Keto French Fries (4 Ingredients)
By Carine Claudepierre
Published on 04/28/2021 - Last updated on 10/26/2023
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Keto French Fries, also known as Rutabaga Fries or Turnip Fries, are the best keto substitute for French fries on a keto diet.
They are delicious gluten-free baked fries alternative to potatoes, slightly softer but with only 6 grams of net carbs per serving, or 5 times fewer carbs than regular French fries.
Can You Eat French Fries On Keto?
No, you can’t eat regular French fries from your favorite fast food or grocery store. French fries are made from potatoes, a high-carb vegetable that will convert into sugar in your bloodstream, keeping you out of ketosis.
But luckily, you can make Keto French fries using rutabaga or turnip, lower-carb vegetables.
What Are Rutabagas?
Rutabagas have many names. In many Commonwealth countries, like here in New Zealand, we call them swedes. It refers to the same vegetables with the same nutritional values as rutabagas.
However, there’s also another keto-friendly vegetable similar to rutabagas called turnip. Let’s see how they differ and which one is the best to make keto fries.
How To Make Keto Fries
It’s very easy to make keto French fries with only 4 ingredients. There are two keto-friendly vegetables that make delicious keto-friendly alternatives to French fries: Rutabaga or Turnip.
Both work the same and basically bake at the same speed. Feel free to use the vegetable you found in your local store.
Ingredients
All you need to make rutabaga fries are:
- Rutabaga – it looks like a large white ball with shades of purple. As mentioned above, you can make baked turnip fries using this recipe, turnip is smaller than rutabaga, but they bake at the same speed. Remember that rutabagas have a sweet flavor, so if you prefer a neutral flavor, chose turnip.
- Light olive oil – or avocado oil.
- Smoked Paprika – that’s the magic ingredient to make these keto fries so tasty.
- Garlic powder
Preparing The Vegetable
First, peel the thick outer skin of your rutabaga using a veggie peeler. Next, trim both ends and cut the vegetable into 1/4 inch slices. You should have circular slices of vegetables.
Finally, place the circle on a chopping board and slice 1/4 inches matchsticks. Set aside in a bowl.
Coating
In another bowl, combine the coating ingredients: oil, salt, garlic powder, and paprika.
Pour the coating onto the fries, and toss to cover each matchstick evenly.
Baking The Keto Fries
You have two options to bake keto fries made rutabagas or turnip.
Oven-baked Fries
Cover a large baking sheet with parchment paper and arrange the fries on the rack, leaving some space between each fry to make sure they don’t overlap.
Bake in preheated oven at 430°F (220°C) for 30 minutes. Then, switch the oven to broil mode and keep baking for 5-10 minutes until the fries are soft in the center and slightly crispy on top.
Add an extra pinch of garlic salt or regular salt and pepper just before serving, if desired.
Air Fryer Method
Air frying keto fries is great but time-consuming. Indeed, all the fries won’t fit in the basket, so you will have to work in batches.
Since these keto fries with rutabagas soften really fast, you will have a batch ready in 30 minutes.
But then have to wait another 30 minutes to get the next batch which is not convenient if you want to serve a large portion.
For the air fryer method, lay the fries in an air fryer basket, make sure the fries don’t touch each other, and air fry at 430°F (220°C) for 30 minutes.
Serving Keto Fries
These keto fries are a great side dish to keto lettuce burgers, grilled meat, a steak marinated with my 3-Ingredient Steak Marinade, Air Fryer Green Beans, or as a quick fries craving fix!
The best sauce to dip your keto fries are:
- Homemade ketchup
- Mayonnaise
- Dollop sour cream
- Dijon mustard
Storage Instructions
These keto fries soften very quickly, after 10 to 20 minutes.
You can store them in the fridge in an airtight container and rewarm in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for 10 minutes and then broil them for a few minutes to bring back some texture.
Frequently Asked Questions
You can deep fry rutabaga fries for 6-8 minutes. However, rutabagas fries become very oily if deep-fried, so it’s not my favorite method.
Keto fries with turnip have a mild flavor, but rutabagas fries are a bit sweet.
These keto fries are softer than potato fries because they don’t contain starch and, therefore, carbs that will raise your blood sugar level.
They are from the same family of root vegetables with pretty similar nutritional properties.
Swedes or rutabagas are bigger than turnips with thicker skin and with a yellowish skin and sweeter flavor. Turnips are smaller, with smoother skin and whiter flesh, and a lighter flavor.
If you miss a side to your keto burger, you can replace French fries with other keto-friendly Fries recipes like:
– Keto zucchini fries – baked fries made of zucchini.
– Jicama fries – made from jicama, a low-carb root vegetable.
– Keto cheese sticks – technically not fries, but if you miss a side to your keto burger, a mozzarella stick is often a great deal.
Rutabaga Nutrition
100 grams of rutabaga contain:
- 38 kcal
- 9 grams of total carbs
- 2.3 grams of fiber
- 6.7 grams of net carbs
- 1.1 grams of protein
- 0.2 grams of fat
Turnip Nutrition
- 28 kcal
- 6 grams of total carbs
- 1.8 grams of fiber
- 4.2 grams of net carbs
- 0.9 grams protein
- 0.1 grams of fat
In the kitchen, turnip and rutabagas are interchangeable. It means that you will achieve the same delicious keto fries using one or the other vegetable.
From a net carbs point of view, turnip contains 2.5 grams less net carbs per 100 grams than rutabagas, so if you can find turnip in store, it saves you a few net carbs per serving!
The flavor of turnip fries is also less sweet than rutabaga fries.
More Keto Side Dish Recipes
If you like these low-carb fries, you’ll love these:
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Keto French Fries with Rutabaga
Ingredients
- 2 Rutabagas medium size, about 28 oz or turnip
Coating
- ¼ cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil or avocado oil
- 1 teaspoon Ground Smoked Paprika up to 2 teaspoons for a strong paprika flavor
- ½ teaspoon Garlic Powder
- ½ teaspoon Salt adjust more to taste
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 430°F (220°C). Lay a large baking tray with parchment paper. Set aside.
- Wash the rutabaga, peel off the thick skin, and using a sharp knife remove both ends. Discard.
- Cut the rutabagas into 1/4 inch matchsticks. The easiest way is first to cut slices and then cut each slice into sticks of 1/4 inches. Set aside in a large mixing bowl.
- In a small mixing bowl, combine olive oil, salt, garlic powder, and paprika. Pour onto the bowl with fries.
- Toss the rutabagas matchsticks with your hands or a spoon until all fries are evenly covered.
- Arrange the fries onto the baking tray, leaving half an inch of space between each fry.
- Bake the fries for 30-40 minutes or until the center of the fries has softened.
- Turn the oven to broil mode and broil for 5-10 minutes to add a light crisp to the fries.
- Note that these fries must be enjoyed straight away as they soften fast.
- Enjoy with a sauce of your choice or my ketchup recipe.
Storage
- Store leftover in a sealed container in the fridge and rewarm in 400°F (200°C) oven for 5-10 minutes.
Notes
Tools
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Nutrition
About The Author
Hi, I'm Carine, the food blogger, author, recipe developer, published author of a cookbook, and founder of Sweet As Honey.
I have an Accredited Certificate in Nutrition and Wellness obtained in 2014 from Well College Global (formerly Cadence Health). I'm passionate about sharing all my easy and tasty recipes that are both delicious and healthy. My expertise in the field comes from my background in chemistry and years of following a keto low-carb diet. But I'm also well versed in vegetarian and vegan cooking since my husband is vegan.
I now eat a more balanced diet where I alternate between keto and a Mediterranean Diet
Cooking and Baking is my true passion. In fact, I only share a small portion of my recipes on Sweet As Honey. Most of them are eaten by my husband and my two kids before I have time to take any pictures!
All my recipes are at least triple tested to make sure they work and I take pride in keeping them as accurate as possible.
Browse all my recipes with my Recipe Index.
I hope that you too find the recipes you love on Sweet As Honey!
Disclaimer
The recipes, instructions, and articles on this website should not be taken or used as medical advice. You must consult with your doctor before starting on a keto or low-carb diet. The nutritional data provided on Sweetashoney is to be used as indicative only.
The nutrition data is calculated using WP Recipe Maker. Net Carbs is calculated by removing the fiber and some sweeteners from the total Carbohydrates. As an example, a recipe with 10 grams of Carbs per 100 grams that contains 3 grams of erythritol and 5 grams of fiber will have a net carbs content of 2 grams. Some sweeteners are excluded because they are not metabolized.
You should always calculate the nutritional data yourself instead of relying on Sweetashoney's data. Sweetashoney and its recipes and articles are not intended to cure, prevent, diagnose, or treat any disease. Sweetashoney cannot be liable for adverse reactions or any other outcome resulting from the use of recipes or advice found on the Website.
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Thank you for all of your wonderful recipes that help me with my low carb journey!
I’m going to try your recipes. I haven’t had them in a long time.
Thank you for bringing rutabagas to life! Most people here in the US have no clue what they are. I love them! They are different than turnips I that turnips have a stronger flavor. The flesh of a rutabaga is more yellow, where turnips are white. I usually have to point out the code on the sheets for the cashiers. They don’t know what they are, either! But, they are scrumptious. Mash them like potatoes. So good!!
Thanks for your lovely comment! I love them too. I have been raised by my grandma who had tons of rutabagas in her garden, that may be why I love this veggie so much. Thanks for reading my blog and trying the recipe. I am happy to have you here. XOXO Carine.
Have you ever tried jicama? I have never tried to make a low carb fry before and I don’t know how many carbs are in jicama but it tends to have a nice tough body that might do well in replacement of a potato.
I have used jicama! I have not tried rutabagas yet. I use my Instant Pot pressure cooker to cook the “frenched” jicama cooled them overnight. Then, I dredged them in unflavored whey protein isolate. I pan fried then in coconut oil and avocado oil. They were wonderful!
Not yet, I can’t find jicama in New Zealand but it looks like a great low carb fries option !
WOW, I’m so excited to try this! Since I started the ketogenic LCHF diet, I have been missing french fries like crazy, so thank you so much for sharing this! I love your blog. I’ve made a couple things so far and loved them. Your recipes are seriously making this diet more manageable and in the long term helps save my life! Thank you 🙂
Hi Alba, I am so happy to read your comment! It is great that you manage to focus on the LCHF diet making some of my recipes. You’ll love those low carb french fries. It is so good to enjoy fries again when you are on a diet right ? Enjoy the recipes and drop me a comment if you like to share your success in the kitchen or any ideas to adapt my recipes ! Have a lovely day. xoxo Carine.
I made these for dinner tonight and they are fabulous! I am of Swedish heritage, so liking rutabagas is in my DNA, but this is my favorite preparation! People confuse turnips and rutabagas, and they are similar, but there is a difference. Maybe they are called different things in different countries, but here in the United States they are displayed side-by-side at the market, distinctly separated as turnips and rutabagas. Rutabagas are larger and more tan in color. (For instance, this recipe calls for two “Swedes,” but I used just one rutabaga and they crowded a 39×27 cm pan.) I don’t care what you call them, just eat them! And a good way to introduce yourself to rutabaga is with this recipe. From this American Swede to our French New Zealander, well done, Carine!
What a lovely comment Karel! I did not know that Swedish people used lots of rutabagas! Interesting story! I would love to visit Swedish one day and try Swedish food. Thanks for yourlovely comment and for reading my blog. It makes me so happy when I hear that my recipes makes others people happy. See you soon on the blog Karel! Carine.
This is also great with jicama, another low-carb veggie option!
Hi Amethyst, I don’t know this veggie at all! I have to find some to try the recipe 🙂 thanks for sharing. xoxo Carine.
As Amethyst said above… Jicama is a great choice. Jicama has many other uses… I hope you get to try for yourself. I will try using Swede as well.