Baked Sweet Potato Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Is it better to wrap sweet potatoes in foil when baking? ›

Wrapping sweet potatoes in foil helps in a few ways. It prevents the exterior of the tuber from drying out and overheating too quickly, which would minimize enzymatic activity; it also results in a more evenly cooked texture.

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.

Reaching an internal temperature of 210ºF is even better! Serve baked sweet potatoes warm with any toppings you love, like butter, sour cream, green onions, salt, and pepper. Or sprinkle a little brown sugar and cinnamon on top for a sweet flavor.

Dice the sweet potato, and leave the skins on. Then toss the chunks in a splash of tamari, oil, and maple syrup, and then dust heavily with chili powder, smoked paprika, and garlic powder. Roast at 400 Fahrenheit for about 30-50 minutes, or until the potatoes begin to crisp up.

Recipe Tips

Don't forget to poke: Poking holes in the sweet potatoes is crucial. It allows steam to escape, ensuring the insides become perfectly soft while preventing any oven mishaps from over-pressurized potatoes. Oil evenly: When rubbing oil onto the potatoes, make sure it's evenly distributed.

Yes! Pricking the potatoes with a fork creates tiny holes that allows steam to escape. This prevents your potato from bursting open in the oven (and making a mess!).

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.

Recipe Tips and Tricks

Whether or not you peel the potato is completely personal preference. The skin will add a little texture, so if you are serving children or sensitive eaters, consider peeling the sweet potatoes before roasting.

Q: Why is it common to salt the exterior of a baked potato? A: Chefs started doing this years ago to allow the salt to absorb or draw out the moisture of the potato while baking, which results in a dry, fluffy potato.

When you bake the potatoes, they get nice and tender without any parboiling. They are also roasted at high heat, making them perfectly crispy and cooked through in just 30 minutes. Can you overcook sweet potatoes? Unfortunately, yes!

Is it better to microwave or bake a sweet potato? ›

Can You Cook Sweet Potatoes in the Microwave? Yes, you can! In fact, the shorter cook time will help the sweet potatoes retain more nutrients that are often lost in the long oven-baking process. It's not all that different than baking a sweet potato in the oven, except it's a whole lot faster.

A good rule of thumb for whole baked sweet potatoes: 45 minutes to 1 hour at 400 degrees F; 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes at 350 degrees F; 1 and 1/2 hours at 325 degrees F. You'll know the sweet potatoes are done by piercing the center of the sweet potato with the tip of a sharp knife; the flesh should yield easily.

topping ideas:

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

Because they are rich in beta-carotene, vitamins and fibre, sweet potatoes help the body to process the carbohydrates gradually, thus releasing the sugar slowly and keeping you happier for longer.

Trapping that spud in aluminum foil where the moisture cannot escape results in a wet potato. Over baking the potato in foil cannot be seen (or easy to smell that it is overcooked) so you can end up with dark brown skin on the bottom, tough to eat and giving off a slightly burnt taste.

If you wrap in foil, they steam rather than bake. It's up to you. Steaming will give you a soft, moist potato skin. Baking will make the skin dry, possibly crisp depending on how long and at what heat you bake it.

There are benefits to wrapping sweet potatoes in foil before baking them, but you don't have to. The foil helps them stay warm once they come out of the oven, and helps keep the skin softer by trapping moisture in to steam them.

Some say wrapping baked potatoes in aluminum foil helps them cook faster (aluminum conducts heat, then traps it), and it does keep them hot for longer once they come out of the oven, which is why we think restaurants use this method. Wrapping potatoes will also give you a softer, steamed skin, if that's what you like.