The Best Ever Roasted Sweet Potatoes Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Why are my roasted sweet potatoes not crispy? ›

Don't overcrowd the baking sheet!

This is an important one! If the baking sheet it too crowded, the sweet potatoes will not crisp. You should provide optimal space for air to flow through, and the sweet potatoes shouldn't be touching.

Selection and storage tips: Choose firm, small- to medium-sized potatoes with smooth skin. Avoid cracks, soft spots and blemishes. Choose sweet potatoes with a bright, uniform color. Store them in a cool, dark, dry place for use within two to three weeks or at room temperature for up to a week.

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 your sweet potato is still hard it's not cooked enough.

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.

topping ideas:

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

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.

Sweet Potato Guide. There are five main types of sweet potato that are commonly consumed today—Garnet, Hannah, Japanese, Jewel, and Purple Stoke. While all are delicious, each variety has its own distinct flavor and texture that lends itself to a variety of cooking applications.

What state has the best sweet potatoes? ›

North Carolina leads the nation

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

Satsuma-Imo (AKA Japanese Sweet Potatoes)

Their dry, russet potato-like flesh is incredibly sweet and more starchy than other sweet potatoes. They taste amazing simply roasted or sauteed. Since their texture differs from other sweet potatoes, they don't work well as an orange sweet potato replacement in most recipes.

Even if you are making mashed sweet potatoes, they will taste better with oven-cooked potatoes. To bake sweet potatoes in the oven, preheat the oven to 400°F. Scrub the potatoes clean and pierce each one all over with a paring knife. Bake on an aluminum foil-lined baking sheet until tender, about 45 to 50 minutes.

Skipping the Scrub-and-Wash Step

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.

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.

Use a Large Baking Sheet: crowded pans = steaming vegetables = mushy soggy vegetables. Ensure the sweet potatoes have enough room and are not overlapping to encourage crispy caramelization.

To ensure that your potatoes become soft and tender, consider using the right type of potatoes, ensuring even and appropriately sized cuts, providing sufficient liquid, and avoiding overly long cooking times.

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.

Roasted potatoes can become soggy if the water content in the potato isn't fully cooked. Different potatoes have different water content percentages. Also, be mindful of the oil. Potatoes can react like sponges; too much oil can make your potatoes appear to be soggy.