I’ve been big on sweet potatoes for a long time and currently, sweet potato fries are all the rage.  I’ve diced, mashed, sauteed, and baked sweet potatoes but I have been too lazy to go the fry route until now.

I set out to create fries but maintain healthfulness.  The result?  My sweet potato fries were delicious…but crispy they were not.

Below, I share my recipe for sweet potato fries, which is a work in progress.  You may be thinking that this is the simplest recipe you have ever seen or,  you may be thinking that what you see below is simply a photo essay about sweet potatoes.  Whatever works for you.

Sweet Potato Fries

4 large sweet potatoes

1-2 tablespoons canola oil

sea salt

While perusing the bin of these beauties at the grocery store, stay away from the scary, twisted looking ones and try to pick ones that resemble potatoes- your hands will thank you when you successfully avoid cutting them up.

+ cut off ends

+ halve sweet potatoes lengthwise

+halve sweet potatoes again

+ cut halves in half, cut those halves into 4 sections and cut those 4 sections in half

2 hours later…tada!!! (just kidding but cutting up 4 large sweet potatoes takes a long time)

+salt the raw fries and let them “sweat” for 20 minutes

+Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees, toss fries in 1-2 T canola oil, lay fries out on baking pans (I needed two) and salt them again

+ Place baking pans in oven, flip fries after 25 minutes

+Pull fries out of oven after an hour or so

+pour dipping sauces and go to town!

ketchup, mustard, bbq sauce

These were delicious and I think I ate 2-3 dozen from the pan while they were cooling.  In discussion at Saturday night’s dinner party, my  uncle mentioned that the lack of crispiness may be a result of the amount of sugar in the sweet potatoes, hence why they are either limp or they are burned to a crisp.  I will continue my endeavor to create a crispy sweet potato fry without, well, frying them.

Any suggestions for creating a crispy sweet potato fry?