The Best Baked Sweet Potato Recipe (Brown Butter, Bacon & Herbs) | Wicked Spatula (2024)

FAQs

Why do you soak sweet potatoes before baking? ›

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.

Baking can also cause an 80% drop in vitamin A levels, twice as much as boiling. Therefore, from a nutritional standpoint, boiling rather than baking should be recommended for cooking sweet potato.

topping ideas:

chives. dollop of greek yogurt, or tzatziki. a scoop of guacamole. a drizzle of creamy avocado cilantro lime dressing.

Sweet potatoes grow in the ground, and skipping the cleaning step means dirt or grit can end up in your sweet potato casserole. Before cooking or cutting sweet potatoes, wash the skins and give them a scrub with a clean vegetable brush.

Place all your wedges into a bowl of cold water, give them a swish around with your hand and allow them to soak for at least 30mins, but the longer the better. This will pull out the starch from the potato and prevent them from going gloopy in the centre once baked. Drain away water and thoroughly dry the wedges.

Though they can both be part of a healthy diet, sweet potatoes are generally healthier than regular potatoes, partly because of their incredibly high vitamin A content. Sweet potatoes are also lower on the glycemic index, meaning that they are less likely than regular potatoes to make your blood sugar spike.

Use a fork to poke 8 to 10 sets of holes in the skins of each sweet potato for ventilation and wrap each tightly in aluminum foil. Place on a baking sheet to catch the juice that will inevitably leak out. Bake at 400 degrees for 1 hour, or until soft.

Baking a sweet potato in the oven is great, but requires time. When you need a quicker solution, the microwave is your best friend — we're talking 5 minutes flat! We independently select these products—if you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission. All prices were accurate at the time of publishing.

Toppings for Baked Sweet Potato

Butter, salt and pepper. Marshmallows. Brown sugar and cinnamon. Greek yogurt or dollop of sour cream.

So if you want a sweet, sweet potato, you have to cook it until it reaches 135–170°F (57–77°C). And you want to keep sweet potatoes in that range for as long as possible. That will maximize how sweet the potatoes taste.

What's the healthiest way to eat a sweet potato? ›

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.

If you enjoy sweet potatoes, you can absolutely enjoy them daily. However, eating multiple sweet potatoes every day could cause a harmless condition called carotenodermia, where your skin turns yellow-orange. You may also want to be cautious about your sweet potato intake if you have a history of kidney stones.

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.

Slice your sweet potatoes into long, thin strips, about 1/4-inch wide. It's important that the fries are uniformly sized for even cooking. Add the fries to a large bowl of cold water and soak for at least 30 minutes (or up to overnight).

Soaking the sweet potatoes removes excess starch, which allows them to crisp up easier. You will want to put them in cold water for at least 30 minutes, but the longer you can go, the better.

Why use salt water for soaking potatoes? There's moisture naturally found in potatoes, and moisture is drawn to higher concentrations of salt. (This is a process called osmosis.) So, if you put the potatoes in a salt water bath, that will help draw out some of their moisture, resulting in crispier fries.

The reason is to prevent the potatoes exposure to air, which causes dehydration, oxidation, and discoloration. Immersing cut potatoes will also help rinse off excess starch.