The Best Ever Roasted Sweet Potatoes Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Why are my roasted sweet potatoes not crispy? ›

I've found that sweet potatoes really need space for a truly roasted, crisped-edge result. Aim for about one inch of space between pieces. This leads to good, dry, hot airflow that will let the potato pieces' moisture evaporate while letting them dry and crisp up more.

The most versatile and sweetest variation of sweet potatoes is the Beauregard. Throughout the United States, you will see this species stacked high in the grocery stores during the holiday season. Beauregard's have a bit of a stringy texture, but they stay soft: this is what makes them so popular.

The cold water bath helps rinse the starch off the sweet potatoes so they're a bit more crispy. That said, if you do not have the time, you can still get crispy baked sweet potato fries by using high heat and a little drizzle of olive oil.

If you want to make this roast potatoes day before recipe and keep the potatoes crispy, ensure you put them in hot oil before baking them. This will help the potatoes stay crispy. If you're preparing roast potatoes in advance and find they have gone soggy in the fridge.

If it still feels firm, I'd put it back in the oven for another 15 minutes. Expert tip! Drop your baked sweet potato from about 10 inches above onto a cutting board or the baking pan.

Boiling sweet potatoes retains more beta-carotene and makes the nutrient more absorbable than other cooking methods such as baking or frying. Up to 92% of the nutrient can be retained by limiting the cook time, such as boiling in a pot with a tightly covered lid for 20 minutes.

Of the thousands of vegetables available today, sweet potatoes are considered one of the most nutritious. The orange- (or sometimes purple) fleshed vegetables are loaded with minerals and A, B, and C vitamins. This has led to sweet potatoes being called a superfood by many.

If you're serving your oven baked sweet potatoes as a side dish, pair them with your favorite protein or vegetarian chili. For a topping, stick to butter, Greek yogurt, or sour cream, or try adding a dollop of cilantro lime dressing, tzatziki, chipotle sauce, pesto, guacamole, or a drizzle of tahini sauce.

Heirloom (Envy) An heirloom variety with pale orange skin and flesh, envy is mild, moist, and sweet; a good choice for baking, roasting, and casseroles.

North Carolina leads the nation

The Tarheel State is the leading producer of sweet potatoes in the United States.

Do sweet potatoes taste better baked or boiled? ›

Baking whole sweet potatoes in the oven or cutting them into cubes and roasting them caramelizes the potatoes' starchy flesh, making it sweeter and giving it a silky smooth texture. Even if you are making mashed sweet potatoes, they will taste better with oven-cooked potatoes.

Recipe FAQ's

The main reasons for soggy sweet potato wedges are: overcrowding the baking sheet, not tossing in enough oil, having too thick sized wedges, and not roasting at a high enough heat.

Typically when you roast sweet potatoes, they end up mushy, not crispy. That's because the high sugar content and moisture in the potato creates a softer result. In this case, they get their crispiness not by deep frying, but by sprinkling a secret ingredient over and baking them!

A: This sure sounds a lot like potatoes that have been stored too long, in too cold of an environment before cooking. When potatoes are held below 41°F for too long a period, the starches convert to sugar and it changes the cooking chemistry.

Potatoes can react like sponges; too much oil can make your potatoes appear to be soggy. Try placing oil in a spray bottle or using an aerosol to apply the oil to the potatoes. Lastly, ensure that the potatoes are dry before you add the oil.

Tips For Roasted Potatoes

To make them soft and fluffy on the inside, but brown and crunchy on the outside there are three things you need to do. You need to pre-boil the potatoes. This is what gives that super-soft inside. Once you drain them, bash them around a bit.