Warm Smashed Tater Tot Salad
Crispy smashed tater tots is the new way to eat your tots. You can even toss them with crispy bacon and caramelized onions, they won’t get soggy.
you're making mealtime meaningful.
Looking to spice up your next picnic side or mix up the way you serve tater tots? Well, go no further. How about we crisp up some bacon, smash some thawed tater tots, and toss it with a bacon vinaigrette to make a mouth-wateringly delicious potato salad? The best part about this recipe is how crispy the tater tots stay after you smash them and even toss them in the vinaigrette. I will never be eating tater tots the same way again.
Keep your tater tots in the fridge overnight to let them fully thaw. You’ll need two trays for a whole bag of tater tots lined with parchment paper. Take a Pyrex measuring cup or a good plastic cup and start smashing. Make sure each tot stays together as you smash. For mine, they looked like they were going to fall apart as I smashed them, but they just got extra crispy. Since tater tots are already pre-fried, all you have to do is spray them with cooking spray before baking in the oven. The residual oil will crisp up the tater tots in the oven fine, so you can skip this step if you’d like. These will take a while in the oven, so now’s the time to get the rest of dinner prepared and the vinaigrette component.
Time to crisp up the bacon. I like to use thick-cut bacon for mine, but it all gets chopped fine in the end. Render as much fat from the bacon by cooking the bacon at most over medium heat. This way you ensure to get a lot of good bacon fat for the vinaigrette. Let the bacon degrease over some paper towel while you caramelize your onion and garlic in the fat over low heat, then finish with honey, apple cider vinegar, and a splash of olive oil for brightness. Season with salt and pepper, that’s it! Now I do like chopped up all the bacon before folding them with the vinaigrette and crispy potatoes because I think it disperses the bacon more evenly. Next time I might leave the bacon a bit bigger into bite-size pieces. The bacon when it’s cut that small tends to sink to the bottom of the bowl.
This isn’t your classic warm German potato salad, so there isn’t much need to let the vinaigrette soak in. It’s ready as soon as you toss everything together. Now that I know how easy this recipe is to incorporate crispy tater tots and they don’t get soggy, the sky’s the limit. I might try a loaded baked potato version or a cheesy Mexican version. One thing I know for sure is you have got to try tater tots this way.
Warm Smashed Tater Tot Salad
Yield(s): Serves 4 - 6
15m prep time
45m cook time
you're making mealtime meaningful.
Ingredients
- 1 (28 oz.) package frozen bite-sized potato nuggets (thawed)
- Cooking spray
- 8 oz. thick-cut bacon, chopped
- 1 small yellow onion, diced
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 tablespoon dijon mustard
- 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
- 2 tablespoons fresh chives, chopped *optional*
- Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper, to taste
Preparation
- Preheat the oven to 400 ºF and prepare two parchment-lined sheet trays.
- Divide thawed tater tots into the pan and smash them with a glass. Spray the tots with cooking spray and bake for 40 - 45 minutes, until golden and crispy.
- In a saute pan over medium heat, crisp up your bacon until golden. Remove with a slotted spoon to a paper towel-lined plate.
- Add onion and garlic to the bacon fat to soften the vegetables on medium heat. Once onions are translucent, add honey, dijon, cider vinegar, and olive oil. Turn off the heat and season with salt and pepper.
- Toss the crispy tater tots with the dijon dressing and fold in the fresh parsley and optional chives. Enjoy!
Recipe adapted from AllRecipes