Sweet potatoes are full of vitamins and don't lack for flavor either. With a bit of attention to cutting them evenly, they bake up in the oven with a crispy brown exterior, fluffy sweet interior, and enough flavor to dress up the simplest of weeknight suppers.
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Ingredients:
- 1 large sweet potato (often sold as "yams" at grocery stores), as uniformly shaped as you can find
- 1 teaspoon vegetable or grapeseed oil
- 1/8 teaspoon cayenne (optional)
- Salt to taste
Preparation:
- Preheat oven to 425. Peel sweet potato and cut off tapered ends (you can reserve this part for another use if you like) so the entire vegetable is about the same width around.
- Cut sweet potato in half lengthwise. Cut each half lengthwise into 1/8- to 1/4-inch slabs. Stack each half of slabs and cut lengthwise into 1/8- to 1/4-inch strips. Cut these "fries" as evenly as possible and cut off any noticeably tapered ends since these will burn quite easily in the oven.
- Put "fries" in a large bowl. Toss thoroughly with oil. Sprinkle with cayenne, if you like, and salt. Toss to coat "fries" as evenly as possible.
- Lay "fries" on a large baking sheet. They can be quite close together, because they will shrink as they cook, but they should be in a single layer, if possible.
- Bake until "fries" are tender and starting to brown on the bottom, about 20 minutes. Use a spatula to turn and rotate "fries." Return to oven, increase temperature to 450 and continue to bake, turning "fries" every few minutes to help them cook and brown evenly, until they are well browned, about 10 minutes.
- Sprinkle with more salt, if you like.
Makes 2 to 4 servings Baked Sweet Potato Fries.
