Maple Roasted Sweet Potatoes

I may have started the new year off on a roasted veggie kick. Check out my previous post for how to make a medley of roasted veggies.

These maple roasted sweet potatoes were inspired by Yiayia’s Thanksgiving sweet potatoes that lean towards being more like candy than a side dish, but I cut the sugar way back by only using a drizzle of maple syrup when we’re pretty sure Yiayia uses a sauce pan of simple syrup (she won’t say for sure haha).

For these sweet potatoes, I peeled and chopped 3-4 large sweet potatoes. I lined a baking sheet with parchment paper, spread out the cubed potatoes, and drizzled extra virgin olive oil over all of the potatoes. Then, I added the black pepper, sea salt, cinnamon, a little garlic powder, and real maple syrup. I gave everything a toss and roasted the potatoes in a 400 degree Fahrenheit oven for 30-45 minutes checking on them and flipping them half way through. I always use the roasting times as a guideline since each oven is different, but you can tell when these potatoes are done when they are soft the whole way through and the edges start to brown.

The maple syrup helps caramelize the potatoes for just the right amount of sweetness in each bite. I think these taste their best fresh out of the oven, but again, they lasted all week being reheated for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

If you’ve never peeled and cut your own sweet potatoes, grocery stores do sell them precut (and if you only need a small pack, it’s not too expensive). If you’re going to cut your own, I recommend buying smaller ones that are much easier to cut. Large sweet potatoes can be difficult to chop when they’re raw–I learned that the hard way :p