Oven Baked Sweet Potato “Fries”! (Sweet or Spicy)

This is one of my favorites, because it’s super-simple and makes a great side dish for, well, anything! 

As you know, I love potatoes.  That being said, I love fries.  I’m the gal who goes to a restaurant with the intention of getting a really beautiful salad that’s chockablock full of spiced pecans and dried cranberries & strawberries and jicama and other fruits and goat cheese crumbles, and comes with some sort of honey-lime-cilantro-basil-walnut-balsalmic vinagrette…. the type of thing I’m typically too lazy to make at home:

 

…and then I see something like a “Gryo Wrap with side of fries”,

and I get that instead.  Fries are seductive like that.  Because I can eat ketchup with them.  I cannot eat ketchup with a salad.

So I like to make oven-baked fries at home—that way I still get the satisfaction of dunking warm wedge o’ potato in ketchup (or cocktail sauce.  Don’t judge, it’s delicious).

Sweet potatoes are better for us than regular ol’ Joe Idaho, because they are high in wonderful things like beta-carotene, vitamin A, vitamin B6 and vitamin C; fiber, thiamine, niacin, potassium and copper. They are also a good source of protein, calcium, vitamin E.  Plus, this is a Louisiana food blog, and there are no fewer than 22 yam & sweet potato shippers in Louisiana, and everyone’s favorite Bruce’s Yams are headquartered in New Iberia, Louisiana.

 

So, recipe, shall we?

Ingredients:

4 sweet potatoes (Or, if I’m just making a few to munch on for myself, I just use one), peeled & sliced at your preferred fry thickness.

butter-flavored cooking spray

For Sweet Version:

2 tsp white sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F, and take a medium size cookie sheet out.  Line with slightly crumpled aluminum foil, and then lightly spray the foil with the butter spray.

Once you’ve sliced your potatoes, put them in a large bowl & cover with cold water.  Let sit for 3 minutes.

Remove the potatoes from the bowl, & let drain on a stack of paper towels.  Place on the cookie sheet & lightly spray with butter-flavored cooking spray.  Place in the oven on the middle rack & bake for 25-30 minutes or until well browned on the outside (the ends might get a little dark since they cook faster).

In a baking dish (I use my bread loaf pan) mix the sugar & cinnamon.  When the fries come out of the oven, give one more light spritz with the cooking spray, and then toss them into the dish with the cinnamon sugar. cover the dish & shake well to coat.  Serve them up & you can sprinkle what doesn’t stick over the tops of the fries for presentation.

 

OR—if you’re not craving sweet, how about spicy?  This is another favorite blend of mine.

 

Cut the fries same as above, but this time, before cooking, toss them in the following spice mix:

For Spicy Version:

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp chili powder (or Pampered Chef’s Chipotle seasoning blend)

1/8 tsp cayenne

1/4 tsp Cajun seasoning

1/2 tsp onion powder

Bake for the same amount of time.

 

The awesome thing about this?  You can have a whole potato’s worth of fries to yourself…for 150 calories.

NutriFacts:

Calories: 150

Fat: 0.5 g

Protein: 3.6 g

Total Carbohydrate: 37.3g

Dietary Fiber: 5.9g

Starch: 12.7g

Sugars: 11.7g

Vitamin A: 692% daily value

Vitamin C: 35.3 mg

Vitamin B6: 0.5mg

Calcium: 68.4 mg

Iron: 1.2 mg

Magnesium: 48.6mg

Potassium: 855mg

Shared on: 33 Shades of Green