Garlic Parmesan Jicama Fries

I’ve been making jicama fries longer than any other fry recipe on this site. Before I ever posted my keto French fries, this was my go-to potato replacement, and it still is. The outside gets puffy and golden from the whey protein batter, and the inside stays firm with a slight crunch that regular potatoes just don’t give you.

I’ll say it upfront: these don’t taste like potato fries, and that’s fine. The inside has a mild, slightly sweet crunch (think water chestnut), and the batter gives them a crispy shell that’s more like popcorn chicken than a fast food fry. That texture is actually what I love about them. Each fry holds its shape under toppings without going limp, which is something potato fries can’t pull off once they start cooling.

What makes this version different is the garlic parmesan finish. After the fries come out of the oil, I toss them with freshly minced garlic, grated parmesan, and parsley. The garlic blooms from the residual heat, and the cheese sticks to the batter in a way that reminds me of the garlic fries I used to get at ballparks before going low-carb.

I make these at least twice a month, and this is the version my family keeps requesting. My kids eat them like regular fries and have never once complained that they aren’t potatoes. To them, these are just fries.

The batter is four ingredients: unflavored whey protein powder, salt, garlic powder, and onion powder. Protein powder creates a puffy, crispy shell that nothing else I’ve tried can match. I tested almond flour (thinner coating, no puff) and coconut flour (too dense, absorbs oil), and whey won by a wide margin.

I cut mine into shoestring shapes because they crisp faster and you get more of that crunchy batter per bite. If you go thicker (steak-cut style), they still work, but you need to fry a few minutes longer and the interior stays more like raw jicama. I’ve tested both, and shoestrings win. A reader named Chris also discovered that letting the jicama sit in the whey coating for a few minutes before frying produces a crispier crust, which makes sense because the whey needs time to hydrate onto the surface.

If you don’t want to cut the jicama yourself, Trader Joe’s sells pre-cut julienne jicama (a reader named Colleen tipped me off to that). She gives it an extra chop to get the pieces thinner, which is smart since thinner means crispier.

These pair well with just about any dinner. I usually make them for burger night, but they go alongside keto roasted potatoes when I want two textures on the table, or with air fryer avocado fries when I’m in a fry mood. Ranch and sugar-free ketchup are the two dipping sauces we reach for most.

Jicama is a root vegetable that looks like a rough brown potato on the outside, but the inside is white, hard, and almost watery when you bite into it raw. I describe the texture as somewhere between an apple and a water chestnut. You might also hear it called a Mexican turnip or Mexican potato since most of it is grown south of the border. I first picked one up at a Mexican grocery store years ago and have been using it as my go-to low-carb fry base ever since.

Most regular grocery stores carry jicama now in the produce section near the root vegetables. Pick one that feels heavy for its size with no soft spots or wrinkling. A medium jicama (about the size of a softball) gives me enough for four servings. It’s also loaded with prebiotic fiber (around 6 grams per cup), which I didn’t know when I started using it but now consider a nice bonus.