Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Sweet Potato Spears

Sweet potato spears just might be the easiest side dish ever! I was never big on sweet potatoes at all until about 3 years ago. I’m not sure what changed, maybe Travis helped to broaden my taste buds’ palate.

A great thing about this side dish is that you can make as many or as few spears as you need in roughly the same amount of time.

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You’ll need sweet potatoes and Italian dressing. You can leave the peel on if you’d like, but I like to peel the potatoes.

Cutting Spears

Cut the potatoes in half, cut the halves in half, cut those halves in half, and then those in half again. Whew! You just want spears that are all roughly the same size so they cook at the same speed.

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Throw the potatoes in a dish and pour on the Italian dressing. I like to do this ahead of time so the dressing has time to “stick” and I have a chance to turn them a few times.

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Toss to get all of the spears coated in the dressing.

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Turn the oven on to 400 degrees, line a baking sheet with tin foil, and spray the foil with cooking spray.

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Spread the dressing-coated spears in a single layer on the baking sheet.

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Pop in the hot oven for 25-30 minutes. I like to deter sticking by shaking the pan or flipping the spears every 10 minutes or so.

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Bake until the spears are fork tender. They will also turn a pretty brown color when the sugars in the potatoes start to caramelize. That’s the good stuff!

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Please excuse the horrible picture, but you get the idea…serve ‘em up and eat ‘em! If you’d like, you can even mix in some russet potatoes, but I really like the sweet potatoes alone.

Give them a try, you’ll love such a simple, fast side dish to have in your menu rotation!

P.S. Leftover spears? Try them the next day with a little A1 sauce. You’ll be surprised at how good this odd combination tastes!

Hang on, I’m being corrected by my all knowing husband…Ok, dear, I’ll convey the message.

Well, if you’re like Travis, you won’t  be surprised. You’ll just say that A1 is good on just about anything, so why wouldn’t it be good on sweet potatoes?

Whether or not you have any leftover, you’ll love them the first day!

End of post, I promise.

2 comments:

Karen said...

Hmmmm. I never would have thought of the Italian dressing on them. I make sweet potatoe fried by roasting spears like that in a little olive oil. When they're done I sprinkle a tad bit more oil and then Kosher salt and basil. I think that was from Giada or something. Chris loves them and sweet potatoes are so much better for you than regular ones (especially in french fry form). I'll have to try this one!

Sara said...

That sounds good, too! I'll have to try your version sometime.