Baked sweet potato wedges
I love it when people ask me to try out recipes which they can follow. Mostly cos, they have tried out a certain recipe from a site and it has turned out disastrous or not so fine. Of course, as of now these are mostly friends & family but it still means a lot to me and I am always happy when such incidents occur since it makes me want to do more and do better! Anywho, I met a cousin a few weeks back who asked me to try and perfect baking sweet potato wedges since hers turned out very soggy. Honestly, to make baked sweet potato wedges is easy. However, the key lies in how crispy you can get it to be! We got our oven a few years back and I did very minimal baking in it. Last few months has seen a tremendous shift in terms of the oven usage. I am constantly looking at ideas of ‘Cheat food’ that ARE NOT really ‘Cheat food’. When I baked veggie cutlets a few months back (as opposed to frying them), they turned out really well. However, it took longer than I expected it to (and it wasn’t very cripsy on the outside nor did it brown the way I had expected it to) and with baking these sweet potatoes I figured the top-down heating approach usage in my Oven which is going to do wonders in a lot of my upcoming recipes. I already used this in my oven roasted broccoli and they came out really well and didn’t take much time at all. In case you guys are wondering why it took me long to use the top-down heating approach (mine calls this the grill mode) – I have to insert a metal plate somewhere in the top portion of the oven (to mainly protect the stove’s knobs from a lot of heat I guess) since for the top-down heating approach in my oven, I need to keep the oven not entirely closed. So, I’d been postponing trying this out for the fear of spoiling the oven & stove entirely altogether. Finally, found the courage (and the manual) over the weekend and successfully figured it out. It wasn’t hard honestly but I had to be sure I wasn’t burning down the entire kitchen :).
Anywho, in short for people who are looking at crispy baked goods (savouries like wedges, fries, nuggets, cutlets, veggies etc), you will need to use the top-down heating approach (in the US it’s called broiling & my SIEMENS oven calls this Grill & in UK there seems to be a different term as well) in conjunction at times with bottom-up heating approach. For veggies like broccoli that doesn’t require too much cooking time as such, just the top-down heating approach is fine but for these wedges where you require a bit more cooking time, you’ll first need to use the bottom-up heating approach and then the top-down heating approach. Sounds confusing?? Trust me, try this out – it won’t be that confusing after all. The top-down heating approach is what helps in getting food crispy and a nice golden brown colour. At least, this is what I have figured in my oven. So, try this recipe out and let me know.
And I am getting my boys to model for me these days 😀
- 2 no sweet potatoes (medium size)
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp dried italian seasoning
- 1 pod garlic (grated/ finely chopped)
- 1 tsp red chilli flakes
- 1/2 tsp black pepper powder
- 1 tsp sea salt
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Wash and pat dry the sweet potatoes and peel the skin if required (I let the skin be on).
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Chop the sweet potatoes into the desired wedge shape.
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In a bowl, throw in the diced sweet potatoes & the rest of the ingredients and mix well.
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Place them in a baking tray lined with a baking tray.
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Bake in a pre-heated oven of 180c for 15-20 minutes and then grill for 5-10 minutes.
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Make sure to toss the wedges every 10 minutes once.
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Enjoy the wedges hot with a dipping sauce of your choice. I had it with some spicy siracha!
- In my oven, bake mode is bottom-up heating & grill mode is top-down heating.Â
- The top-down heating helps in getting the crispy coating on the outside. For more info on this, read the write-up above.
Stepwise pictures
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- Chop the sweet potato into wedges
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- In a bowl, throw in the sweet potatoes & the seasoning ingredients.
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- Mix well to ensure each wedge is coated well.
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- Line them on a baking tray lined with a baking sheet.
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- Bake in a preheated oven of 180c for 15-20 mins and then grill/ broil for 5-10 minutes.
