sweet and spicy sweet potato fries

Sweet and Spicy Sweet Potato Fries

I was doing some recipe research the other day and found a trick to create a crispier fry. But before I reveal it to you, let’s talk taters.

Now don’t get me wrong, I love a loaded baked potato or crispy American french fry, but sweet potatoes are the superior potato.

Why sweet potatoes? They are the undisputed nutritional king of potatoes and can be transformed into a killer dessert with chocolate and cinnamon.

Sweet & Spicy Sweet Potato Fries

Sweet Potatoes: the Fountain of Youth

Along with being delicious, they provide almost 700% of your daily value in Vitamin A and are packed with Vitamin C and potassium. The only potato superior to this delicious orange spud is a purple potato. Notice how the color spectrum clues you in on nutrition?

This is why anytime you’re in the store, always pick the brightest colored fruits, veggies, and you guess it, taters.

Some of the longest living populations on earth, like the Okinawan’s, get the bulk of their calories from sweet potatoes. More than 70% to be exact; which is all the more reason to eat these delicious spuds on a daily basis.

Sweet and Spicy Sweet Potato Fries

The Trick for Perfectly Crispy Sweet Potatoes

The most important step when making these fries is soaking your potatoes beforehand. This helps remove the excess starch, which in turn helps prevent them from sticking to the pan.

You can soak your fries up to four hours or as little as 30 minutes. Additionally, when you place the potatoes on the pan to bake, do your best to keep them from touching.

This will help with enhance the crispiness also!

Final Steps

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. After soaking, you can now pat your fries dry using a clean dish towel or paper towel. Then put them in a Ziploc bag and add cornstarch. Shake vigorously until well coated.

Next, you can add your olive oil into the bag and shake to coat. Lastly, add the seasonings and shake to coat for a final time. 

Pop them into the oven and bake for 30 minutes, flipping halfway.

Enjoy these with burgers, as a snack, or dip them in ranch sauce for a real party! You can’t go wrong.

Sweet and Spicy Sweet Potato Fries

sweet and spicy sweet potato fries

sweet and spicy sweet potato fries

Prep Time
Total Time 
35 minutes
1 hour 5 minutes
Prep Time:
35 minutes
Total Time: 
1 hour 5 minutes
Servings:
3
Cuisine:
vegan
Category:
side dish, snack
Diet:
gluten free
Author:
plant based scotty

ingredients :

2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into matchsticks

1 tbsp brown sugar

2 tsp cornstarch

1 tsp olive oil

1 tsp sea salt

1 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp onion powder

1/2 tsp oregano

1/2 tsp ancho chile pepper (or sub with chili powder)

directions :

  1. Place sweet potato fries in a large bowl and soak them in cold water for 30 minutes. Then, Line two baking pans with parchment paper, coat lightly with non-stick cooking spray and set aside.

  2. When there is 10 minutes left of soaking, preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

  3. After 30 minutes, drain sweet potatoes, pat dry and place in a large Ziplock freezer bag. Add cornstarch, squeeze out air, seal, and shake vigorously to coat. Make sure there are no large chunks. Then, place potatoes in a large bowl, add oil, and toss to coat.

  4. In a separate small bowl, add the garlic powder, onion powder, oregano, ancho chile pepper, and brown sugar. Whisk to combine.

  5. Pour dry mixture over potatoes and toss to coat evenly. Place potatoes on your baking sheets so that they are not touching each other. Pop in oven and bake for 30 minutes, flipping halfway.

Sweet and Spicy Sweet Potato Fries | Vegan | Gluten-Free

4 Comment(s)

  1. Steve Luce
    April 2, 2018

    If you could include weights for the primary ingredients in your recipes, that would be most helpful. For example, what do 2 medium sweet potatoes weigh in this recipe? For those of us who prefer to cook by weight rather than volume, it’s really helpful. Also, cooking with metric weight makes scaling SO much easier. I’m headed to the store to replenish my sweet potato stock and to make this recipe! Thanks!

    1. Scotty
      April 2, 2018

      Thanks Steve. I will keep this in mind for future recipes!

  2. Chelle
    March 14, 2019

    Is there any way to make these without using oil?

    1. Scotty
      March 14, 2019

      Hi Chelle, you sure can. Just swap the oil for one tbsp of vegetable broth.

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Learn How Delicious It Can Be Can To Transition to a Plant-Based Diet

Hey there, I'm Scotty. I help people reach their health and fitness goals eating a plant based diet. Feed me a banana with peanut butter and you'll have my heart forever.

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