Homemade Sweet Potato Fries in Coconut Oil (Including a Freezer Version)

One of the things I love the most about our WAPF lifestyle is that it embraces healthy fats! This means that things like sweet potatoes fried in coconut oil are good for you, which happens to be one of my favorite side dishes!

I had recently seen Cheeseslave post a blog about making french fries in coconut oil. Despite all of the healthy I had regained and food allergies I have healed through clean eating, potatoes still seem to be one of the few things I react to. So as good as those french fries sounded, I knew they wouldn't work for me (...yet. I still believe I will be completely healed of all of my allergies). I am, however, able to eat sweet potatoes and adore them! I use them in all the ways I would use a regular potato (baked, hashed, mashed). Therefore, I set out to make a sweet potato fry recipe!

Coconut oil, when cold-pressed/expeller pressed has a higher smoke point than a lot of oils and won't loose its nutritional value at high temperatures. I buy the Nutiva brand from Costco. Now I know, you're thinking "won't my fries taste like coconut?" My answer from experience: no, they will not. I was a little concerned about that too. I like coconut flavor, but the people in my house are not so crazy about every little thing tasting like coconut. So I had them be my taste testers. They said there was no residual coconut taste, despite the oil initially smelling of coconut when it was first melting.

In the end, I decided on two recipes. One for immediate consumption and one for the freezer, enabling me to grab and go.

Recipe #1 (for dinner tonight)

What you need:
Coconut Oil
Sweet Potatoes (number depends on how many you want to eat.)
Salt
Deep pan or soup pot
Kitchen Thermometer
Sharp knife
Peeler

Put about an inch worth of coconut oil in your pan and put on medium heat. You want the oil to be between 325-335 degrees.

Peel and thinly slice your sweet potatoes. For a super crispy fry, cut very thinly. For a fry with a soft center, cut a little thicker. The more uniform the cutting, the more evenly they cook. I found that out the hard way. Here's what mine looked like:

Once your oil has reached the right temperature, put in a handful of the sweet potatoes. I used tongs and put in 2-3 tong-fuls of fries. You want to make sure not to overcrowd the pan so that the oil remains at the right temperature.

Let cook for about 3 minutes. Remove to a plate and let oil reheat back to the 325-335. Once oil is back at the right temperature, add more sweet potatoes.

Repeat this process until all of your sweet potatoes have been fried.

After your last batch is fried, heat oil to 375. It is time for the second fry, which is what give the fries their true crispiness!

Again, fry them in small batches, allowing the oil to rise to the correct temperature between each batch. I only had to fry mine for about a minute during this second fry. They will quickly change from orange to a dark brown if you leave them too long.

Once all your sweet potatoes have been through the second fry, sprinkle them with some pink salt or sea salt and they are ready to eat!

Recipe #2 (for the freezer)

Follow directions from recipe #1 until all sweet potatoes have been through the first fry.

Lay out the once-fried sweet potatoes on a baking sheet and allow to cool. Once cooled, place in freezer. Transfer to a freezer bag after they have frozen.

When you're ready to use some of them, preheat the oven to 325. Lay out some of sweet potatoes on a baking sheet.

Bake for 8-10 minutes, depending on the the thickness of the fries. Half way through the time, move the fries around with some tongs to prevent one side getting burnt. Sprinkle with salt and let them sit for a few minutes before eating (they will feel soft coming out of the oven, but allowing them to sit lets them crisp up a bit).

This is what mine looked like after coming out of the oven the other night. I had a few dark ones, which were the fries that had been cut too thin. It was so nice to have them only take 10 minutes from freezer to the dinner plate!

This whole recipe was trial and error. The first time I made fries, I only cut up 2 medium sweet potatoes and Donald and I polished them off in one sitting. The second time, when I was trying the freezer method, I cut up 5 sweet potatoes, that were a little more on the large side. I got a full gallon sized zip lock bag worth out of those. The first time I tried to cook them in the oven, I put the heat way too high at 425. When I checked on them after just 4 minutes, this is what I found.

The other thing I learned through this process is that coconut oil is reusable! When I first heard that, I thought it was weird and for sure that there would be a funny after-taste. I decided to try it. I just let the coconut oil sit in the pan with the lid on. It solidified and looked kinda gross.

I used this oil again the next time I made sweet potato fries. I just add some fresh oil to it to get it to the right depth in my pan. Surprisingly, it had no flavor difference! So I would highly recommend you save yourself some money and save your used coconut oil! You don't have to leave it in the pan. You could transfer it to a mason jar after its cooled it you like. Just make sure you put a lid on whatever you leave it in so that things in the air don't float into it between uses.

Hope you enjoyed this recipe and happy cooking!

Homemade Pumpkin Puree

I don't know about anyone else, but Fall is one of my most favorite times of the year! One of the reasons its my favorite is PUMPKIN! I love all things pumpkin! Pumpkin bread, pumpkin chai tea lattes, pumpkin chili, pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, pumpkin bars, pumpkin cider (that's right, I have recipes for alllll these things and I plan on sharing!).

So when I started getting the pumpkin itch, I checked out the prices on canned pumpkin. I was not thrilled, to say the least. I bought a few cans, but at $1.88 a can (the small ones), I knew it was going to be a budget buster if I bought enough for all my recipes. 

The next time I went to the store, they had put those huge bins of pumpkins out in the front of the store. I saw $0.25/lb and I was struck with a brilliant idea! Why don't I make my own pumpkin puree? Now I know what you're thinking. Those are carving pumpkins. Wouldn't they taste funny? Well, I'm here to tell you that they don't!

I picked out two small ones, about 6 lbs each and paid $3.

When I got home, I preheated the oven to 375 F. I cut off the top of the pumpkin to remove the stem and then cut them each in half. I scooped out the guts and saved them to make roasted pumpkin seeds later. I cut each piece in half, so that the pumpkins were in quarters. I laid them on a cookie sheet, no need to be fancy about. I just smooshed them all on there. 

After baking for 45-60 minutes, they got nice and soft in the oven. When a fork easily poked through the skin, they were done. After they cooled slightly, I took one section at a time and laid it on a cutting board, skin side up. The pieces will still have a bend to them, which makes it difficult to cut the skin off. I just flatten each section with my hand and then used a sharp knife to cut the skin off.

       

After removing the skin of 2 or 3 pieces, I tossed them into the food processor. I blended until the mixture looked smooth. I poured it into a big bowl and repeated the whole process until all the sections had been processed.

Since most recipes call for a can of pumpkin, I checked how many cups were in the small can I had left: 1 3/4 cups. So I measured that into small freezer baggies and ended up with 6 baggies worth! That's $0.50/bag and saves $1.38 compared to the price of the small off-brand can! I simply stored them in the freezer and they have kept and defrosted beautifully!

Before I went shouting about my savings from the rooftops, I wanted to make sure it stood the taste test. I wasn't totally sure it would, since the color of my homemade version was considerably lighter than the canned version. Donald decided to try it in a Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe. We loved them! He took some to work the next day and his co-workers begged him to bring more! 

I also noticed that my local Kroger store (Smith's) just lowered their pumpkin prices to $0.18/lb! This actually included their Sugar Pie Pumpkins!! So I grabbed 10 and plan to stock up the freezer with more pumpkin puree for the holidays! I have heard rumors that pumpkin prices drop dramatically after Halloween, so it may be worth stocking up then too!

 Happy pumpkin cooking!