Good Ways To Season French Fries

Healthy eating and French fries do not usually go together, but reduce the salt content of your fries with a simple change of seasoning. You don't have to limit your foray into French fries to the humble potato, either. Instead of the heavily-salted, deep-fried potato strips seen in fast-food joints and on school lunch menus, try eggplant, zucchini, sweet potato, camote, turnip, rutabaga or even carrot fries, seasoned with everything from curry to pumpkin pie spice.

The Italian Job

To give fries an Italian makeover, you can toss 2 cups of French-cut potatoes into a mixture two whisked egg whites seasoned with oregano, marjoram, parsley, basil and black pepper. When coated with the seasoned egg whites and baked at 425 degrees Fahrenheit, the fries turn out extra crispy, according to the founder and editor of StartCooking.com, Kathy Maister, a former home economics teacher. Bake the fries until no trace of glossiness remains on any of the fries to ensure that the egg coating reaches more than 160 degrees Fahrenheit to prevent salmonella or other bacteria from spoiling your delicious fries.

Enter the Dragon

Huajiao, or Sichuan pepper florets, and red Thai chili peppers combine to give your fries a fiery, lemon-tinged tingle known as ma la. Ma la combines the tingle from the huajiao florets and the burn from the capsaicin in the red chili peppers, making it possible to eliminate all the salt from your fries, according to Culinary Institute of America chef, Shirley Cheng.

The French Connection

French fries get a taste of the Riviera with herbes de Provence -- a mixture of bay leaf, thyme, fennel, rosemary, chervil, oregano, summer savory, tarragon, mint, marjoram, orange zest and lavender. For an interesting change of pace, you can use 1-inch thick eggplant and zucchini strips as a stand-in for potatoes, once you dehydrate them in the oven on low heat for a few hours.

How the West Was Won

For fries worthy of Rooster Cogburn, douse pre-baked, thick-cut oven fries with three to five shakes of hot sauce and give them a toss in dried, minced-onion flakes, lime zest and cilantro. Served with a juicy, medium-rare steak and a side of ranch beans, you'll have a line at the back of the chuck wagon in no time.

White Christmas

Sweet potato fries evoke the flavor of that Thanksgiving and Christmas classic, the humble pumpkin pie. Soaking French-cut sweet potatoes in vanilla before tossing them with a mixture of ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg turns ordinary candied yams into a treat worthy of Santa's cookie plate. Baking the sweet potato fries on a cookie sheet with at least 1/8-inch space between each fry ensures that they will not steam each other while they cook, leaving you with soggy fries, advises Desiree Ward, coauthor of "Healthy Holiday Favorites" and "Green Smoothie Girl Four Recipe Book Collection." This works just as well for carrot sticks or camote, a root vegetable similar to yams.