These are the hottest potatoes in restaurants these days.  No wonder-the little spears are so tasty.  Although they share the name, potato, they taste quite different.  They’re sweeter than a regular potato and far more nutritious.  Instead of deep frying, I’ve baked them coated with a small amount of olive oil.  The skinny for one serving is 106 calories, 4.5 grams of fat and 3 Weight Watchers POINTS PLUS.  A medium size French fries at Carl’s Jr has an astounding 710 calories and 33 grams of fat.

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Bake Time: 25-30 minutes

Ingredients

2 (12oz) bags Sweet Potato Spears from Trader Joe’s or 2 large sweet potatoes (~2 pounds)

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

½ teaspoon salt

Fresh ground pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. If you’re not using already prepped bags, peel the sweet potatoes and cut into 1/8 inch spears.

3. Place sweet potato spears on a baking pan.  Drizzle the olive oil over the potatoes.  Toss well to evenly coat.

4. Arrange potatoes spears on the prepared baking pan.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper, to taste.

5. Bake for 25-30 minutes until tender and crisp.  Turn potatoes once during baking.

Serves 6

Food Fact

Sweet potatoes are sweeter than a regular potato and grow in warmer climates.

In America, we grow two main types of sweet potatoes.  One is a pale sweet potato and the other is a darker- skinned variety.

Healthy Benefits

Sweet potatoes have a high nutritional value.  They’re loaded with vitamin A.  In fact, one sweet potato has twice the amount of vitamin A a person needs in one day.  They also contain an impressive amount of potassium, fiber and vitamin C.

Shopping Tip

I found prepped sweet potato spears at Trader Joe’s but many supermarkets also carry bags of prepped ones.

Storage tip

Store sweet potatoes as you would white potatoes-in a cool, dry place.

Serving Tip

You might want to serve these Sweet Potato Fries with my Turkey Burger or Grilled Reuben Sandwich.

Weight Watchers (old points) 2
Weight Watchers POINTS PLUS 3

This entry was posted Wednesday, April 6th, 2011 at 10:59 am and is filed under Recent, Recipes. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.