Crispy Baked Yam Fries with Lemon Truffle Aioli
These oven baked yam fries are easy to make, crispy, and healthy! Say good-bye to soggy oven baked yam fries, because these yam fries are about to rock your world! A combination of ingredients and technique come together to ensure these baked yam fries that are deliciously crispy on the outside, while maintaining that creamy inside that makes yam fries so great! They are then served with a dusting of freshly grated parmesan cheese and an easy to make truffle lemon aioli.
Sweet Potatoes vs Yams
While the title says baked yam fries, these are actually baked sweet potato fries! Many think that yams and sweet potatoes are synonyms and describe the same vegetable, but they’re actually 2 completely different vegetables with different origins! True yams are rough looking and white on the inside, while sweet potatoes can come in a variety of colours and sizes, with the most famous being the reddish orange-skinned and orange-fleshed variety. It can be even more confusing because different grocery stores label all these things differently. For example, my grocery store called the orange-fleshed sweet potato a Yam, the actual yam was called an Asian Yam, and a beige-skinned white-fleshed variety of sweet potato was actually labeled as Sweet Potato. Confusing, to say the least! So for this recipe, look for the reddish orange-skinned sweet potato. If you are still lost by looking at the outside, you can try picking at the skin lightly to see if the interior is orange.
How to Make Crispy Oven Baked Yam Fries
If you’ve ever tried previously to make oven baked yam fries, you may have been disappointed as they easily turn mushy in the oven. But have no fear, the solution is here! There is a few techniques and ingredients that are crucial to creating crispy oven baked yam fries!
Cut the yam fries into strips, ensuring that they all remain relatively uniform in size. This will ensure even baking.
Soak the yam fries. Before baking, place the cut strips into a bowl of cold water for about an hour (or even overnight). Drain them from the water bath and dry them completely. Soaking the yam fries pulls excess starch from the yams, resulting in a crispier final product.
Coat the yam fries with cornstarch. Place the yam fries into a Ziploc bag, sprinkle some corn starch in, then seal the bag and shake it, ensuring each fry is evenly coat in corn starch. Remove the yam fries from the bag and dust off an excess corn starch. (As a note, it is best to do this part in batches, to ensure each fry has room to shake around to get evenly coated – I do this in 2-3 batches). The corn starch is truly essential in making crispy yam fries. The corn starch works by clinging to and absorbing any liquid on the yam fries. The hydrated starch molecules in then expand in the presence of high heat and separate from one another. Then as the water evaporates out due to the heat, the starch is locked into place, and what is left is a rigid network of starch around the fry. This starch network is brittle, delicate, and very porous, giving the sensation of crispiness.
You may be wondering, I thought we soak the yam fries to remove excess starch, and now were adding more starch? Huh? Well there is a reason for this. The starch in these yams, which as mentioned above are actually sweet potatoes, is quite low in amylose. Amylose content of a starch determines its ability to become crispy – the higher the amylose the more crispy. Sweet potatoes only have a amylose content of about 18%, while corn starch has an amylose content of around 28%!
Toss with oil before baking. After the corn starch dredge, throw some oil over top of the yam fries and give it a good toss. The oil works as a heat conductor, allowing the heat to be evenly applied to the outside of the yam fries. This results in a crispy fry in 2 ways. The extremely hot oil heats the outside of the fry up very quickly, while the inside can cook at a slower pace. This causes the outside to crisp up nicely, while the inside remains soft and creamy. As well, the heat conductivity of oil is conducive to the formation of the starch networks, as it quickly and evenly applies heat to the outside of the hydrated starch coating on the yam fries, causing rapid water evaporation.
Season with spices before baking, but do NOT salt until after baking. Salt pulls the moisture out of things. More moisture on the surface = soggy! We will definitely add salt, but not until after they bake.
Don’t crowd the pan. You want to place the yam fries in an even layer on your baking sheet, ensuring a little bit of space between each fry. If the pan is too crowded the fries will simply steam and be soggy. For this amount of fries, it is probably best to use 3 pans or bake in 3 batches. As well, if you are making a large batch, you may need to let the steam out of your oven every once in while.
Flip the baked yam fries halfway through. The heat directly on the pan, as it is metal, is going to be hotter than the heat surrounding the pan, therefore it is necessary to properly flip the yam fries halfway through. Ensure that you actually flip each fry one by one.
After baking, give the yam fries a 5 minute rest. Right out of the oven, toss the yam fries with some salt, and then allow them to rest for about 5 minutes. This short waiting period allows the yam fries to crisp up even further, by giving the fry a chance to cool down and regain some of it’s structure.
How to Make Truffle Lemon Aioli
Okay, I’m lazy and do not have the time to make a home made aioli all the time. So, as many know, the shortcut is to use store-bought mayo! The trick is to just get a good-quality real mayo (don’t bother will any of those weird, healthy-alternative mayonnaises like avocado and olive-oil mayo).
To make the lemon aioli, simply take the store bought mayo and place it into a bowl, and add truffle oil, lemon juice, lemon zest, minced garlic, salt (truffle salt if you have it!), and pepper. Whisk this all together, and you’re good to go!
Get the Recipe: Crispy Oven Baked Yam Fries with Truffle Lemon Aioli
Ingredients
Oven Baked Yam Fries
- 4 Orange Flesh Sweet Potatoes,, cut into strips
- 4 tbsp Corn Starch
- 4-6 tbsp Canola Oil
- 1/2 tsp Garlic Powder
- 1 tsp Sea Salt,, or Truffle Salt
Truffle Lemon Aioli
- 1/2 cup Mayo
- Zest of 1 Lemon
- Juice of ½ Lemon
- 1 tbsp Truffle Oil
- Salt & Pepper,, to taste
Instructions
Oven Baked Yam Fries
- Place sweet potato strips into a bowl of cold water. Allow to soak for 1 hour, or up to 12 hours.
- Preheat oven to 425°Drain the sweet potatoes from the water, and dry them completely by patting them well with paper towel.
- Place fries into a Ziploc bag and add in corn starch. Seal the bag, then shake it to coat the fries evenly. Remove fries from bag and dust off excess corn starch. (Best to do this in batches to ensure each fry gets coated – I typically do this in 2-3 batches).
- Place coated fries into a bow, add oil and garlic powder, and toss to combine. Place onto 3 baking sheets lined with parchment, ensuring no overlapping or over crowding. Place into oven for about 30 minutes, flipping halfway through (ensure to flip each fry individually).
- Remove the fries from the oven and toss with sea salt. Allow to sit for around 5 minutes to firm up before serving.
Truffle Lemon Aioli
- Place all ingredients into a bowl and whisk to combine, use immediately or store in fridge for up to 2 days.
Related Recipes
Looking for other side dish recipes? Check out these recipes below:
WARM POTATO SALAD. It features garlic roasted warm potatoes, corn, and bacon, in a zesty lemon dill parmesan dressing!
EASY GARLIC MASHED POTATOES. These creamy, fluffy mashed potatoes are super garlicky and easy to make! The recipe features a secret step to making garlic mashed potatoes without roasting the garlic!
PROSCIUTTO WRAPPED ASPARAGUS. This is seriously the easiest way to take asparagus from your average bland vegetable into a wow-worthy side dish!
Ooo I want to try this using the actifry