I had a mare of a week so my today’s recipe is just a bowl of plain old comfort food as that’s something I have been very much in need of recently. I made some sweet potato fries with a side of bright lime mayo and it made me a happy bunny.

These sweet potato fries are baked rather than fried – although you are welcome to fry them if that’s what you are into – so they are rather quick and easy to make. Sweet potatoes are easily accessible, delicious and good for you. They do, by their nature, contain more moisture than regular, white potatoes so that’s why it is harder to make them crisp up. While they will never be as crispy as white potato fries, there are a few tricks that certainly help to make these sweet potato fries crispier and more satisfying to eat.

First of you want to cut your sweet potatoes into thin matchsticks, I found that half a centimeter (or just under a quarter of an inch) is optimal. You want to make sure your fries are cut evenly though so that they bake at the same rate. Once cut, plunge them into a bowl of cold water for a couple of hours or at the very least 30 minutes. What that does it removes excess starch which tends to make sweet potato fries soggy. Once your potato fries are done soaking, dry them off really really well and then coat them in some starch (cornstarch, potato starch or arrowroot all work well).

Once you coat them in oil, be sure not season them with salt until they come out of the oven. Other seasonings are fine to add at this stage, but salt tends to draw the moisture out of the food and bring it to the surface, which contributes to sogginess. Finally, you want bake your fries in a well pre-heated oven and space them out well making sure that fries do not touch each other. I also found that elevating the fires off the baking tray by placing them on a baking rack allows the hot air to circulate all over and produces a crispier result.

I like to serve these sweet potato fries with a quick lime mayo for a delicious flavour contrast. They make for a delicious healthy snack or side and I hope you’ll give them a try.

MORE ABOUT THE INGREDIENTS

SWEET POTATOES: Sweet potatoes come in various shapes and colours, but I have not just tested this recipe with orange sweet potatoes so that’s what I recommend you use. The other varieties – white and purple – are not very popular where I live. The key to good sweet potato fries is to cut the potatoes into thin and EVEN matchsticks.

OIL: I used peanut oil to make these but any oil that you typically use for roasting vegetables would work well: grapeseed, mild olive oil, sunflower, rapeseed / canola etc.

SMOKED PAPRIKA: You can use any spice or spice mix you enjoy in combination with sweet potatoes. My favourite is smoky paprika (I opt for the sweet variety). Just be sure that whatever you season your raw fries with does not contain salt, so garlic powder is great but I would hold off with using garlic salt. Salt draws moisture out of food to the surface and that will certainly sabotage all your efforts at making sweet potatoes fries that aren’t soggy.

CORNSTARCH: A thin layer of dry strach added on after drying helps to keep the edges nice and crispy. You can use cornstarch (known as cornflour in the UK), potato starch or arrowroot.

HOW TO MAKE IT?

1) CUT & SOAK

If you want to get your sweet potato fries as crispy as humanly possible, be sure to cut then into thin (and even) matchsticks – I recommend half a centimeter (or just under quarter of an inch) in thickness and once cut, sit them in a bowl of cold water for at least 30 minutes (a few hours if you are good at planning ahead) to remove excess starch. If you don’t have the time to soak your cut sweet potato fries, it’s okay to skip this step as in my experience it doesn’t make ton of a difference, especially only after a brief soak.

2) TOSS IN STARCH

Once you drain your potatoes, dry them really well as any extra moisture will make your sweet potato fries more likely to steam, rather than bake. You can use a clean kitchen towel or paper towels, I find that the latter work best. Once dry, coat your fries even in corn starch. I tested coating my sweet potato fries in cornstarch both before and after coating them in oil. I found that it makes no difference so I opted to do it before so that my spices do not have to compete with cornstarch for surface area.

3) COAT IN OIL AND SPICES

Once your sweet potato fries have been evenly coated in starch, coat them in oil and finally season with spices of your choice. I like to use sweet smoked paprika on my sweet potato fries but cajun spice mix or cayenne pepper, cumin and garlic powder are also great. Whatever you choose to flavour your sweet potato fries with, do not add salt or any seasoning mix containing salt until after baking. Adding salt at this stage increases the risk of your fries ending up soggy.

4) ARRANGE AND BAKE

Finally, arrange them on a baking tray. I found that elevating them off the surface gave me the best result so instead of placing them directly onto a baking tray, I recommend using an oven grill or a baking rack placed on top of a baking tray (should they fall as you are unlikely to get any drippings). Space them apart and bake until they are cooked on the inside and the edges are crispy, some darker bits are absolutely normal and delicious to eat.