Use Your Spiralizer To Make Homemade Shoestring Fries With Way Less Effort

Ultra-crispy shoestring fries are a mouth-wateringly good comfort food dish. Whether seasoned with a simple sprinkling of salt, a spicy blanket of paprika, or a generous grating of Parmesan, these golden frites are perfect as a crunchy topping, moreish snack, or satisfying side. The only hurdle to making them on the regular is the energy it takes to prep the potatoes into the perfect julienned shape. The solution? Use your spiralizer, instead of a knife, to make shoestring fries with way less effort.

A spiralizer is a brilliant tool for making zucchini noodles for a pasta dish, producing corkscrew-shaped cucumber for fresh salads, and preparing red onions for homemade pickles. It also creates the most amazing shoestring fries that are thin enough to get crispy on the outside without becoming overly crunchy in the center. While slicing potatoes into fine matchsticks with a sharp knife may do the same trick, it also takes more time, effort, and dexterity than using a spiralizer. Besides, the thickness of fries that have been julienned by hand is rarely consistent, which means your super thin taters will cook through at different rates when deep fried. Though a mandoline is a useful alternative for achieving identically shaped frites, you'll need to be extra careful of the extremely sharp blades when slicing through the potatoes at speed.

Select a spiralizer blade with the finest attachment to make shoestring fries that are as thin as, you guessed it, a shoestring. For a wider fry, choose a blade that produces bigger strands. The diameter of shoestring fries varies from matchstick thin to anything as thick as a pencil.

Wash your potato well before putting it in the spiralizer and turn the crank to create your fries. The strands produced by the machine will have a curvy, spiral shape, mimicking the look of curly fries. To transform them into straighter shoestring fries, simply snip them to size with kitchen scissors, or simply fry them whole for a super-long corkscrew-shaped shoestring that looks cool when served sizzling hot from the fryer. As always, fry your frites in small batches for optimum crispness, and sprinkle over your seasonings while they're still hot so they can better absorb all that high-flavored goodness. Better yet, top them with cheese and broil for a couple of minutes to make gooey but crispy shoestring nachos!