Don't overthink roasted sweet potatoes!

Sweet potato harvest is in. I've sweetened them up by curing.

Now it's time for cooking!

I thought I would share a great (and simple) recipe for roasting sweet potatoes with you.

People often over think roasting sweet potatoes. Either the insides don't cook through when the outsides have browned or the things take forever, seeming to never actually get to the point of being browned.

With a few simple steps, you can get both: sweet, soft insides and a well-browned crust on the potatoes (with all the flavor that comes from browning and caramelization).

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients

• 3 pounds of sweet potatoes, ends trimmed, peeled, rinsed, and cut in to 3/4" thick rounds. I used white, Ube (an Asian tuber) Georgia Jet (the orange,) and, purple. They're all sweet, but the colors are fun!

  
  

• Want to have some colored sweet potatoes to add some fun to your roasted potatoes? I got you. Go to my shop here, and I'll hook you up.

• 2 Tbsp vegetable oil

  
  

• 1 tsp salt

  
  

• 1/2 tsp ground pepper

Instructions

• I know it's weird, but do not preheat the oven!

• Line a sheet pan with foil. Spray the foil with oil. Tear off another sheet of foil which can act as a lid on the sheet pan.

• Toss the cut potatoes with the oil, salt, and pepper in a bowl.

  
  

• Pour them out onto the prepared sheet pan. Put the disks in a single layer with their flat side down. Cover the sheet pan with the other foil and seal tightly!

• It's tempting to just toss them out on the sheet and plunk them into the oven. Don't give in! Covered roasting with foil steams the potatoes so that they'll be cooked through before the outsides are burned.

• Put the covered pan in the oven on the middle rack. Turn the heat up to 425 degrees. Roast, covered, for 30 minutes.

• Take the sheet pan out and pull off the cover. Put the pan back in the oven and roast for 15 minutes. Check the potatoes, if they're brown on the bottoms, move on to the next step. If not, give them a few more minutes.

• When the bottoms have browned, flip the potatoes and put them back in the oven until the flipped potatoes are brown on the other side. Start with 15 minutes again and extend as needed.

Cool about 5 - 10 minutes and enjoy the best roasted sweet potatoes you've ever had!

Kitchen Notes:

• Want to spice things up? Consider the following additions:

  • anywhere from 1/4 tsp to 1/2 tsp of red pepper flake

  • cumin and oregano (about a 1/2 tsp of each) make a great addition

  • Some garam masala is also a great addition, maybe 1/2 tsp or so (to your taste--go easy here!). The roasted disks seasoned this way would go great with roasted chickpeas.

• Want to add garlic? To keep it from burning here is what I'd recommend. Add as many peeled WHOLE cloves of garlic to the bowl when tossing the sweet potatoes. Roast them when the potatoes are covered, keep them in while the potatoes are roasting for their first uncovered roast, then pull them out when you turn the sweet potatoes. Put them on your cutting board and let them cool slightly. Chop the roasted cloves. When the potatoes are done, toss them in a bowl with the chopped roasted cloves.