I love French fries. If there's one thing I would be allowed to eat for all my life, it would be it. But because of its unhealthy effects, I am wary every time I eat it and I always have qualms ordering it from anywhere else. So, it's best if I would be able to do it on my own healthy way. The problem is I don't know where and how to start. I think the act of frying itself already has bad effect. But here's my idea, I would probably bake or steam it first. When it's already half-cooked from baking, then that's the time I am going to fry it just only for a few seconds, only to make it's outside crispy. I would even cook it in olive oil if necessary. I just really want the fries to be healthy. I haven't done this before. Toning would be first time. I hope that I would succeed.
You're on the right track - you need to parboil or steam them a bit first before baking them. Some recipes skip this step, but I find that the fries become too leathery and tough on the outside before the inside is cooked if you skip this step. From there, just blot them as dry as you can with some paper towel, then toss in oil and place them on a baking sheet to cook, then bake until golden brown. You may need to flip them a few times during the cooking process to get them to cook more evenly. You can season them before or after cooking, though I prefer to season them while I am tossing them in oil. I saw another technique, for home fries, that called for tossing them around roughly in a bowl, after parboiling the chopped potatoes. The goal was to rough up the surface of the potato chunks - which supposedly would help them crisp up better when cooking. That might be a bit tricky though with fries, depending on how thick you cut them. Alexia brand frozen fries also sells a low fat version of their fries. Looking at the ingredients, they are pretty straightforward, with the exception of apple juice. Apparently they are soaked a bit in apple juice to help the fries brown up while baking.
You could maybe try looking into getting an air fryer. I've never tried one myself, but it seems to work as I don't really have much reason to doubt their claims. The appliance basically is a combination of a pressure cooker, and oven, and a deep fryer, so you'd only have to use about a tablespoon of oil to crisp up a whole serving of fries whereas a tablespoon of oil may only account for a portion of the whole serving of fries when it comes to deep frying. There are lots of brands that offer this item, and as far as I know they aren't all too expensive.
I think Dr Ripley is right, and an air fryer is the way to go with this if you are going to make "healthy" french fries. If you don't want to go out and spend money on extra gadgets I would offer a word of warning about using for example olive oil as opposed to other types. In my experience certain oils such as olive oil reach lower heats when using for frying compared to vegetable oils and you need to have as high a temperature of oil as possible when frying french fries so that it crisps up the outside. If you have it at a lower heat then the oil soaks in a bit and not only makes them a bit soggy but even more unhealthy due to all the soaked up oil, even if it is a healthier oil. It's easy to just assume that a healthier oil makes a healthier french fry but whichever oil you use you need to make sure the boiling point is as high as possible. Who knew french fries could get all sciencey!
I forgot all about the Air Fryer, but I've heard from multiple sources that it does indeed make great fries. It doesn't "pressure cook" though as someone mentioned earlier, and it is rather costly - so that's something to keep in mind. Speaking of pressure cooking though, that might be another interesting approach to pre cook the potatoes before baking them. I've never tried to bake pressure cooked potatoes to see how they would turn out, but it seems like it would work. The pressure cooking will sometimes give them a different texture - similar to canned potatoes, where they are still a little firm even though cooked all the way through. You might even wish to try experimenting with some light coatings of things like corn starch or flour, to see if they help make the fries more golden and crispy. A cook on Oprah years ago suggested tossing the potatoes in egg whites before baking them.
