Oven Baked Sweet Potato Fries

Ever picked up a copper-peeled potato looking thing and a cream-colored one and stood in the middle of the aisle trying to decide which was supposed to be the yam and which was supposed to be the sweet potato?

Don't lie to me now.

I've had this debate many times, and I've always wondered what the difference between the two was.

So, like any good intellectually-curious modern-minded young lady, I turned to Google for the answer. Since, you know, the internet never lies. 

Turns out, what we call yams.... they're really just another variety of sweet potato. The real yam is a kind of fuzzy looking dohingy with skin that looks like a combination of tree bark and wooly mammoth fur. 

Real "yams" originate from Africa, Asia and some tropical regions, and can be found almost exclusively in specialty food markets. WEIRD: 

source

"Yam" was just the name that the US Government and American food producers have chosen to perpetuate in order to distinguish between the sweet potatoes with darker, orange colored insides and their lighter, cream colored compatriots, when in reality, the real "yams" and sweet potatoes aren't even related.   

So next time you're at the grocery store and you're having the old yam v. sweet potato debate... don't feel too bad, it's kind of a moot point anyway. 

I still don't know why us Americans couldn't have come up with a better solution to the multiple-varieties-of-sweet-potato problem though. How about Orange Sweet Potatoes and White Sweet Potatoes? That would do just fine. Or maybe they could have come up with a name that isn't already the name of a totally different, unrelated root vegetable. 

And it's not like americans bother remembering which ones are the yams and which aren't, the term sweet potato often just gets used for both anyway.

Poor little "Yams"... Everyone else they hang out with in the grocery store gets to have fun, similar names that all fit naturally together: Russet Potato, Yukon Gold Potato, Sweet Potato, Red Potato and on and on. And then there's the Yam.


That's like belonging to a family where all your brothers are named Michael, Steve, John, and Chris and you got stuck being named Elmer. Or Eugene. Or Gaylord. 

Which one of these doesn't belong? 

It's tough to tell, I know.  

Poor, poor yams. So misunderstood. 

Good thing they're completely delicious. Sort of makes up for the awkward naming situation.... almost. 

Oven Baked Sweet Potato Fries
serves 3-4

3 sweet potatoes
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon paprika
kosher salt to taste (optional)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Wash and peel sweet potatoes. Cut into fries, by slicing into about ¼- ½ inch thick strips. Make sure that all the pieces are fairly consistent in thickness.

Drizzle sweet potato slices with olive oil. You want to use enough to coat them, without drowning them in oil. Toss with garlic salt, pepper, and paprika. Add or reduce seasoning depending on how you like your fries—feel free to experiment here.

Arrange fries on a greased or nonstick baking sheet. Make sure they are evenly arranged in one flat layer and spaced far enough apart to avoid crowding. This is necessary for them to crisp and to cook evenly. 

Bake for 15 minutes, flip, then return to the oven for an additional 10 minutes or so. Remove from oven. If desired, sprinkle with a kosher salt to taste. Serve hot.