Veggie Tots

Want to eat more vegetables?

Of course, you do. 

Who doesn't want to be all healthy and stuff? (That's a rhetorical question, by the way.) Whip up some veggie tots and you can eat a million veggies in such a way that you don't even know you are eating veggies. #TrueStory

I used zucchini, cauliflower, and carrot but you can swap in your favorite if you like. For example: broccoli, or turnip, or sweet potato. These also reheat quite nicely so if you have any leftovers, simply freeze them for a later date and pop them in the oven at 375 to heat up. 

I shaped them into tater tot shapes but you could easily leave them in the cookie scoop rounds to save some time. 

Veggie Tots

Ingredients

2 cups shredded zucchini

1 small head cauliflower, grated

1/2 cup shredded carrot

1/4 cup onion, finely diced

1 clove garlic, minced

2 eggs

3 Tbsp shredded Parmesan

1/2 cup aged cheddar, shredded

1 Tbsp chia seeds

salt & pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 400, line cookie sheet with parchment paper, set aside. 

Place the shredded zucchini, cauliflower, carrot, onion and garlic in a large bowl and stir to combine. 

Place in a clean tea towel OR cheesecloth, twist towel to remove as much moisture as possible. (The more moisture you can remove the crispier the tots will be.)

When you have removed as much moisture as you can, stir in the eggs, cheeses, chia seeds, and salt & pepper. Using a small cookie scoop - or pinch off ping pong ball sized pieces - press firmly into tater tot shapes or leave in rounds. Place on prepared cookie sheet. Repeat until all the veggies are used up. 

Bake at 400 for approx 40 minutes - until tots are golden brown and the outside is crispy. Turn the tots every 10 minutes to ensure each side browns up nicely. Keep an eye on them.

When done, remove to serving plate and serve hot.

These are great on their own as an appie or snack. They also go great as a side dish with burgers or hot dogs (or sad looking lettuce wrapped turkey burgers like the one below) !

According to MyFitnessPal a serving of these veggie tots is: 146 calories, 9 carbs, 8 ft, 10 protein, 3 fiber, and 3 sugar. (This is counting the recipe as 4 servings.) A serving is about 6 - 7 tots. 

If you wanted them crispier you could deep fry them BUT that kind of takes away from the whole healthy thing and would definitely change the nutritional counts. 

Keep in mind - the insides are soft and the outsides, while a bit crispier, are not going to be crunchy. 

Also - I added chia seeds for a little nutritional boost but you can leave them out if you don't have any.