Easy side dish: sweet potato fries! For an unfathomable reason, this is a sub side that restaurants often charge extra for. Why? They are just as accessible, affordable, and delicious as traditional starches.
This recipe calls for baking, not frying, the so-called fries. It’s a caloric save that doesn’t sacrifice taste.
Peel and slice your sweet potato into “McDonald’s size” fries. I’ve done this with white and red sweet potatoes and have found soaking the fry slices in water for at least a few hours ahead of time lends to more crispiness.
After soaking, drain your taters. Toss in large bowl with 2 tablespoons olive oil, a teaspoon each of salt, paprika and garlic powder, and a half teaspoon of pepper. You could play with these spices depending on your flavor preferences, for sure.
Spread your fries evenly on a baking sheet. Spray some oil on there first if they aren’t non-stick. Cook at 425 for 15 min and flip. Cook other 15 minutes.
After cooking, they will get crisper as they rest. Yum! This quantity pictured came from one large white sweet potato. Pretty fry for a white guy!! Sorry, couldn’t help myself.
Sweet potatoes are temperamental – cook too fast and they are floppy and mushy, and cook too long and they are crunchy and bland. I’ve played with the timing on this recipe and this is presently my best assumption at achieving that crisp outside but fluffy inside. You may have to play with it too depending on your oven and how thin or thick you slice your fry. Good luck!
Bonus: for an easy dipping sauce, mix one part mayo and one part sour cream and add sriracha to taste. You could also just add sriracha to mayo or ketchup.
