How to Bake Sweet Potatoes

Sweet potatoes make a super easy and super nutritious dinner. Here’s your fail-proof guide for how to bake sweet potatoes.

Even though I’m technically not a southern girl (I grew up in the North) and never even touched a sweet potato until I was 26, when I need a good, filling meal, one of my favorites is sweet potatoes, Creamy Crockpot Pinto Beans, and greens.

Sweet potatoes can almost always be found on the table at Thanksgiving dinner, but this super food is so delicious, nutritious, and easy to prepare, there’s no reason not to enjoy it throughout the fall and winter months when it is available.

Easy and Nutritious

Boiled sweet potatoes are blah. Sweet potatoes are so much more flavorful when baked.

Plus baking them is easier. Actual hands-on time to make enough for the entire family is about 5 minutes. So fast, so simple! And baking makes for a more nutritious sweet potato.

You say you’ve never baked one of these jewels?
No worries! This post gives you easy, step-by-step directions for how to bake sweet potatoes.

Sweet Potatoes and Weight Loss

Sweet potatoes are a fabulous weight loss food. They are low in calories, high in fiber, and are a good source of vitamins A and C. And of course, they contain no cholesterol.

My Favorite

It’s unfortunate that most grocery stores only carry one or two of the thousands of varieties of sweet potatoes grown. These beauties come in a wide range of flavors and colors (from white to yellow to purple and more). My personal favorite is “Nancy Hall” – an old time sweet potato that has a yellow skin and a pale-colored flesh and is very sweet when baked.

They’re so yummy!!! It’s like being able to eat dessert for lunch!

How to Bake Sweet Potatoes

It is so easy to bake sweet potatoes. And they tastes a million times better baked. Here’s how.

1. Wash your sweet potatoes.
2. Place on oven rack. (Place foil in bottom of oven to collect drips.)
3. Turn oven to 375°F.
4. Bake.

How Long to Bake Sweet Potatoes

Sweet potatoes come in a wide variety of sizes. Large ones will take longer to bake than small ones. Narrow ones will bake faster than thick ones. If your sweets aren’t all the same size and shape, allow the larger ones several minutes additional baking time.

Bake until the skins turn crinkly and the insides are very soft and gooey. Average-sized sweet potatoes take 1 hour to 1 hour 20 minutes. But since sweet potatoes come in so many sizes – from teeny tiny to as big as my head – I’m not sure anyone knows what average is.

If in doubt, bake them longer. It’s difficult to overbake a sweet potato!

Should you poke/pierce sweet potato skins before baking?

When I first started baking sweet potatoes, I always pierced the skins before putting them in the oven. It was a bother, and poked sweet potatoes leak a lot of syrup out the holes. So, I decided to try baking them un-poked.

Since then, I’ve baked no less than 460 oven-loads of un-poked sweet potatoes and have only had 5 or 6 of them explode. Then we all fight over the exploded one because the thin threads of crispy-baked sweet potato that remain after said explosion tastes off-the-charts amazing!

So, do you have to poke sweet potatoes before baking?
You can if you’d like; however, this step is unnecessary.

How to Serve Sweet Potatoes

If you (like me) aren’t into marshmallow-topped sweet potatoes, you may enjoy these yummy gems topped with my Creamy Cashew Dressing. This Tahini Dip is also a great sweet potato topper.

Are Sweet Potatoes and Yams the Same Thing?

Sometimes sweet potatoes are mistakenly called “yams”, but true yams are native to Africa, are more starchy and less sweet than sweet potatoes. They’re very different from each other! Yams are not even related to the sweet potato that we find in grocery stores and gardens in the U.S.

More Sweet Taters

Looking for delicious way to enjoy this super food? Try some of my favorite sweet potato recipes:

Roasted Sweet Potato Coins with Creamy Lime Dip

Kale Sweet Potato Quinoa Salad

Vegan Loaded Sweet Potatoes

Winter Lentil Soup

Sweet Potato Black Bean Soup

Simple Sweet Potato Hash Browns

How to Bake Sweet Potatoes

Super easy and super nutritious baked sweet potatoes.

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Prep Time 5 minutes mins

Cook Time 1 hour hr 15 minutes mins

Course Side Dish

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Ingredients

• sweet potatoes - (however many you would like)

Instructions

• Wash sweet potatoes well. Pierce skins with a knife or fork if desired. Place potatoes on oven rack in oven.
• Bake at 375°F until the skins turns crinkly and the insides are very soft and gooey.

  Time will vary depending on the size and age of potato. Average-sized sweet potatoes take 1 hour to 1 hour 20 minutes.

  Serve hot, warm, or cold.

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