Baked Sweet Potato Fries with a Sour Cream Salsa Dip

I love sweet potato fries, but I don't own a deep fat fryer and that's probably good because this is surely the conversation I would have with Jeff, "Hey honey, do you think you can deep fry corn on the cob?  What about green beans?  We could bread them first."  And then we would try it and then I would have to donate all my clothes because they would no longer fit.  And I'd have to shop for new ones and I really want a new camera so I can't spend money on clothes right now.  So you see I had to figure out to make sweet potato fries with out a frier. 

Turns out fried fries are about twice as many calories and four times the fat of baked fries.  After researching through my cookbooks I found a sure fire way to make crispy sweet potato fries in the oven.  This recipe is adapted the Baked French Fry recipe in the New Best Recipe Cookbook from Cook's Illustrated. It creates a delicious, soft on the inside, crispy on the outside sweet potato fry.  Serve them up with the sour cream and salsa Mexican influenced dip and call 'em dinner.  Or if you must, serve them as a side dish, but be aware they may just steal the show. 

Sour Cream Salsa Dip

1/2 cup low fat sour cream (or plain yogurt)

2 tablespoons salsa

1 teaspoon lime juice

Step 1:  Mix the sour cream, salsa and lime juice together.

Step 2: Chill and serve topped with diced green onion. 

  

Baked Sweet Potatoes

3 medium sized sweet potatoes

5 tablespoons canola oil or peanut oil

Salt and Pepper to taste

Cayenne pepper if you wish to heat things up a bit

Step 1:  Peel the sweet potatoes and cut them into long strips.  Make sure to cut them into evenly thick slices so they all bake the same. 

Step 2:  Soak the sweet potato strips in hot tap water for 10 minutes.  According to Cook's Illustrated, "The water introduced during soaking improves the creaminess and smoothness by working its way between the strands of gelatin and starch.  The final result is a fry that has a good surface crunch married to a smooth interior." 

Step 3:  Preheat the oven to 475 degrees F.  Meanwhile coat a heavy baking sheet with 3 tablespoons of oil and sprinkle evenly with salt and pepper.  Set aside.

Step 4:  Drain the sweet potatoes and using a clean towel, pat them dry.  Toss the sweet potatoes with the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil until coated.  (Add a little cayenne here if you like.)   Arrange the fries on the cookies sheet in a single layer.   

Step 5:  Cover the baking sheet tightly with foil and bake for 5 minutes.  Remove the foil and continue to bake until the bottoms of the sweet potatoes are golden brown, about 15 minutes.  Flip the sweet potatoes over and brown the other side for an additional 10 minutes so both sides are evenly brown. 

Step 6:  Remove from the oven and place on a plate with a paper towel underneath to absorb the excess grease.  Serve immediately with ketchup or the sour cream salsa dip above.   

Yields: 3 servings (about 8 oz each)

Nutrition:  This is calculated assuming all the oil is part of the dish, which it isn't.  A lot of the oil is left on the pan or absorbed by the paper towels. So consider this a worst case senerio:  200 calories, 5 grams of fat, 4 grams fiber and 4 grams of protein. 

That's 4 Weight Watcher's Points per serving.