If you like your sweet potatoes golden brown and crispy, roasting them in the oven is the most effective cooking method. But with so many different baking techniques to choose from, it’s hard to decide which method is the quickest, easiest and tastiest.
The first step is to zero in on the reason you’re using the root vegetable. If you’re serving it as a steakhouse-style side, consider baking the sweet potato whole and loading it with a smattering of toppings. You also can slice the vegetable into cubes before baking and use the chopped sweet potato in a hash, grain bowl or salad.
How to Bake a Whole Sweet Potato
When a perfectly grilled steak or roast chicken is on the menu, no side comes to mind more readily than a perfectly baked potato. When you think about a baked potato, you likely envision a russet or Yukon Gold potato sliced open and piled high with sour cream, chives, bacon, cheese and more. But you can achieve a similar effect with a sweet potato.
If you opt for a sweet potato, the baking process isn’t that different from cooking a white potato. Preheat the oven to 425F. Because sweet potatoes are so firm, they need a high heat and longer cooking time than softer varieties of spuds.
Wash the potatoes, then use a fork to puncture holes into the top of the veggie. This gives the steam that builds up while baking a way to escape. Skipping this step can result in a potato explosion — and no one wants to clean that up.
Although some people may recommend wrapping your sweet potatoes in foil before placing them in the oven, it isn’t necessary. It traps the moisture and can make the skin of the potato soft instead of crispy.
Bake the sweet potatoes for about 40 minutes or until tender. Once the potatoes have cooled, slice them down the middle and load them up with your desired toppings. You can also eat it plain with a pat of butter, salt and pepper, as the recipe below suggests.
