sun dried tomatoes

1/2 cup boiling water

2 cloves minced garlic

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1 1/2 tsp lemon juice

1 tbsp olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

1/4 tsp chili powder

heaping 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)

Directions:

Soak tomatoes in boiling water for about five minutes. Remove and chop. Put mayo, tomatoes, olive oil, lemon juice and garlic in food processor and process until tomatoes are small chunks. Stir in garlic powder, salt, pepper, chili powder and cayenne.