Hello, welcome! It is so great to have you here today to talk about sumac fries.
Have you ever tried vinegar potato chips? That is my favorite flavor in potato chips, I love the instant tangy and salty flavor. It’s a bright, sharp acidity that is really refreshing and bold in contrast to the potato’s mild earthiness.
If you are also a vinegar potato chips lover, then you’d love this recipe with sumac and garlic that I’m about to share with you. This recipe has a little bit of sweetness, but you can opt out of the sweetener if you prefer a sour taste.
This sumac fries recipe includes one of my favorite spice blends for fries or roasted nuts. This spice blend is not only healthy but also so scrumptious with the sweet and sour flavor profile, which is perfect with additional ketchup! These sumac fries pair so well with ketchup by enhancing the flavors of potatoes and ketchup. It is one of the best vegan side dishes ever, so I’m really excited to share this spice blend with you today.
Introduction to Sumac Fries
The sumac fries I’m going to talk about today are fries with spice blended with sumac as a major ingredient.
With other spices blended into this Sumac Fries Spice Blend, these Sumac fries you make with it become so flavorful with a punch of sweet and sour taste. It includes many other healthy ingredients including sumac without so much salt, so it’s healthier than the spice mix you can buy from stores. Those spice mixes at stores usually have a high percentage of salt, which contains salt as nearly half of the whole mix. And salt is where they get most of the flavors from. But this spice mix has many other beautiful ingredients that not only have so much flavor but are also healthy!
So try making this at home, and if you like it, you can make a heap of this sumac fries spice blend so you can have it at hand whenever you want.
Then sprinkle it on your fries to have your sumac fries ready in no second!
A Little Bit About Sumac
I told you how beautiful this sumac fries spice blend is, but you might be wondering what sumac is. Well, I didn’t really know about this wonderful spice sumac until recently and I just fell in love with it. I sprinkled it on almost every food I had at one point, then I developed this sumac fries recipe which was the best way to eat sumac.
Let’s get started!
Look at this cute little birdie sitting on Sumac. Awww…
What is Sumac?
Sumac is a commonly used spice, condiment, and flavoring agent, widely used in the Mediterranean region. It is considered an essential ingredient in the Middle Eastern pantry! Sumac grows as a cluster of many small red berry fruits and then turns into beautiful red powder to be used in cooking.
Due to its numerous health benefits, sumac has been used in traditional medicine for many ailments including healing wounds, diarrhea, and eye inflammation.
I will go into more detail below about the health benefits of sumac, but sumac has lots and lots of phytochemicals such as flavonoids, tannins, polyphenolic compounds, organic acids, and many others, according to this study Pharmacological and Antioxidant Activities of Rhus coriaria L. (Sumac).
What does Sumac taste like?
It is sour, tart, and tangy! It feels like a dried-up version of lemon zest and juice but with a little more tartness and a hint of earthy and citrus tone. I believe the tanginess is from the tannin content in sumac, which is the same bitterness you get from dark grape skin or red wine.
Because of its acidity and tanginess, it is traditionally used in dishes to give a lemony and zesty flavor, such as salad dressings and marinades. When I was in Turkey, I did notice that many Turkish cuisines had a sour taste profile. You can read more about my culinary experience as a vegan in Antalya, Turkey on my blog.
When I first tasted this gorgeous sour and tangy spice, I immediately thought of a spice blend for fries. I love that flavor profile for fries – one of my favorite potato chip flavors is vinegar chips!
So if you also love the sour taste in your food, this sumac might become a staple in your pantry from now on. Yum.
I love Sumac and so should you!
I was at one of the Middle Eastern grocery shops in Oslo. Something grabbed my attention as I was about to turn around, and it was Sumac that I saw. I honestly didn’t know what to do with it, but it was intriguing… I’ve heard of this spice so many times, so I thought it must be something. And it was! It’s a spice that I’ve been eating spoons and spoons of every day. Its tart, lemony, and a hint of fruitiness add so much to the flavor.
I also love the look of sumac which looks like vibrant red sparkles on the food. When I sprinkle it on my fries, it looks more appetizing. And not only they are delicious and beautiful to look at, but Sumac also provides health benefits! How incredible is that? Let’s just check a few health benefits you can get from Sumac, and get started with cooking.
Sumac is a cluster of red-berry fruits that you dry up to use as a spice.
Sumac Health Benefits
1. Tons of Phytochemicals for Anti-Aging
There were 180 phytochemicals identified in sumac including tannins, flavonoids, terpenoids, and anthocyanins.
Phytochemicals are chemical compounds produced by plants. Each phytochemical has different health benefits and one type of phytochemical can offer several benefits, so it’s hard to pin out one specific benefit of sumac as it contains way too many phytochemicals!
But phytochemicals as a whole act as anti-cancers and prevent DNA damage, keeping our cells young. These sumac berries are incredible.
2. Antibacterial & Anti-Fungal
Sumac has antibacterial and anti-fungal, suggesting a lot of potential uses for Sumac in the food and agricultural industry. There is a study that sumac can be a cost-effective and eco-friendly replacement for chemical fungicides for tomato anthracnose disease. Also, it is suggested that the use of Sumac spice as a source of natural preservatives.
So we could safely make a lot of this sumac fries spice blend and store it for a while! Although, it never lasts so long at my home.
3. Great for Weight Loss
There is a very interesting study on the beneficial effects of sumac in overweight or obese women with depression. This randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial was conducted on women who were overweight with mild to moderate depression in 2020. And the result?
Sumac significantly reduced weight, body mass index, body fat, visceral fat level, waist and hip circumference, and oxidative stress in comparison with the placebo group!
And that was only 3 grams per day for 12 weeks. My goodness, that is like a diet pill! While we won’t be consciously trying to eat 3 grams every single day, you can certainly consume that much sumac spice with this sumac fries recipe.
Sumac Fries as Vegan Side Dish
With these amazing health benefits of sumac, these delicious tangy, sweet, and sour sumac fries can make a great side dish. And it is naturally vegan! So if you are looking for a vegan side dish that can accompany your burger, pizza, or any other dish, try this sumac fries recipe.
Sumac Fries | Sweet and Sour Sumac Spice Blend Recipe | Vegan Side Dish
Sumac Fries with Sumac Spice Blend
Ingredients
Method
- Preheat the pan. Once the pan is heated with medium-high heat, pour oil into the pan.
- Cut the potatoes into bite-size pieces or wedges, and roast them.
- In a bowl, mix all the spice powders together.
- Keep cooking for 10-15 minutes. Stir now and then so the potatoes are cooked evenly.
- Once the potatoes are done and evenly coated with oil, sprinkle the spice mix all over the cooked potatoes.
- Taste and adjust it with salt and pepper as you prefer.
- Serve your sumac fries hot!
Tips for Sumac Fries
1. Use Almond Potatoes
I love using almond potatoes for this recipe. I like chopping them into bite-sizes, quickly roasting them with a bit of oil (instead of frying them in lots of oil,) and then tossing some ready-made sumac fries spice blend of mine. It’s a very quick and easy delicious vegan side dish!
By using almond potatoes, you can save time cutting and cooking them. Almond potatoes cut in bite sizes can be cooked within 10-20 minutes on a pan. They are also very soft and nutty, and I love the taste! Try almond potatoes for this sumac fries recipe.
2. Pre-make Sumac Fries Spice Blend
You can read the sumac fries spice blend ingredients list in my recipe. Have your spice blend ready before a busy dinner. Simply make the fries at dinner time and sprinkle the spice blend right away. It can save you time and stress during dinner time!
3. Use Spice Blend for Other Dishes
You can totally use this spice blend for other dishes as well. This could work beautifully with salads, roasted nuts (my favorite!), and additional flavor for any other dishes.
Spice Recommendations
1. Nutritional Yeast
Organic Non-Fortified Nutritional Yeast Flakes, 2 Pounds
If you are vegan, you probably already have nutritional yeast at home. But if you are not vegan, let me introduce you to the cheesy world of nutritional yeast! This is the* ingredient that gives vegan food its cheesy taste, and therefore always included in vegan cheese products or recipes.
But even if you are not vegan, you’ll love this cheesy savory flavor! Not only that, it is rich in protein, B vitamins, and beta-glucans. Moreover, nutritional yeast has a very long shelf-life. So you can make a lot of this delicious sumac fries spice blend and use it whenever you like.
Try this amazing cheesy, savory sprinkles of organic nutritional yeast goodies!
2. Sumac
Cerez Pazari – Sumac Spice Powder – Turkish Sumac Seasoning – 2.1oz
I love sumac spice so much, so I will have to buy several bottles of this at once.
This is premium pure Turkish sumac seasoning without any salt. Some sumac spices already have salt in them, and while that is not so bad as the sumac flavor is magnified when there is salt, it makes it difficult to adjust the salt amount in your dish. I don’t know how many times I’ve already repeated in this blog post, but I love sumac so much that I would put as much sumac as possible in a lot of my food. So it’s better for me to get a pure sumac spice powder.
If you are wondering which sumac powder to get, try this one and let me know what you think!
Final Thoughts on Sumac Fries
I’ve recently come across Sumac, and I can’t get enough of it. It’s a well-known spice in the Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cuisines, and I’m quite certain I have tried the spice before. I just didn’t know that it was sumac.
Then I watched this awesome Turkish American YouTuber who shares videos about foraging called Feral Foraging. By the way, you should definitely check him out because his videos are really interesting and tell you so much about foraging. It’s just a little sad because his videos feature wild plants in North America and their landscape and botany can be quite different from Northern Europe where I live. He featured how to forage wild sumac in the forest and have your own organic sumac in your dishes!
These roasted potatoes are a delightful combination of crispy exteriors and tender insides, with the zesty tang of sumac, the rich flavor of garlic and onion, and a tiny bit of sweetness from erythritol. They make a fantastic addition to any meal and are sure to be a loved dish at your dinner table. Enjoy!
I hope you enjoyed today’s episode of sumac fries as well, and let me know if you enjoyed it. Happy cooking!
If you enjoyed this recipe, check out my other recipes on my blog. There are many creative, healthy, and delicious vegan recipes for you to explore. 🌟
Kreamy Vegan’s Recipes
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