These maple sweet potatoes fuse Mediterranean ingredients with one of my favorite New England foods: maple syrup. I remember fondly growing up in Vermont and spending many a happy weekend eating sugar on snow (maple syrup on crushed ice or snow), enjoying my grandmother’s homemade cider donuts dipped in syrup or going to my Uncle’s sugar house and sipping warm syrup straight from the evaporator. More recently, I tapped some trees on my friend Lincoln’s property and then made syrup with a small wood fired evaporator in his driveway. There isn’t much of anything as flavorful as warm maple syrup!
As a dietitian, I will say don’t eat too much of the syrup, but as a Vermonter I am certainly not going to tell you not to have any! These maple sweet potatoes are super easy to make, use a small amount of maple syrup and create a glazed, roasted flavor that I predict most family and friends will enjoy immensely. If you want take it up a notch, I recommend serving each slice with a small dab of a really good, high fat Greek yogurt.
A few tips on this recipe:
- Use real maple syrup! There is no substitute for the flavor of true maple syrup and any of the fake ones made with corn syrup or other ingredients just won’t make the grade.
- Cut the potatoes into thick slices (about 1/2″). This will make for a nicely roasted outside and a soft, sweet inside.
- Make sure the sweet potatoes are completely covered with the glaze. You want the flavor spread out and it helps the potatoes cook evenly.
- Don’t be tempted to take them out of the oven to soon. Obviously, you don’t want to burn these, but you also want them roasted. If you cook them long enough, the sweet potatoes will caramelize and become even sweeter.
Since maple sweet potatoes are sweet, you will want to serve these with a savory dish such as grilled chicken souvlaki, 40 clove garlic chicken or black bean stew.
Maple Sweet Potatoes with Smoked Paprika
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tbsp maple syrup
- 1 tbsp smoked paprika
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 2-3 sweet potatoes, cut into thick (about 1/2") slices
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- In a large bowl, mix olive oil, maple syrup, smoked paprika, salt and pepper.
- Add sliced potatoes to bowl and mix well with hands until both sides of every slice is doused well with maple glaze.
- Place one layer of sweet potato slices on a cookie sheet. Bake in the oven for 45 minutes to an hour, flipping them once at around 30 minutes. You want to cook them until they are soft inside and roasted and glazed on the outside. Remove from oven and serve.
Nutrition
About the Author: Bill Bradley, R.D.
Oh my goodness, this recipe brings back such fantastic memories. My father grew up in Rutland, Vermont and said his favorite dish was maple glazed sweet potatoes, but it had to be “pure Vermont made Maple Syrup” , or it wasn’t worth making.
This is exactly how us kids grew up eating sweet potatoes. Great memories and your recipes are dynamite!!!! Thank you.
My family grew up in Rutland as well! Glad you liked it.
OMG, these are wonderful! Not too sweet, though I could very possibly eat for dessert. I think they would be good with full fat Greek yogurt with a teaspoon of horseradish. Can’t decide which I like better–these or
Oh wow, I love the idea of the horseradish in Greek yogurt to dip! We’re going to try that for sure!