They looked fried, but looks are deceiving
No this isn’t one of the two fried recipes we post a year. These babies are baked, and they’re fantastic. If you don’t have Chinese Five Spices, then the spice of your choice would work. A smoky paprika would taste great. Our Five Spices blend had cinnamon, star anise, fennel, ginger, cloves, white pepper and licorice root. (Yes, that’s more than five.)
Baked Sweet Potato Fries
- 2 lbs sweet potatoes
- scant 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp Chinese Five Spices
Wash and peel sweet potatoes. Cut the sweet potatoes as uniformly as possible into the size of your liking. We like ours on the thinner side. This will ensure some don’t burn while others are hard in the middle. Soak the potatoes in hot water for an hour. Drain potatoes and place on towel to remove extra water. They don’t have to be completely dry. In a large bowl, toss potatoes, salt, oil and spices to coat. Place in a single layer on a lightly oiled baking sheet. You will need to do this in batches. Cook at 450 until browned on both sides, flipping once at about 10 minutes. They should take 20-25 minutes to cook depending on the thickness. Season with extra salt if desired and serve warm.
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These sound so good! And they look even better. I definitely will be trying this, thank you!
I do something similar with just S&P, but I love the addition of the five-spice blend. I think smoked paprika would be divine!
Yum the five spice powder would give them so much more flavour.
Sweet potato fries are my favourite and I love the idea of five spice on them.
I was looking at sweet potatoes in the store today, but they sort of fall into the quince problem. They look the part but they don’t taste the part. That’s just me:)
They’re a staple around here. They might be a different variety over there. Or just the same and not your thing!
Excellent! One of my favorite things.
I adore unfried fries particularly the sweet potato kind. Sounds delicious as we’re sitting in Charles De Gaulle in Paris waiting on our flight home.
Simple yet tasty.
Yes, Please!
MMMMM! this is one of our favorites over here…love the Five Spice idea….Beautiful!!
I’ve never tried Chinese Five Spice on my sweet potato fries. Sounds good! I learned to eat these in New Zealand where they’re called kumara. You can even get them at the fish n chip shop.
This looks so good. I have arthritis and sweet potatoes are supposed
to be one of the food items we’re supposed to eat.
I’m more of a junk food person and I love French fry’s.
I could really do this and not feel guilty.
You won’t miss the frying!
I’ve had mixed results with sweet potato fries, I suspect it has to do with their particular type – Chinese five spice is a very nice idea to season them
Why do you soak them? That never would have occurred to me… is it sort of like blanching them? Do you need to keep the water hot for the whole hour? Oh mmmmmm – this sounds great!
It is supposed to cut down on the starch, keep them from sticking and make them crispier. The water doesn’t need to be changed.
What a great seasoning trick. YUM!
I photographed crates of “POSSUM Sweet Potatoes” today at Cracker County (my last post). Not the marketing mascot I would choose for sweet taters. 😉
Love this, this is very popular here in NZ but they dont use five spice powder. I think I will give that a try
Great idea – bet they tasted amazing!
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I kinda forget about Chinese 5 Spice Powder. I use it every now and then…about once every 3 years! I think it sounds very yummy on sweet potato fries.
Just bought sweet potatoes ! I am so making them for the afternoon football game !
5 spice powder – great idea!
I am so glad these are baked. I love fried foods but I hate trying to dispose a few quarts of oil because I wanted a couple pieces of chicken or some french fries with my burger. These, especially with 5 spice, will do perfectly! Thanks, Greg.
Making these tonight! Perfect timing. 🙂
Love a good asterisks, especially when it calls out something surprising. I also appreciate a 5-spice blend with 7 spices. Good stuff right there.
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I’ve made baked fries before but not baked sweet potato fries. Thanks for the inspiration to try them (finally!)
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