Sweet Potato “Fries”
According to the National Food Day calendar, today is National Sweet Potato Day. I love sweet potatoes in every form: casserole, soup, baked, risotto, pie. Seeing sweet potato fries on a menu makes me very happy. My guys? Not so much. But that just gives me ammunition …
Two years ago at Thanksgiving, I told my husband and two boys I was going to make one pumpkin pie and one sweet potato pie to see if they could even tell the difference. They were confident they were up to the challenge. So I made the pies. The boys even helped by peeling the sweet potatoes the day before. Those pies were beautiful and impossible to tell apart. After dinner, I cut the pies and gave each person a wedge of each pie. All three of my guys sniffed and studied and commented about the “differences” between the two. I have never seen pie eaten so slowly and carefully. They came to conclusions on which was which.
And that is when I revealed my pranking-prowess: both pies were pumpkin. The sweet potatoes they had peeled were in the sweet potato casserole that had been part of dinner. I think the worst part of the whole thing for them was that they didn’t figure it out at that point.
Sweet, sweet, sweet potato victory!
Making a big pan of casserole or other large recipes for myself usually means a lot of wasted food. When I am hungry for a sweet potato I most often make “fries”. Baked with a spicy-sweet blend, this recipe alleviates my craving … at least until Thanksgiving comes around again.
Sweet Potato “Fries”
Sweet Potato, washed and cut into 6-8 wedges
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1-2 teaspoons of seasoning blend
My favorite blend for sweet potatoes is the mixture from a previous blog called “Smoky Maple Salmon“. You can use any burger or steak blend, seasoned salt or just salt and pepper.
Coat wedges with olive oil, sprinkle with seasoning blend and place on baking sheet (I prefer stoneware because I like those slightly charred edges). Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes. Turn wedges over and bake for another 5-8 minutes.
One sweet potato will serve only one or two people (depending on the size of the potato and whether or not it is my entire meal or just a side). You can definitely bake more than one potato, just make sure you do not crowd the wedges on the pan while they bake. They need a little air between them to allow them to “crisp”.
I may never get my guys to enjoy sweet potatoes but I will always enjoy watching them cautiously approach every single pumpkin pie I ever make!
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