I have talked before about our old friend, the currently much maligned potato. For the record, the complete nutritional facts on a typical potato are listed at the end of this posting. A potato is an excellent source of carbs. It has almost no fat. The solids portion are 10% protein leading to 7.5% protein calories with complete essential amino acids. With a little fat supplement, you could live a healthy life on these. The problem is that most prep methods for potatoes tend to add way too much fat for the average diet: French fries; deep fat fried chips; baked potato globbed with sour cream and butter; potato salad dressed with mayonnaise; Dad's best mashers with way to much butter for healthy eating; potatoes for hash fried in bacon grease; etc.
As mentioned in an earlier post, I have been on the lookout for tasty ways prepare potatoes without adding excess fat. Last time we dug potatoes from the garden we discovered that you can mash garden fresh, new red potatoes with zero butter and get an excellent product. Really, mashers with no butter. But don't try that with a mid-winter white potato from the grocery store.
Last night, based on completely misunderstanding something Kanga was trying to tell me, it occurred to me that you could probably grill thick potato slices on the George Forman grill without a lot of grease. I tried it. I sprayed the grill lightly with PAM but I think you could get by with skipping even this little bit of oil. I used grocery store white potatoes sliced about 3/8" thick. They cooked up beautifully. Add salt, pepper, fajita rub, whatever, it's good eating. Try to cut the slices to very even thickness so they all get contacted by the top surface of the grill. Of course if you are grilling on the BBQ you can probably bake/grill potato slices or wedges there also. I guess the whole idea of grilling potatoes in not really a novel concept but it had not occurred to me to try it on the Forman grill with no grease before.
Food Potato Units Percents
Portion 1
Wt 214
AA Score 100%
Calories 199 Calories
From Carbohydrate 182 Calories 91.4%
From Fat 2 Calories 1.2%
From Protein 15 Calories 7.5%
From Alcohol 0 Calories 0.0%
Total Carbohydrate 45.2 g 21%
Dietary Fiber 4.7 g 2.2%
Starch 36.9 g 17%
Sugars 2.5 g 1.2%
Sucrose 856 mg
Glucose 942 mg
Fructose 727 mg
Lactose 0 mg
Maltose 0 mg
Galactose 0 mg
Total Fat 0.29 g 0.1%
Saturated Fat 0.07 g 0.0%
Monounsaturated Fat 0.00 g 0.0%
Polyunsaturated Fat 0.14 g 0.1%
Total trans fatty acids 0 mg
Total trans-monoenoic fatty acids 0 mg
Total trans-polyenoic fatty acids 0 mg
Total Omega-3 fatty acids 28 mg
Total Omega-6 fatty acids 92 mg
Protein 5 g 2.5%
Tryptophan 84 mg
Threonine 195 mg
Isoleucine 216 mg
Leucine 321 mg
Lysine 325 mg
Methionine 84 mg
Cystine 66 mg
Phenylalanine 238 mg
Tyrosine 197 mg
Valine 302 mg
Arginine 246 mg
Histidine 115 mg
Alanine 165 mg
Aspartic acid 1308 mg
Glutamic acid 897 mg
Glycine 158 mg
Proline 193 mg
Serine 233 mg
Hydroxyproline 0 mg
Cholesterol 0 mg
Phytosterols 0 mg
Alpha Carotene 0 mcg
Beta Carotene 13 mcg
Beta Cryptoxanthin 0 mcg
Beta Tocopherol 0 mg
Betaine 0 mg
Choline 32 mg
Delta Tocopherol 0 mg
Dietary Folate Equivalents 60 mcg
Folate 60 mcg
Folic Acid 0 mcg
Food Folate 60 mcg
Gamma Tocopherol 0 mg
Lutein+Zeaxanthin 64 mcg
Lycopene 0 mcg
Niacin 3 mg
Pantothenic Acid 1 mg
Retinol 0 mcg
Retinol Activity Equivalent 2 mcg
Riboflavin 0 mg
Thiamin 0 mg
Vitamin A 21 IU
Vitamin B12 0 mcg
Vitamin B6 1 mg
Vitamin C 21 mg
Vitamin D 0 IU
Vitamin E (Alpha Tocopherol) 0 mg
Vitamin K 4 mcg
Calcium 32 mg
Copper 0 mg
Fluoride 0 mcg
Iron 2 mg
Magnesium 60 mg
Manganese 1 mg
Phosphorus 150 mg
Potassium 1145 mg
Selenium 1 mcg
Sodium 21 mg
Zinc 1 mg
Alcohol 0 g
Water 160 g 75%
Ash 3 g 1.3%
Caffeine 0 mg
Theobromine 0 mg
I currently am trying different methods of potato use, as they appear frequently in my local urban harvest (the dumpster). I have quite a few. Next on the list to try is latkes in different shapes and sizes, including sweet potato latkes for breakfast. Thanks for the reminder of a simple slice and grill. I might try it in the broiler tonight.
ReplyDeleteAndy
oooo, sweet potato latkes - that sounds awesome! My favorite latke topping is hot pepper jelly. Too bad the batch Molly and I made this year didn't turn out very good - too sweet and not spicy.
ReplyDeleteWe like roasted slices of potatoes, preferably a mix of sweet potato and regular potato with butter with a lot of garlic brushed on the top toward the end. That said, I made some mashed potatoes last night and they really were amazing. Hard to beat.