How To Bake The Perfect Sweet Potato

A few months ago, Ben and I challenged ourselves to the Whole 30 eating plan. Having so much prepared food brought over for us after our third baby was born then eating through the holidays, then really just eating through the cold snowy winter made us realize how much bad stuff we’d been consuming.

Don’t get me wrong, the post-baby meals were AMAZING and so helpful. But no one needs to be eating chicken pot pies for months on end!

Basically, we’d felt like we were eating way too much sugar and too much processed food and we needed to do something to get back on the nutritional track. (Side note: if that’s the boat you’re in, this post will help you out!)

So we took it to the extreme 😉

Have you ever tried the Whole 30? It’s not for the faint of heart. Seriously, the first ten days were so incredibly challenging; we were literally going through withdrawals. Sugar withdrawals.

Yikes.

Nothing like a little cold turkey to make you realize how addicted you are to something, right?!

The one food that saved me on the Whole 30 though was the sweet potato!

Who would have thought, but potatoes are allowed on this particular eating plan. And you better believe I took full advantage.

Sweet potatoes for breakfast, sweet potatoes for snack, sweet potatoes after yoga, sweet potatoes as a side. The great thing about sweet potatoes is that they’re sweet yet also a little savory and can be enjoyed really anytime of day. They don’t taste out of place first thing in the morning nor as a snack right before bed.

I had an entire month to play around with the perfect combination of time and temp in order to bake the absolute perfect sweet potato, and I think I’ve got the conditions down just right.

Without further ado, here’s what I suggest if you want to bake yourself the most perfect sweet potato!

Instructions:

• First and foremost, the cooking time will be an hour and a half, so plan ahead if you know you want these babies ready at a certain time.
• If you’re baking more than one sweet potato at a time, try to choose medium-sized sweet potatoes, all about the same size. This will ensure they all cook the same amount and all the way through.
• Pre-heat the over to 425 degrees fahrenheit.
• Next, rinse each sweet potato under cool water.
• Then pierce all over with a fork.
• Loosely wrap each sweet potato in foil and place on a baking sheet
• Put the baking sheet on the middle rack of your oven
• Set the timer for 90 minutes and voila!
• Once the timer dings, take the sweet potatoes out of the oven. Carefully remove the foil from one of the sweet potatoes and slice into it with a knife. If the potato is really soft and the knife cuts into it easily, they’re done!

The worst thing when it comes to sweet potatoes is under-cooking them. That’s why a solid hour and a half is safe to yield yummy, sweet, soft, easy-to-eat sweet potatoes.

I put salt on everything, but honestly, when cooked correctly, baked sweet potatoes don’t even need that.

While Ben and I are not longer strictly eating Whole 30, we still have sweet potatoes at least a few times a week. And the best part is that now we’re constantly blending them up in our Ninja as baby food for our 7 month old. Super easy, healthy, and cheap baby food!

If you’re looking for a sweet snack that’s healthy and full of nutrients, try a perfectly baked sweet potato!