Spicy Sweet Potato Chips [baked not fried!]
These spicy sweet potato chips are phenomenal and kid approved. My 6 year old is not picky in the slightest; she will try anything I give to her as long as she sees me trying it. Even so, I’m always looking for ways to add more healthy items to her repertoire of snacks.
Sadly, I am not one of those people that can bake a sweet potato and eat it as is. I just don’t love sweet potatoes without heightening the sweetness or adding a spicy factor to them. Not sure why, I’ve just always been like that.
I bought a bunch of local corn, scallions and sweet potatoes and paired them with the 2 perfectly ripe avocados I had waiting patiently on the counter.
Watch these carefully while baking them; they will burn quickly if you’re not paying attention!
ingredients:
4 medium sweet potatoes
3 or 4 ears of fresh corn
2 avocados
1 lemon
1 scallion
Handful of fresh cilantro
Olive oil for coating the chips.
Spice mix: equal parts garlic powder, onion powder (not onion salt!), cumin, chili powder and salt. Add a few shakes of cayenne powder to suit your taste.
You will need a mandolin to get even, thin slices of potato. Use the mandolin side of a box grater if you don’t have one. Mandolins aren’t expensive ($10-$20) and come in handy all the time. I recommend purchasing one of you don’t have one.
Cook your corn first, either boil or grill it. Boiling corn will take about 5 minutes of boiling and 5-10 minutes for it to cool down off the heat before you can handle it. Grilling will take longer, about 15-20 minutes of grill time. Don’t remove the husks if you’re going to grill. Much easier to remove them after you’ve cooked the corn. Make sure the husks are completely charred so you know the corn is cooked through.
Heat your oven to 400 degrees F while the corn is cooking.
Chop off the end of the sweet potato and start slicing. I don’t recommend using a knife to slice them because it’s difficult to get even slices. You’ll be able to get evenly and thinly sliced potatoes using a mandolin. Just be sure to watch those fingers!! I have cut myself many, many times because I am too stubborn to use the safety guard thingy.
Put your slices into a bowl and pour 2 teaspoons of olive oil in.
Add the spice mix to the bowl and rub to cover all the potato slices thoroughly.
Line a baking sheet with parchment and lay your potato slices down without overlapping.
Bake for 15 minutes and flip the slices over to ensure even browning. Bake for another 5-10 minutes but WATCH THEM CAREFULLY! They burn quite quickly! Even if you do get some brown spots they’ll still taste amazing. Don’t let it discourage you. If the chips weren’t sliced evenly, you’ll see that some areas brown quicker than others.
*You could turn the oven way down to 250 degrees F and bake them for a longer time, let’s say about 2 hours. I haven’t tried it this way (yet) but it sounds like a good idea if you’re not absolutely drooling over the idea of eating these ASAP.*
To make a quick guacamole:
scoop out the flesh of the avocados into a small mixing bowl, add the juice of one lemon (about 3-4 tablespoons) and thinly slice the scallion and add that as well. Smash it all up with a fork and season with salt and pepper to taste. I love adding fresh cilantro when I have it in the garden!
Now, slice all that delicious corn off of the cobs and stir it into the guacamole as well. Yum.
[I like to add some hot sauce to my guacamole too! Just take into consideration how spicy you made your chips and don’t over spice the guac.]
Eat More Plants. 
2 Responses to “Spicy Sweet Potato Chips [baked not fried!]”
Wow, these look so good; I can’t wait to try them!
XOXO,
Isabella
Love the baby legs in the last photo – so cute! The potato chips are a great idea – I’m with you, I’m not a huge sweet potato fan on its own. I’ll eat it in things, or like this, but won’t just tuck in to a huge chunk of it.