Coconut Crusted Sweet Potato Fries

Golden, crispy, and delicious sweet potato fries baked in a coconut crust.

The U.S. consumption of sweet potatoes has increased drastically over the past two decades as Americans have become more educated about the health benefits of this versatile root vegetable.  Sweet potatoes are chock-full of vitamins, especially vitamin A in the form of beta carotene.  They’re also rich in fiber and potassium and are low on the glycemic index despite their sweetness.  Low glycemic foods help keep our blood sugar levels stable, which in turn reduces the risk of diabetes and heart disease.  As a kid, the only time I remember eating sweet potatoes was at Thanksgiving, but now I enjoy them year-round in a variety of delicious ways.   Coconut Crusted Sweet Potatoes Fries is the newest addition to my varied collection of sweet potato recipes. (See all the recipe links at the end of this post.)

Recently, my local supermarket started carrying a variety of fresh, packaged vegetables that are prepped and cut into noodles, rice, and fries. The vegetable (spiralized) noodles are the most popular but riced vegetables are also finding a following. These are veggies that are chopped up into very tiny pieces resembling rice – cauliflower is most often used for this cut. However, the most familiar vegetable cut they carry is the French fry cut, available in sweet potato and butternut squash, and this was the one I was most anxious to experiment with. I have a food processor with a French fry slicing blade but whenever I use it I find that the cut pieces are not uniform enough to cook evenly and there’s a lot of waste and mess, with loose shards of potatoe mixed in among all the good pieces. When I saw the packaged sweet potatoe fries, I noted that all the pieces were exactly the same size with no extra/smaller pieces to deal with. I knew this would make them easy to cook and result in delicious Coconut Crusted Sweet Potato Fries.

If you can’t find pre-cut sweet potato fries you can still make Coconut Crusted Sweet Potato Fries. Just slice the potatoes by hand into fries about ¼ to ½ inch thick. Try to keep the pieces all the same size, as much as you can, so the fries cook evenly.

Coconut Crusted Sweet Potato Fries are sweet, golden, crispy, and delicious. They taste fantastic on their own but if you like the combination of sweet and spicy, be sure to serve them with chipotle aioli and a squeeze of lime. If you love cooking with sweet potatoes check out these other recipes:  Herbed Sweet Potato Biscuits, Sweet Potato Cauliflower Cakes with Dairy Free Cashew Sour Cream, Sweet Potato Black Bean Avocado Salsa, Sweet Potato Flax Crackers, Turkey Sweet Potato and Black Bean Chili with Chipotle and Chorizo, Mashed Sweet Potatoes with Lime and Toasted Coconut, Sweet Potato Stuffed Peaches, Spicy Cinnamon Sweet Potato Brownies.

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Coconut Crusted Sweet Potato Fries

 

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Author: QUEEN OF MY KITCHEN

Serves: 8 servings

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon pepper
• ½ teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 lb. 3 ounces sweet potatoes cut into fries, ¼ to ½ inch thick
• 2 cups unsweetened finely shredded coconut
• 2 tablespoons coconut sugar
• Olive oil cooking spray
• 1 lime, cut into wedges
• Chipotle aioli (optional - recipe in notes)

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and brush two baking sheets with 1 tablespoon of olive oil.
2. In a shallow dish (such as a pie plate) whisk together the eggs, salt, pepper, and garlic powder. In another shallow dish combine the shredded coconut and coconut sugar.
3. Dip the sweet potatoes into the egg mixture (4 or 5 at a time) and then coat them with the coconut/coconut sugar mixture. Place on a baking sheet. Repeat with remaining sweet potatoes.
4. Spray with a layer of olive oil cooking spray.
5. Bake on the bottom racks of the oven for 20 minutes, rotating the baking sheets halfway through the baking time, until the sweet potato fries are browned and crispy.
6. Serve with lime wedges and chipotle aioli if desired.

Notes

CHIPOTLE AIOLI
1/2 cup Greek yogurt
1/2 cup mayo
1 puréed chipotle pepper from a can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
Salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients.

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