I dug up my notes on this for a friend who likes the taste of sweet potatoes but doesn't like them mushy. This preparation is along the lines of oven fries, not that they end up with exactly that texture, but they do get toasty and toothsome. It's a nice change from the same old sweet potato things one usually eats around the holidays, not that I don't love those too.
Although the recipe includes sugar, this is definitely a savory, spice-y dish. What's below is a great starting point, and a handy reference as to what quantities of spices work well on this amount of potatoes, but obviously you can change it up to your own tastes.
ingredients:
- 6 medium-ish (fist-sized, more or less) sweet potatoes, peeled
- 2 tablespoons (0.8 oz / 24g) brown sugar
- 0.5 teaspoon (2g) ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon (3g) garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon (4g) chili powder
- 1 teaspoon (5g) crushed red (cayenne) pepper
- 1.5 teaspoon (9g) salt
- 0.5 teaspoon (2g) black pepper
- 6 tablespoons (3 oz / 80g) cooking oil; a mix of olive and sesame oil is nice
procedure:
Preheat oven to 400 F (200 C). Cover two large cookie sheets (preferably ones with a rim) with parchment paper, or oil them.
Cut potatoes into slices about a quarter inch thick (6mm); see note below about thickness. Place into a large bowl.
Separately, combine sugar and spices.
Pour oil over potatoes; toss to coat. Sprinkle spices over potatoes and toss again.
Look at them. If they don't look spiced enough for your tastes, throw some more on there.
Place on baking sheets, spread out in single layers, or as close to that as you can get.
Bake for about 10 minutes, then flip. Flipping them tends to be a hot pain in the face, but at least move them around.
Bake an additional 5-10 minutes (time varies depending on thickness), checking frequently to make sure they don't burn. They're done when soft (stab them) and browned.
notes:
Paprika gets along well with sweet potatoes; see also
borgo's
sweet potato fries.
Keep the slices to a uniform thickness the best you can without fretting too much over it. Some may just get browner than others. If paper thin, they'll burn or be strangely chewy; if super thick (a half-inch or so) they will take forever too cook through, and their outsides may burn before their insides are done. So don't make yourself crazy over it, but do your best to keep them sort of the same thickness.
Sweet potatoes being irregular, your slices may wildly vary in size. Doesn't matter, as long as they're (sort of) uniformly thick.
Despite my best efforts, when I don't use parchment, some of these bastards always stick to the pan. I keep the oil handy, and at the halfway point when I reach in to flip them, I may pour a little extra oil on any particularly sticky parts, which will only get more stubborn as they continue to cook. Spray oil works nicely for this.
Despite all this oil talk, the final product is not super greasy, but a rest on some paper towels will make them even less so.
Sometimes these turn out ok but a little unimpressive. That almost always means they need a little extra salt, which can be added even after they're done (as can any seasoning you think is lacking).
As you'd expect, these are best right away, but I like them as leftovers too, even cold.
Original recipe here, and this blog is a great source of reliable, creative vegetarian recipes.