Oven Roasted Sweet Potato Cubes Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Why are my roasted sweet potatoes not crispy? ›

I've found that sweet potatoes really need space for a truly roasted, crisped-edge result. Aim for about one inch of space between pieces. This leads to good, dry, hot airflow that will let the potato pieces' moisture evaporate while letting them dry and crisp up more.

The cold water bath helps rinse the starch off the sweet potatoes so they're a bit more crispy. That said, if you do not have the time, you can still get crispy baked sweet potato fries by using high heat and a little drizzle of olive oil.

Preheat the oven to 425°F and place a piece of foil on a baking sheet. Use a fork to poke holes into the sweet potatoes, set them on the baking sheet, and roast for 40 to 50 minutes, or until puffed up and soft inside when pierced with a fork.

Typically when you roast sweet potatoes, they end up mushy, not crispy. That's because the high sugar content and moisture in the potato creates a softer result. In this case, they get their crispiness not by deep frying, but by sprinkling a secret ingredient over and baking them!

The answer to the problem is to just bake the sweet potato longer, until it's soft to the touch. Soaking will not help soften your sweet potato unless you are putting the potato and water in a pot on the stove and cooking it. If your sweet potato is still hard it's not cooked enough.

However, when it comes to using soaking as a means to prevent oxidation, it's unnecessary to soak sweet potatoes. Sweet potatoes can be diced or peeled, and stored in the refrigerator for several days without changing color. White and yellow potatoes, on the other hand, will oxidize much easier.

No, there is no need to soak sweet potatoes before roasting. What temperature should I bake my sweet potatoes? Bake sweet potatoes at a high temperature. We find that anything between 400°F and 450°F works well.

Skipping the Scrub-and-Wash Step

Sweet potatoes grow in the ground, and skipping the cleaning step means dirt or grit can end up in your sweet potato casserole. Before cooking or cutting sweet potatoes, wash the skins and give them a scrub with a clean vegetable brush.

Unless the goal is to bake your potatoes whole, cutting them into 1" cubes means a faster cook time and more surface area per bite for delicious caramelization. Aim for equally sized potato pieces so they cook at the same rate. I keep it super-simple here with a drizzle of oil and seasoning with salt and pepper.

Slice both halves lengthwise.

Once the potatoes have been cut in half, use your knife to chop each half into sections lengthwise. You can make the cuts as thick or as thin as you'd like, depending on how large you'd like your cubes to be.

How do you know when roasted sweet potatoes are done? ›

A good rule of thumb for whole baked sweet potatoes: 45 minutes to 1 hour at 400 degrees F; 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes at 350 degrees F; 1 and 1/2 hours at 325 degrees F. You'll know the sweet potatoes are done by piercing the center of the sweet potato with the tip of a sharp knife; the flesh should yield easily.

Wrapping the sweet potatoes in foil ensures that they don't dry out too quickly, and allows you to add aromatics if desired. Unwrapping the sweet potatoes and increasing the oven temperature produces charred, roasted flavors and caramelizes converted sugars.

Baking can also cause an 80% drop in vitamin A levels, twice as much as boiling. Therefore, from a nutritional standpoint, boiling rather than baking should be recommended for cooking sweet potato.

A: This sure sounds a lot like potatoes that have been stored too long, in too cold of an environment before cooking. When potatoes are held below 41°F for too long a period, the starches convert to sugar and it changes the cooking chemistry.

Roasted potatoes can become soggy if the water content in the potato isn't fully cooked. Different potatoes have different water content percentages. Also, be mindful of the oil. Potatoes can react like sponges; too much oil can make your potatoes appear to be soggy.

Heat your oven to 400 degrees, spread potatoes on a sheet pan and cover them in tin foil. Re-roast them until they're warm all the way through, about 10-15 minutes. Remove the cover for another five to add crispiness.

How to tell if sweet potatoes have gone bad. If your sweet potato is soft in spots, smells rotten, or oozes a mysterious liquid, that potato should be discarded. Another sign that sweet potatoes have taken a turn for the worse is if they start growing stalky purplish sprouts.