Parmesan Tater Tots

These were great! Tater tots are wonderful on their own, but the addition of cheese put them over the top. This Parmesan tater tots recipe is super easy. Another night I had a few plain tater tots leftover and reheated them in the oven and sprinkled them with cheese, and they were great, too. This one’s a slam dunk with kids and adults alike. I used a store brand of tater tots, which was a 2-pound bag.

This Parmesan tater tots recipe is the easiest and fastest recipe I have ever made. This was not just eaten by kids but by adults too. We all loved them. A fun way to eat tater tots. Right away I started thinking what about adding spices next time—garlic, onion, nutmeg, dried herbs perhaps? We DID have some left over, so this morning I reheated them in the oven at about 425ºF for about 7 minutes and added more Parmesan once out of the oven. They were cheesier and perfect (and the leftovers were also good cold).

I hesitate to even call these Parmesan tater tots a recipe, but I suppose it could be considered one if you want to get technical. (Although you’d have to get really technical, in my opinion.) I made these tots for a Sunday of watching football with friends, as I don’t have any children around as an excuse. Not to my surprise, you don’t need kids nor an excuse to enjoy oven-baked tots, and they were consumed rather quickly. That said, the Parmesan wasn’t quite enough for the number of tots in the bag (store brand “potato bites”), and I felt like they begged for salt. We added additional sprinkles of sea salt to the bowl of finished tots and topped them with more freshly grated aged Parm and some chopped chives. We’ll make them again with our modifications.

I had some tots left over from a previous meal, so I tried out this very simple Parmesan tots recipe to reuse them. I reheated the tots in the oven, in a single layer on a baking sheet for a couple minutes at 350°F, than I tried 2 batches of this recipe. The first one with just freshly grated Parmesan, the second one with Parmesan and freshly minced garlic. They tasted great, like a new dish. I liked the garlic ones better, although most of the other eaters preferred the Parmesan only ones. This is a great idea to use up leftover tots. Maybe I’ll try French fries next time?

Should I confess I’ve never had a tater tot till I tested this recipe?! Here’s a great use of a half hour! Potatoes + cheese + garlic. If you think tater tots are the ultimate potato experience, give these a try! My tater tot tasting friends went for the granulated garlic + Parmesan variation as the hands-down winner. In fact, I located a roasted granulated garlic, that scored even higher than the plain granulated garlic. After the success of the garlic, we also tried Parmesan + minced fresh herbs (one batch with rosemary, one with oregano), which we found to be also tasty, but not the clear winner. The next step would be to make your own tater tots, add some fresh herbs (chives!) to the tots before baking, then add the garlic + Parmesan after baking, and we think you’d have the best possible variation! I used the store brand Essential Everyday, which already has onion powder in it, and this may be what led to the idea of the chives inside of the make-your-own variation. Additionally, while theoretically the recipe “serves 4,” there’s nothing stopping you from making up an individual serving of 15 tots when the idea of cheesy, crispy, garlicky, potato deliciousness strikes! And then, of course, there’s also nothing stopping you from making up a full batch and devouring them solo! Enjoy!