sweet potatoes Archives • New Nostalgia

Oven Roasted Sweet Potato Fries

I cannot get enough oven roasted sweet potato fries lately. I made this pan and ate over half of them in minutes! Sweet potato fries satisfy my love for all things salty/sweet. The starch and fiber in them keep me nice and satiated.

If any do remain on the pan after my ‘straight from the oven’ snacking, I will use them in wraps (they pair well with black beans), top my salad or lunch bowls (they are great eaten cold), will tuck them away in an omelette, or on top of my avocado toast.

These are nice and crispy when they come out of the oven, but after being in the refrigerator they soften up…there is just no way around that.

I enjoy eating them soft and cold, and have even been known to grab a jar from the refrigerator and throw it in my bag for on-the-go snacking! I really like having them on hand, and they are becoming a staple part of my food week and have been added to my weekly food prep list.

My local health food co-op deli always has these sweet potatoes sitting inside their case–roasted, seasoned and ready to eat. I ordered them so often that I just knew I had to learn how to make them myself! My co-op always add a sprinkling of curry and I love the flavor, so I have been doing the same.

In the above lunch bowl, I have 3 foods that I have been prepping at the beginning of each week—-quinoa, ‘refried’ beans (without the refry!) and roasted sweet potato fries. This makes it really easy to make a quick and healthy lunch.

The salad above is greens topped with beans and quinoa for protein, sweet potato fries for a healthy starch, gluten-free chips (from Aldi!) for crunch, salsa in place of salad dressing and seeds sprinkled on top. Gotta get those daily seeds in! This salad bowl would be awesome topped with avocado for a nice healthy fat or even a poached egg for a breakfast salad!

You could take these ingredients and roll up in a wrap. Delish! Today I made the above bowl but without the greens–I topped quinoa (you could use brown rice or riced cauliflower if desired) with all of the ingredients in the picture and added guacamole. I then had my Everyday Green Smoothie later for a snack, so I still got my leafy greens in!

Roasted sweet potatoes fries are a great staple to have on hand! These are packed full of vitamin A and are a great way to add an orange food to your plate to achieve the goal of eating the rainbow throughout your day!

Oven Roasted Sweet Potato Fries

Prep Time

5 mins

Cook Time

25 mins

Total Time

30 mins

Recipe Type: sides

Ingredients

1 sweet potato organic since you will be eating the skin
2-3 tbsp avocado oil a healthful oil that has a nice high smoking point, could use coconut oil
salt & pepper to taste
pinch of curry powder optional

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Wash, scrub and dry your sweet potato. Do not peel. There are great nutrients in the skin!
Place potatoes in a bowl and drizzle with avocado oil to cover.
Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Toss until coated evenly and thoroughly.
Lay them out onto a baking tray so that none of them are touching. This will help them caramelize and allow them to get that deep, delicious, golden-brown color.
Roast for 25 minutes or until golden brown. Don't be afraid to get some color on them...that will give them crispiness and flavor. Flip them over halfway through cooking.
Sprinkle with a pinch of curry powder to taste.

Recipe Notes

If you want the fries crispy again after storing in the refrigerator, you can lightly fry them in a cast iron skillet with avocado oil before eating.

RECIPES/ Sides

Mashed Sweet Potatoes

I had a ginormous sweet potato sitting around my kitchen for a week. Today I decided to do something with it, so I…

~cut it up into 1 ‘ cubes
~ put them in a pan with enough water to cover, and boiled until tender, about 10 minutes.
~drained
~added 3 tbls maple syrup
~added a splash of whole milk
~added 2 tbls butter
~added 1/2 tsp cinnamon
~added 1/2 tsp salt
~whipped them until smooth w/ my stick hand blender

…and was very happy with the result. The maple syrup brought the sweetness out of the potato without making it overly sweet. The salt and cinnamon should be added to taste. The milk is to help make them creamy when whipping. The size of the potato I used was at least 2 maybe 3 normal size sweet potatoes…it was huge!

This post linked to: 30 Minute Blog Challenge @ Steady MomTempt My Tummy Tuesday @Blessed With GraceTuesdays At The Table @ All The Small StuffTasty Tuesday @ Balancing Beauty and Bedlam

RECIPES/ Sides

Acorn Squash And Sweet Potato Soup

I’m sitting here eating a bowl of soup, taking occasional bites of an apple, and feeling quite proud of myself! I just created a recipe that is…da bomb! Well, ok, sort of created a recipe.

I wanted to try an Acorn and Sweet Potato Soup recipe that sounded and looked so good, but I had been warned by my friend Katie that the original recipe was a bit bland. She suggested a few additions to make it better, I used some of them but forgot what she had told me while at the store, so I ended up adding different ingredients. So, I guess you could say I created a third of a recipe, but hey, that counts for something, right? I’m still proud because it is goooood!

*the ingredients I added to the original recipe are highlighted

Acorn Squash & Sweet Potato Soup
1 large sweet potato
1 medium acorn squash
2 tbls olive oil
6 cloves garlic
3 3/4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1/2 c. light cream (I used whole milk)
1 shallot, chopped
1 1/2 tsp. smoked paprika (if you have not tried smoked paprika, you must!)
1 1/2 tbls. pure maple syrup (adjust depending on how sweet your potato is)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg (I used whole nutmeg, ran it over my microplane about 4 times-ish)
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
pat of butter
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Cut sweet potato and squash in half lengthwise. Scoop out squash seeds and brush cut sides with oil. Place squash and sweet potato halves cut-side down in a shallow roasting pan. Add unpeeled garlic cloves around the vegetables after tossing them in a bit of the oil. Roast for 40 minutes until tender.

(I baked a couple of extra potatoes for my lunch. Had not added the garlic cloves, yet:))

When cool, scoop out insides of the squash and sweet potato, leaving the skins behind. Peel garlic and add soft insides and scooped squash/sweet potato to a large saucepan. Add chicken broth and shallot and season with salt and pepper. Stir well. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer, for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Remove from heat. Add remaining ingredients, except for the milk and pat of butter. Process with the hand blender until smooth (if you do not have a hand blender, cool slightly and transfer to a food processor or blender, working in batches as to not overflow machine.

Return soup to pan and stir in milk and butter. Check seasoning. Adjust salt, pepper and cayenne as desired.

It is not as complicated as it sounds. You could roast your veggies earlier in the day, scoop and set in refrigerator until dinner time. Throwing together the rest of the soup is a breeze. I recommend either eating it with apple slices, cooked apples as a side, or with a mug of apple cider. I did both apple slices and apple cider, and it really complimented the soup. Maybe some diced apple as a garnish to add texture and crunch to the soup?

In a jar, ready for my husband to take to work for lunch.

I wanted my soup to have a sweet and savory taste to it with a kick, and that is what I got. My friend Katie added roasted red peppers, Italian seasoning, smoked paprika and a pat of butter and said her husband loved it. Her version sounds great, too- it would be more of a smokey, savory soup. I will for sure have to try it her way for a change. She is a vegetarian and told me that she uses smoked paprika in lieu of ham or bacon in recipes. I love that tip, you get the smokiness, but not the calories or the cost of the meat. She mentioned a vegetarian quiche recipe that uses smoked paprika instead of bacon..yum. Sounds like a recipe I need to blog about, so I will get it from her or maybe she could do a guest post!!:)

Happy Fall!