Tater Tots are one of the tastiest snacks and are perfect for serving and savoring at a brunch, hi-tea, or movie night. With our easy and quick homemade Tater Tots recipe, you will forget to buy them from the store forever.
In this article, you will learn how to make Tater Tots at home, what to serve with them, and various other recipes to customize them according to your liking.
Table of Contents
History of Tater Tots
In 1953 Tater Tots were invented in America by a frozen food company known as, Ore-Ida. They invented the name ‘Tater Tots’ as a registered trademark, but its popularity helped it settle as a dish’s name. Tater is a short term used for Potatoes. Ore-Ida landed at the recipe of Tater Tots when they were trying to experiment with leftover mashed potatoes. They added the spices to potatoes and fried them, and the rest is history.
Recipe for Tater Tots
To make the delicious homemade Tater Tots, you will need:
Ingredients of Making Tater Tots:
- Water: to boil the potatoes
- Russet or Idaho Potatoes: ½ kg
- Vegetable Oil: to deep fry
- Garlic Powder / Salt / Black Pepper Powder: to taste
- Cornmeal: to coat the Tater Tots
Instructions of Making Tater Tots at Home:
| Prep time | 30 minutes |
| Cook time | 15 minutes |
| Servings | 6 |
To Boil:
Russet potatoes or Idaho potatoes are perfect for making Tater Tots because of their taste and texture. Take almost half kg of Russet potatoes, peel, and rinse them thoroughly. In a saucepan, place the peeled potatoes and fill them with cold water. Measure the water according to the size of the potatoes. Place the saucepan on medium-high flame and bring the potatoes to boil. Let the potatoes simmer for five to seven minutes when the water has boiled. Set the time of simmering according to the size of the potatoes. If they are medium-sized, simmering them for five to seven minutes is good to go, but make sure when you pierce them with a knife, there is a little resistance left. If you boil the potatoes thoroughly, the Tater Tots will taste bland. Let the boiled potatoes cool down for ten minutes.
Preparation:
After ten minutes, grate or mash the potatoes. Grating the potatoes is always a better option because the grated strands of potatoes keep them crunchy. After grating them, take a handful of potatoes and squeeze out the extra water.
Put these potatoes in another bowl and to taste, mix salt, garlic powder, black pepper powder, and fresh and finely cut parsley. You can replace garlic powder with crushed garlic, but garlic powder will mix easily and taste better. Make sure you mix them with your hands. This way, they will bound together well and not crumble away while frying.
After mixing all the ingredients, it is time to shape our Tater Tots. Traditionally, Tater Tots come in small cylindrical shapes, but you can make them tear-shaped, circular or, rectangular.
After shaping the Tater Tots, roll them in cornmeal. This coating shall protect them from opening while frying.
Frying:
Tater Tots can be both air-fried or deep-fried.
To Deep Fry:
Take a deep pan, pour oil in it, and heat it under 100 degrees on medium-high flame. Before frying the Tater Tots, turn the flame to low and let them fry so they do not turn dark brown too fast. As they turn golden brown, dish them out on tissue paper and let the excess oil be absorbed.
To Air Fry:
Air fried Tater Tots are the tastiest and the healthiest. Preheat the air fryer and spray the cooking basket with cooking spray to make the Tater Tots extra crispy. Put the tater tots in the frying basket and start the fryer. In the middle of the process, flip the Tater Tots so they may cook evenly.
Serve them hot with Dingolay Gourmet Hot Sauces for an exquisite experience.
What to Serve with Tater Tots?
Tater Tots are perfect for snacking or served as a side dish or an appetizer. They are fulfilling and taste awesome when paired with hot sauces, but you can always have various options to offer with Tater Tots. A few of the side dishes are as follows:
Mint Margarita Recipe
Mint Margarita is everyone’s first choice to have with Tater Tots. This sweet and sour refreshing drink adds another dimension to these excellent homemade Tater Tots.
Ingredients:
To make Mint Margarita, you will need:
- Mint: 3 – 4 springs
- Lemons: 4 – 5 (medium-sized)
- Sugar: ½ cup
- Black Salt: ¼ teaspoon
- Water: 1 cup
- Soda: half glass (per glass)
Instructions:
Rinse the mint leaves in a strainer and let the water drain. Meanwhile, in a bowl, squeeze the lemon juice. When the water has drained thoroughly, de-leaf the mint leaves from its stem and cut them coarsely.
Add mint leaves, lemon juice, sugar, black salt, and water in a blender. Then shake them into a fine paste. Keep adding water sip-by-sip, if needed.
Take the glasses in which you have to serve the margarita. Rub the lemon slices around its corner and roll them in a sugar bowl to give the glass a funky look. Then pour half a glass of soda and add the mint margarita in it. Stir it with a spoon if needed and serve it with hot Tater Tots.
Russian Salad Recipes
Tater Tots taste amazing when served with Russian Salad. It is fulfilling and easy to make.
Ingredients:
To make Russian Salad you will need:
- Potatoes: 6 (peeled and boiled)
- Carrot: 2 (medium-sized, boiled)
- Eggs: 2 (boiled)
- Peas: ½ cup (blanched)
- Macaronis: half-packet or 2 cups (boiled)
- Russian Salad Dressing : Mayonnaise, cheese cream or tetra pack cream, yogurt
- Black Pepper Powder: to taste
Instructions:
- To boil the vegetables and macaroni:
Take a deep pan and fill about half of it with water, add one teaspoon salt and one teaspoon oil. Bring the water to a boil, then add the macaroni. Keep stirring meanwhile, so the macaronis do not stick together. When the macaronis are done, take them out in a strainer and rinse them with cold water. Keep them aside so the excess water may drain out.
Take the above-mentioned vegetables and cut them into fine dice. Fill another deep pan with water, place a strainer in that pan and bring the water to boil. As the water boils, first put potato chunks in that strainer. When they begin to soften, add carrots, and lastly, peas. As all the vegetables are blanched, take the strainer out of the water and let the excess water drain out. Meanwhile, hard boil the eggs and cut them into small chunks.
- Dressing Preparation:
In a bowl, whisk one cup of yogurt until it turns creamy. Then add three tablespoons of cheese cream and a half cup of mayonnaise. Mix them well, then add half a teaspoon of black pepper powder, so it may not taste too sweet.
- Assembling:
In a bowl, put the boiled macaronis, vegetables, and pour the prepared dressing. Mix them well. Lastly, add the chunks of boiled eggs and mix them lightly. Refrigerate the salad for a while and serve when cold.
Storage Options for Tater Tots
Tater Tots are one of the tastiest and most fulfilling snacks. Although they do not take much time to prepare, you can still store them for rainy days.
- If you have an unfried batch of Tater Tots and are planning not to have some any time soon, you can freeze them to fry later. Take a plate, spread a baking sheet on it, grease the sheet with oil and place Tater Tots on it. After an hour or two, when they have frozen, place them in a box and freeze them again. They can be stored for up to two months. Moreover, if you freeze the Tater Tots drenched in cornmeal, they will turn extra crispy when you fry them.
- If you have a fried batch with you, we will suggest refrigerating them and not freezing them. Just microwave them, and you have a perfect snack.
*Furthermore, these are highly customizable, a few of the recipes are given below. Check them out.
Customizability
Tater Tots is one of the tastiest snacks, and they are highly customizable. A few of the recipes are as follows:
Center Filled Tater Tots
To enhance the nutritious value of Tater Tots, you can center fill it with cheese and vegetable mixture. You will need:
Ingredients:
- Cheese: Mozzarella (grated)
- ½ onions, carrots, capsicums, mushrooms, olives (finely chopped)
Instructions:
In a bowl, mix the finely chopped vegetables and grated cheese. Ensure the vegetables are finely chopped otherwise, it will ooze out of the Tater Tots.
Follow the same recipe of Tater Tots given above. Shape them like cutlets, put one teaspoon of the prepared cheese mixture in the center and shape them into small cylinders. Deep fry them as mentioned above and enjoy these tastiest loaded Tater Tots.
*You can also skip adding the vegetables and fill them only with grated cheese. Deep fry them as usual and relish the cheesy Tater Tots.
Tater Tots Pizza
If you are a crazy potato fan, you will definitely love the Tater Tots Pizza.
Make bite-sized Tater Tots, fry them and replace them with the usual chicken that goes on pizza. Add a little more vegetables than usual for a crunchy flavor. Lastly, for a change, replace the regular pizza sauce with Dingolay Gourmet Hot Sauce for a tasty change.
Dingolay Gourmet Hot Sauce
Being versatile and available in various tastes, Dingolay Gourmet Hot Sauces can be paired with every meal as a dip or marinade. Not only dips, these sauces are also great to marinate, cook or use as a spread. Made with 100% natural Jamaican Scotch Bonnet Peppers, these sauces are vegan friendly, gluten-free and extremely healthy for you.
These sauces are available in three different flavors. The Original Dingolay Gourmet Hot Sauce is prepared with ripened Jamaican Scotch Bonnet Peppers, garlic-infused carrots, brown sugar, and exclusive herbs and spices that not only make them tasty but healthy. The other two flavors are Mango Dingolay Tropical Gourmet Hot Sauce and Pineapple Dingolay Tropical Gourmet Hot Sauce. These sauces are prepared with premium quality ripened mangoes and pineapples, respectively. They add a sweet and fiery flavor to your regular meal, making you feel out of the world. Moreover, their spicy, sweet and exquisite taste balances your daily meals’ lacking taste and spices.