Spicy (baked) sweet potato fries – updated version

One of my biggest weaknesses (haha okay one of many) are fries, I absolutely LOVE fries! And I love all kinds of fries, regular fries, cheesy fries, sweet potato fries, spicy fries, loaded fries – I could go on and on! But since fries sadly is not exactly the healthiest thing, then it is also something I try not to eat too often. Until I discovered healthified baked sweet potato fries that is! I am obsessed! I absolutely love making these spicy and beyond delicious sweet potato fries and the best part is that with these babies I don’t have to worry about all that icky stuff regular fastfood fries contains = I can have my beloved fries a lot more often!

However, before we get started I must say that getting baked sweet potato fries to be all nice and crispy can be somewhat of a challenge, but I have two tips for you that should do the trick. The first thing you can do is to let the potatoes soak in a bowl of cold water for a couple of hours after you have cut them. This should remove some of the starch from the potatoes and help them get crispy in the oven. After soaking, quickly rinse with water and dry them with a towel. If you do not have the time to soak the potatoes you can use another tip that I haven’t actually tried myself yet, but it should work very well. All you need is a tablespoon of cornstarch to lightly coat your sweet potatoes in – I will explain how in the directions below in step 5. You can also use both the tips to make sure your fries will get crispy – as I said sweet potatoes are a bit tricky!

Ingredients – 2 servings:
4 small sweet potatoes
1-2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 tablespoon paprika
1/2 tablespoon chilli powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
Sea salt
1/2 tablespoon cornstarch – optional

Directions:

1. Start with pre-heating your oven to 220 degrees c / 430 degrees f
2. Wash, peel (you can also leave the peel on) and cut your sweet potatoes into desired size – the thicker you make them the longer they need to bake
3. Get a plastic bag – skip this step if you do not wish to use the cornstarch tip – and add about 1/2 tablespoon of cornstarch, you only want the fries to be lightly coated or else they will taste of cornstarch so be careful. Add the potato fries to the bag and shake it vigorously to make sure all the potatoes are coated with the cornstarch.
4. Add 1-2 tablespoons of oil (I usually use 1 tablespoon olive oil, but pretty much any oil should do) and shake the bag again
5. Add all the spices to the bag and shake some more until the fries are coated
6. Take a baking tray and cover it with baking paper, place the fries on the tray and make sure that they are well separated – there needs to be some space between the fries allowing them to bake properly
7. Bake the fries for about 20-35 minutes depending on the thickness of your fries – make sure to flip them over allowing them to bake on all sides.
8. Enjoy!