I’m generally a healthy person, but I’d be lying if I told you I didn’t love fried food. It gets out of hand sometimes. I was talking to a coworker of mine the other week about cookies (what else do I talk about), and she brought up that she made shortbread with her grandma—some of the greatest shortbread ever, by the way. Somehow in this conversation, frying the cookies came into question. I’m a monster.

Before I even paired up with T-Fal and Sears Canada to do this post, I was super amped on the T-Fal Actifry. That sentence sounds fake, but I swear to god, people told me about their machines and I wanted one so badly. If you’ve never heard of it, I’ll give you a little breakdown on why it’s amazing: instead of having to deep-fry foods at home, you can use a teaspoon of oil to get the same results. And by “same” results I mean better results, because your house doesn’t reek of oil afterwards, it’s healthier, and you don’t need to dispose of a ton of oil after every use.

I decided to go with nacho fries because…no, I don’t need to justify it, it should be self-explanatory. Crispy cut fries smothered in veggie ground beef, tomatoes, jalapenos, sour cream and a quick guacamole to top it all off. Using fries instead of tortilla chips makes for a fun meal, and since you’re making them at home you can use less oil, salt, etc. that goes into the store bought stuff—not that I’m against it, because I’ll destroy tortilla chips if you put them in front of me.

Ingredients

Serves 4

•  5-6 russet potatoes, scrubbed and cut into french fry length (do not peel!)
• 1 tsp. vegetable oil
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 package vegetarian ground round
• 1 tsp. cumin
• 1/2 tsp. onion powder
• 1 tsp. paprika
• 1/2 tsp. each ground black pepper and salt
• 1 tomato, diced
• 1 ripe avocado
• 3 tbsp. red onion, minced
• 2 tbsp. fresh jalapeno, minced
• 1/2 fresh juice of lemon
• 1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
• Salt to taste
• Sour cream for garnish
• Extra jalapenos for garnish (optional)

Method

Place your freshly cut potatoes into the pan of the Actifry. Drizzle 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil and 1/2 teaspoon salt on top. Set timer to 40 minutes, turn on, and let it do its thing.

Throw your veggie ground beef in a pan with a small amount of vegetable oil, cumin, onion powder, paprika, black pepper and salt. Keep on medium-low heat and stir occasionally.

In the meantime, prep the guacamole. Smash together avocado, red onion, jalapeno, lemon juice, cilantro and a small amount of salt. Set aside.

In the final minute of your fries cooking, throw in the cheese to blend in with the fries. Once finished cooking, divide into equal portions or put into one big platter, and top with your diced tomato, veggie beef, sour cream, and guacamole.

Full disclosure: Sears Canada is the official sponsor of this post.