This often-underrated vegetable has been a staple of the Kiwi diet, dating back to the 10th century when Māori first arrived in New Zealand. While we often only think of kumara’s carbohydrate content when it comes to nutrition, kumara provides range of health-promoting nutrients including Vitamin C and Vitamin A.
Kumara can be quite different to cook, compared to Potato Fries so we thought we’d share our few tips here on the best ways to cook these.
So, before we share our cooking methods a few quick tips from our crew:
- If you’re cooking your fries in the oven, make sure they’re evenly spared on your lined baking tray so they aren’t too crowded. Crowding the baking tray means they will steam rather than bake which leads to soggy fries. And no one likes soggy fries.
- Kumara’s high natural sugar content means they tend to brown and caramelise faster than potato. But keep an eye on them as they near the end of their cooking time and you’ll be set!
Cooking Methods
Roast: Preheat your oven to 180C. Place frozen fries on a lined oven tray. Drizzle with oil and place in the oven for 40 minutes, turning regular. Remove from oven and immediately sprinkle with salt.
Airfry: Place the frozen kumara fries in the airfryer. Add 1 -2 tbsp olive oil. Cook for 35 minutes, depending on your airfryer setting or until golden and crispy. Sprinkle with salt and enjoy with a side of aioli.
Deepfry: Heat the oil to 180C. Fry the chips for 8 – 9 minutes or until slightly golden and crispy. Remove and shake off excess oil.
Add a bit of fancy
Why not try a seasoning on your fries? Try a mix of 2 tbsp honey and 10g toasted sesame seeds. Drizzle the honey and sesame seeds on the fries in the last 5 minutes of cooking and return to the ove. This will allow the honey to caramelise. Serve with a sprinkle of herbs – we like to use chopped mint.
Here at Kin & Crop, our fave method of cooking kumara fries is using our trusty airfryer – nice and simple and creates a great crispiness to them without the added fat of the deepfryer.
Add a sprinkle of salt with a side of aioli, nice and simple. How do you enjoy yours? We’d love to hear from you!
From our kin to your crew.
