When thinking of a healthy french fry, think zucchini. When thinking of eating this at a McDonalds, wait for pigs to fly.

French fries seem easy enough – just a matter of potatoes and frying oil, right? Wrong. The kind of fast-food fries we’re used to aren’t as straightforward as they seem. McDonald’s French Fries contain the likes of natural beef flavor (wheat and milk derivatives), citric acid, dextrose, sodium acid pyrophosphate, hydrogenated oils, stabilizer tertiary butylhydroquinone, and anti-foaming agent dimethylopolysiloxane. Many of these artificial ingredients are dangerous in large quantities and overall toxic in your body.

One medium serving (117 grams) of McDonald’s French Fries packs 380 calories, 19 grams of fat, 270 milligrams of sodium, and 48 grams of carbohydrates. With one serving accounting for nearly 30 percent of your daily value of fat, the 5 grams of dietary fiber and vitamin C calcium, and iron quantities, albeit scant to begin with, are vastly overshadowed. The carbohydrate count isn’t doing any favors to your waistline either.

With these stats, there is room for a serious makeover. To lower the fat, this recipe requires baking the fries, which are lightly coated with olive oil. I also used zucchini as the base to slash the carbohydrate load. Zucchini won’t crisp quite like a potato when baked, but it will firm slightly and taste absolutely crave-worthy. The corn flour helps to achieve a crispy brown coating, but if you want a firmer fry, replace the zucchini with a sweet potato or white potato. Regardless of how you alter the base vegetable or ratio of spices, you are bound to end up with a healthier alternative to the Micky D’s classic.

Spicy Zucchini Fries

Serves 1-2

Ingredients:

• 1 large zucchini
• 1/4 cup corn flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt and pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1/8 teaspoon turmeric
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.

Cut off both ends of the zucchini and slice it along its length into 1/2-inch pieces.

Set aside one of the rounded edge slices and turn zucchini onto its side so it is lying flat. Again, slice lengthwise into 1/2-inch thick pieces to create French fries shapes.

In a medium bowl, toss zucchini strips with corn flour, salt, pepper, turmeric, oregano, red pepper flakes, and olive oil until each fry is evenly coated with the spices and oil.

Lay fries out on a baking sheet so each has its own place.

Bake for 45 minutes or until browned and slightly crisped. Serve with herbs and ketchup!

Bon Appetit!

Aylin Erman currently resides in Istanbul and is creator of plant-based recipe website GlowKitchen.

The post Nutritional Breakdown: Revamping the McDonald’s French Fry appeared first on EcoSalon.

Olive oil ice cream and gelato are the darlings of the moment on restaurant dessert menus. It’s gotten to where you practically expect to see it before you even look at the menu. Depending on how jaded you are, you’re either excited by this, or bored and ready for the next thing.

Olive oil in sweets is really not new. Olive oil producing countries like Spain, Portugal, and Italy have been baking with olive oil forever. In more recent years, health conscious and vegan bakers have experimented with every non-animal fat under the sun.

But today’s modern manifestations of olive oil desserts are more about showcasing the flavor of the oil itself and pairing it with complementary tastes.

Both restaurant chefs and home cooks at the top of their game know that olive oil has a rich, nutty, sexy flavor that melds lusciously with common dessert ingredients like citrus and chocolate. Olive oil in desserts is a tributary of the sweet-savory dessert trend epitomized by the now ubiquitous (but still utterly delicious) salted caramel archetype. As such, olive oil can be successfully paired with salt and pungent, savory herbs like rosemary in many preparations. For examples, check out this rundown of olive oil desserts in LA restaurants from 2008 (that date proves we’re probably peaking).

For now, it’s olive oil’s sweet moment in time. Give some of these recipes a try before the green elixir becomes the kiwifruit of 2011.

This recipe for chocolate mousse with olive oil and flaky salt from Chow.com had me salivating as soon as I read it. And I don’t even like chocolate mousse.

Speaking of chocolate, this Rosemary Chocolate Tea Cake posted by The Occasional Cook comes from one of my favorite books of 2010, Good to the Grain, by Kim Boyce, and I’m happy for the reminder to try it.

Panna Cotta with Olive Oil and Thyme from Taste with Your Eyes sounds like my idea of heaven.

If you want to replicate the olive oil ice cream you’ve had in restaurants, I’d suggest this recipe from David Lebovitz’s book, The Perfect Scoop, via Serious Eats.

And finally, for a more traditional take, try Portuguese food expert David Leite’s Lemon and Black Olive Cookies.

Editor’s note: This is a new column by Vanessa Barrington. For the lighter side of all things foodie, read Overcooked weekly. Overcooked: helping you make the most of today’s trendiest ingredient…before it’s overdone. Be sure to catch Vanessa’s original EcoSalon column, The Green Plate, on the environmental, social, and political issues related to what and how we eat.

Photo Courtesy of Lori Lynn at Taste with the Eyes.

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