Potato Double Take

A long time ago I got a coupon for two Simply Potatoes products [part of the foodbuzz taste maker program].

I rarely hit up conventional supermarkets since I’m a Whole Foods snob, but I finally made it to the store to redeem the coupons.  I like free.

I also like wheat free.

I’m not so sure about the rest of the additives, though…so I did my research.

Disodium Pyrophosphate – a food additive used to maintain the white color of the potato flesh

Potassium Sorbate – a preservative that helps keep products fresh by inhibiting mold and yeast (also used in yogurt)

Sodium Bisulfite – a preservative used to inhibit microbial growth and maintain a product’s flavor & odor

I guess that’s fairly standard for frozen goods?

I’ve gotta give it to them, when it comes to allergen info, the company is on top of it.  All of their products are gluten free and the non-mashed ones are dairy free as well.  For the most part, they truly are simply potatoes.  The only potential source of allergens are in the preservatives (sulfites).

Now about the dextrose…

As per the nutritional info, there are 0 mg sugar, but the ingredients list dextrose.  What’s the deal?

As per the company: “This is due to rounding rules. The food labeling regulations require that all food manufacturers round to the nearest gram for sugar. If there is less than 0.5g of sugar, standard practice is to label this as 0g. However, the % Daily Value is typically rounded to the nearest whole number.”

Hmmm…

Well anyway.

What to do with them?  Since they were literally uncooked shreds of potatoes, they needed flavoring in a major way.  Ordinarily salt and fat are what you add to hash browns to make them more palatable, but I was hoping to figure out a healthier way of preparing them.

So I tried baking them.

I let them thaw on the kitchen counter first, then I spread out half the shreds on a baking sheet lined with foil and sprayed with PAM.  Then I baked them in the oven for 20 minutes on 400.

I flipped them about 10 minutes in, at which point they were already starting to get a nice bronzed char on the tips.  Love it.

The final product was a mesh of crispy shredded potatoes.

Beautiful!

Of course, I didn’t want to miss out on sampling them as they were meant to be eaten either, so I fried the other half up in a pan with oil.

Well, which way do you think was better?  Fried.  Duh.

I had them with scrambled eggs and Cholula.

My stomach was kinda iffy after.  I don’t tend to do well with greasy foods, so throwing some spice in the mix as well was pretty dumb.  I’ll be perfectly honest, this was a hangover breakfast from the Monday after the Super Bowl.  No good decisions are made when you are recovering from boozing.

I still have the baked portion tupperwared up for later.  So at least I was level headed enough to save the leftovers.  As if I’d throw out food!?  Ha.  No amount of beer could cause me to forget my foodie principles.

Have you ever bought frozen potatoes?  Hash browns?  Tater tots?  What did you do with them? I still have one more bag of Simply Potatoes to use and I’m open to suggestions.  I’m thinking a potato fritatta of some sort…