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This oven roasted sweet potatoes recipe is the only one you need! Season them to perfection, then bake in a hot oven until caramelized.
All hail the sweet potato! This healthy orange vegetable is super versatile: bake it into crispy fries, stuff it with black beans and salsa, or boil it in a hearty stew. But one of the best ways to cook a sweet potato? Make Oven Roasted Sweet Potatoes! Dice them up, season with care, and roast until they’re browned and caramelized on the outsides. This basic side dish goes with just about anything.
Want to bake it whole? Go Baked Sweet Potato or Quick Baked Sweet Potato.
How to roast sweet potatoes (basic method)
You don’t even need a recipe for making roasted sweet potatoes! Make this recipe once exactly as written, just to get a feel for the amounts of flavoring. Then you can go free form: and it’s easy to memorize too! Here are the basic steps, then a little more detail in the sections below (or go right to the recipe):
- Preheat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Dice the sweet potatoes into 3/4-inch chunks.
- Season with olive oil, salt and garlic powder (see below).
- Roast about 25 minutes, until tender. No need to stir!
Why to dice into 3/4-inch chunks
This sounds oddly specific, right? But we’ve found that a 3/4-inch dice is the best size for roasted sweet potatoes. A 1/2-inch piece gets small and shriveled, and doesn’t feel like substantial enough bites. 1-inch pieces are rather large and take longer to roast. So 3/4-inch is perfect! (Trust us.)
The flavor secret: garlic powder!
Here’s our flavor secret for roasted sweet potatoes: garlic powder takes sweet potatoes over the top! It doesn’t even taste garlicky: it’s just savory, roasty goodness. To the mix you’ll also add olive oil and kosher salt. The quantities are easy to memorize:
- 2 pounds of sweet potatoes (about 4 medium)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon each kosher salt and garlic powder
Why to roast sweet potatoes at high heat
The best temperature for roasting vegetables? High heat: 450 degrees Fahrenheit or 230 degrees Celsius. Why? This gets them perfectly tender on the inside and caramelized on the outside. Use a lower temperature and it gets cooked through, but not caramelized.
Throw those sweet potatoes onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet, and roast away! The best part? You don’t even need to stir: just leave the potatoes as is to make them beautifully caramelized on the bottom. Remove from the oven and enjoy!
Ways to serve these roasted sweet potatoes
The most basic way to serve these roasted sweet potatoes is as a side dish. They work equally as well for weeknight meals or for holidays like Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner. But get a little more creative, and they’re just as good in a taco or part of a bowl meal! Here are the best ways we’ve found to serve roasted sweet potatoes:
- On a salad. Make a sweet potato salad by layering greens, pepitas, feta crumbles, and balsamic vinaigrette.
- With seafood. Try it with baked salmon, broiled salmon or baked shrimp.
- In a taco. Make sweet potato tacos with refried beans, salsa, and spicy sour cream.
- In a bowl meal. Throw them into a roasted vegetable bowl, rice bowl, or grain bowl.
- With an egg. Top a bowl with an egg, and you’ve got a savory breakfast.
More ways to make roasted sweet potatoes
In the mood for something different? You can also make whole roasted sweet potatoes, or cut your potatoes into alternate shapes and it’s a whole new recipe. Here are a few options:
- Bake them whole. Make Baked Sweet Potatoes, which are perfect for stuffing and turning into a meal.
- Bake them halved. Cut them in half and they roast even faster! Try Quick Baked Sweet Potatoes.
- Make sweet potato wedges. Slice them into wedges and they’re ideal finger food. Go to Sweet Potato Wedges.
- Make fries. Everyone’s favorite sweet potato recipe? These Best Ever Sweet Potato Fries.
- Add them to a salad. Make this delicious Sweet Potato Salad!
Want more ideas? Go to 25 Best Sweet Potato Recipes.
This roasted sweet potatoes recipe is…
Vegetarian, gluten-free, vegan, plant-based, and dairy free.
PrintRoasted Sweet Potatoes
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 4 to 6 1x
Description
This oven roasted sweet potatoes recipe is the only one you need! Season them to perfection, then bake in a hot oven until caramelized.
Ingredients
- 2 pounds sweet potatoes (about 4 medium)
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- Black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Dice the sweet potatoes into 3/4” cubes, leaving the skin on. In a large bowl, mix together the sweet potatoes with the olive oil, garlic powder, and kosher salt.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and place the sweet potatoes on top in an even layer. Bake for about 25 minutes, until the cubes are tender and browned on the bottom (no need to stir!). Serve warm. Store leftovers refrigerated. Make ahead instructions: Make up to 3 days in advance and reheat in a 350 degree oven (or microwave or on the stovetop).
Notes
Sweet potatoes hard to cut? This is the one chef’s knife we use every day.
- Category: Side Dish
- Method: Roasted
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: Roasted Sweet Potatoes, Roasted Sweet Potato Recipe, Oven Roasted Sweet Potatoes
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Do you peel these sweet potatoes before hand?
We don’t, but you are welcome to!
Do you bake or roast?
It’s a higher heat so it would be considered roasting.
Can these be made ahead of time and reheated at serving time?
Great question! Make up to 3 days in advance and reheat in a 350 degree oven (or microwave or on the stovetop). We’ve added a note to the recipe!
These were wonderful! Just as described, I followed the recipe to a T.
★★★★★
Can I leave the potatoes (in water) overnight at room temperature? When I come home from church, is it okay to paper towel and then proceed baking.
Blessings,
Connie
We haven’t tried that but I think it would work.
Coming from a huge sweet potato lover, this is BY FAR the best sweet potato recipe I’ve ever found. I refuse to cook them any other way! So easy and delicious and it’s always a hit with my guests. So grateful for your recipe! Thank you!
★★★★★
So glad you love them! Thanks for commenting.
Excellent! I’ll do one potato at a time in the toaster oven to accompany my protein…!
Thanks!
★★★★
Delicious and KID APPROVED!!!! I followed recipe exact , but I did peel skin off
★★★★★
These are great! So simple and easy to cook. I doubled the ingredients to have extra leftovers – it came out perfectly. Thank you!
★★★★★
These are so good! I love sweet potatoes in all their forms but was kind of skeptical with the addition of garlic powder, but it was really good! These will be on rotation at our house for sure now! On a side note – I put the leftovers into my salsa verde chicken burritos (which also included your instant pot Spanish Rice) and it was delicious! :)
★★★★★
Yum!