Sweetly creative

I LOVE sweet potatoes.  It's probably my favorite food that my grandma makes for Thanksgiving, along with everything else that she makes :)  But it never occurred to me that I could eat these beloved vegetables anytime of the year until recently.  Baked sweet potatoes with black beans, cheese and salsa.  So good.  Sweet mashed potatoes.  Amazing.  Candied yams.  Heavenly.  They're all delicious.  But the one way to prepare these little babies for every day meals and my personal favorite?  Sweet potato fries.  These sweet fries have more vitamin A and beta carotene than the traditional french fry, giving you just a few more reasons to eat sweet potato fries without feeling guilty.  


Last week I wanted to bake a sweet potato for dinner because I had nothing else to eat but I discovered that we didn't have anymore foil.  I know that I could have just baked the potato in the oven without foil but I wanted to get creative and try something new.  So I decided to make sweet potato fries :)


The Ingredients

2 pounds sweet potatoes, about 3 large ones
1/4 cup olive or other vegetable oil
1-2 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp salt
1-2 Tbsp spice or spice combination of your choice: chipotle powder, smoked paprika, Chinese five-spice, pumpkin pie spice, garam masala, Cajun seasoning, etc.




The Process

1.  Preheat oven to 450°F. (For more crispiness, preheat your oven to 500°F.)

2. Peel the sweet potatoes and cut off the ends. Cut the potatoes in half lengthwise and then, if they are really long, in half crosswise. Cut each piece into large, even wedges. (Alternately, you can slice the peeled sweet potato into disks either with a mandoline or a sharp knife.)

3 Put the sweet potatoes into a large bowl and add the oil. Mix well to combine. Sprinkle with salt, sugar and spices of your choice. Use your hands to mix well, so all pieces are coated with oil and spices.

4. Spread the sweet potatoes out in a single layer on a baking sheet; the oil they are coated with should keep them from sticking to the pan. (Note: You can also put them on a wire cooling rack on top of a baking sheet, so that the oven air circulates around the sweet potato pieces and you don't have to turn them in the next step. You can also preheat the baking sheet to help the fries get crisp.)

5. Bake for a total of 25 to 30 minutes. After the first 15 minutes, remove the baking sheet from the oven and turn over all of the sweet potato pieces. Return to the oven and bake for another 10-15 minutes, or until they are well browned. Let cool for 5 minutes before serving.

Don't they look delicious?!

Recipe from http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/oven_baked_sweet_potato_fries/