Sweet Potato Fries with Avocado Mayo
There’s lots to love about these oven-baked fries, made from sweet potatoes instead of russet potatoes. My cooking class students give them high marks for their crispy, salty, spicy, and sweet appeal. They are easy to make, fun to share, and absolutely addictive when dipped in Avocado Mayo—a creamy, ginger-spiced dipping sauce you’ll soon be putting on everything.
To create the shoestring-shaped fries, you’ll need a spiralizer, a simple tabletop gagdet that transforms vegetables into noodle shapes. Or, look for spiralizied sweet potatoes in the produce section of your grocery store. Toss with salt, paprika, and extra-virgin olive oil. (Use your hands for best results!) Onto a baking sheet and into the oven they go.
It helps to rotate the pan in the oven a few times, and to toss the fries on the edge into the center so they all end up brown and crispy. Also, for the crispiest result, preheat the baking sheet. While they are baking, you can put together the easy Avocado Mayo by whizzing all the ingredients in a blender.
Avocado Mayo
This Avocado Mayo is not really mayonnaise but it has all the same creamy, tangy appeal. It’s a brain healthy upgrade to traditional mayonnaise, which is full of saturated fats, cholesterol, additives and preservatives. (If you love mayo, try one of the new varieties made with avocado oil for a healthier fat profile.)
Smear Avocado Mayo on a sandwich; dollop it atop whole grain toast with almond butter; stir it into whole grains, like brown rice and quinoa; and of course, dip your Sweet Potato Fries into it.
Brain-healthy sweet potatoes
Sweet potatoes are a great example of a healthy, plant-based carb. A brain-healthy diet includes eating a few of these white, yellow, purple or bright orange tubers every week. A sweet potato packs in far more brain healthy-specific nutrition than your typical russet. Check out what you get in a medium-sized, 100-calorie sweet potato:
- 300% of the day’s RDA for Vitamin A
- 6 grams of fiber
- Vitamins C and E
- Choline, a key nutrient needed to keep nerve cells healthy
- Beta-carotene, a powerful antioxidant converted to Vitamin A in the body (found in the deep orange sweet potatoes and yams)
- Antioxidants, especially in the sweet potato skin
Which color sweet potato is best? Variety is key. I love the orange ones for making sweet potato fries because of the vibrant color, but white sweet potatoes hold less moisture and cook up a bit more crispy. Purple sweet potatoes may be the most nutrient dense variety of them all. Considered a staple of the centenarians of Okinawa, Japan, purple sweet potatoes get their hue from brain healthy anthocyanins. If you see them at the market, give them a try!
Servings |
people
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- 2 10-ounce sweet potatoes scrubbed and dried
- 3 tablespoons avocado oil or extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons paprika
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt to taste
- 1 large ripe avocado
- 1 teaspoon ginger root grated
- 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
- 3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice along with the zest from the lime
- dash Tabasco or Sriracha (optional)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon cold water
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
Ingredients
For the fries:
For the "mayo"
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- Preheat your oven to 400ºF. Place a rimmed baking sheet in the oven to preheat.
- Spiralize the sweet potatoes. Place in a large bowl and toss with olive oil, paprika, and salt.
- Transfer the spiralized sweet potatoes to the hot baking sheet and spread out in a single layer. Bake 20 to 30 minutes until crisp and browning on the edges. (Cooking times will vary depending on the type of sweet potato you are using and your oven.) If the fries along the edge of the pan are browning faster, use long tongs or a large fork to toss them into the center and spread the rest to the edge to help them all brown evenly. Watch closely towards the end of the cooking time to avoid burning.
- Place the avocado flesh in a food processor. Add the grated ginger, garlic, lime juice, zest, and Tabasco (if using.) Add olive oil, one tablespoon cold water and a large pinch of salt.
- Blend until completely smooth.
- Scrape into a small bowl. To hold for later, cover with parchment or beeswax wrap that touches the sauce to seal out the air (and prevent browning.) Serve with warm, crunchy sweet potato fries.
Reheat leftover sweet potato fries in a 400ºF oven until crisp, about 7 minutes.
If you don't have a spiralizer, look for sweet potato "noodles" already made at the grocery store.
I find the "spaghetti" setting works best for these fries (the green blade on the Oxo spiralizer), but use any shape you like. Just be sure to adjust the cooking times if using thinner settings, such as "angel hair."
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