This air fryer recipe for sweet potato fries will give a whole new meaning to healthy food that tastes delicious. Up until now, the healthier alternative to classic French fries has always been sweet potato fries, which are typically baked rather than fried.
While baked sweet potato fries are enjoyable, they never seem to have the crispiness that a fried potato does. We’ve all learned, however, that fried food should be avoided at all costs.
Eating foods that have been fried can have a myriad of negative effects on your health, including an increased risk for heart disease and diabetes. That said, many of us can’t seem to deny a handful of beautifully crisp, golden fries.
Well, thanks to a new cooking gadget called the air fryer, we don’t have to. The air fryer only requires a tablespoon or less of oil to cook food, and relies on constantly circulating hot air to cook the food. Rather than immerse your sweet potato fries, for example, into a pot of hot, bubbling oil, you simply place the fries in the air fryer with just the tiniest bit of oil.
The result are sweet potato fries that have a crispy exterior and moist interior, very similar to classic French fries. They’ve got nice crispy edges, yet tender on the inside, making them just as irresistible as the original.
If you’re using the air fryer to make these sweet potato fries for the first time, proceed with a couple of tips in mind. First, you don’t want to overcrowd your air fryer, as this will prevent the fries from cooking evenly. This comes out to about one small sweet potato per batch.
Second, you want to cut your fries pretty similar in thickness and size. Preparing the sweet potato fries in a similar shape and size will allow them to all cook at the same time (rather than some being undercooked or some being overdone).
Another tip to be mindful of is rotating your fries halfway through. While the air fryer is pretty good about circulating hot air evenly throughout the machine, the air below food tends to be hotter than the air above.
We love pairing these air fryer sweet potato fries with a veggie burger or just enjoying them as a yummy snack!
Air Fryer Recipe: Sweet Potato Fries
serves 2
Ingredients
- 2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled
- 2 tsp olive oil
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/4 tsp paprika powder
- pinch of freshly ground black pepper
- oil spray for fryer
Directions:
- Turn on the air fryer and preheat it to 400°F for 8 minutes. Lightly spray the basket in the air fryer with the oil spray.
- Cut the potato into evenly shaped fries, each fry being about 1/4″ thick. Try to create fries that are as even in thickness and size as possible.
- In a large bowl, gently toss the sweet potato with the olive oil, salt, garlic powder, paprika, and black pepper.
- Add half of the fries to the air fryer basket and cook for 8 minutes, stopping halfway through to turn the fries. When finished, remove the cooked fries and add the remaining fries to the air fryer. Again, cook for 8 minutes, stopping halfway through to turn the fries.
Recipe adapted from SkinnyTaste.com
