Baked Sweet Potato Fries
Hi I’m Evangeline! Welcome to my blog. I am mom and lover of all things health and wellness. By profession- a Registered Massage Therapist and Yoga & Ayurveda consultant. I started this blog back in the early days of Covid19 as a way to stay in touch with my clients, and it’s grown into a space to share what I love most. Here you’ll find health tips and nourishing recipes I make for my family, sprinkled with Ayurveda and Yoga wisdom. My hope is that these posts inspire you to care for yourself in small, joyful ways and feel a little more balanced in everyday life.
Sweet potato fries with cooling spices for the summer! Balance is key to health. Adding cooling spices to your cooking in the summer balances pitta qualities in us (the fire element). Herbs and spices, not only add flavour to your food, but they have medicinal qualities that support overall health. This is all part of Ayurvedic cooking, a conscious approach to preparing and cooking tasty, nutritious, balanced meals using spices and herbs, and taking into consideration the external conditions (season, time of day) and your internal environment (how you are feeling, state of your health).
In our household, baked sweet potato fries are very much a welcomed variation, any time of the year, to our usual pop-the-whole sweet potato-in-the-oven and bake for an hour. It’s summer— what’s a summer without “burger and fries” on your summer menu line-up? Check out my vegetarian burger recipes, using beluga lentils, split mung beans, and red lentils.
Cooking took on an entirely new meaning for me and my family when Ayurveda came into my life in the late 1990s, beginning with Conscious Eating by Gabriel Cousens. I was immediately drawn into a deeper appreciation for food and its role in health. Soon after, I had the good fortune of studying Ayurveda with Vaidya Rama Kant Mishra, along with yoga and breathwork.
During Covid, I began photographing meals and writing recipes to inspire others to cook nourishing food at home. And so, here we are. Whether you are just beginning to explore Ayurveda or are already well immersed in it, you will find practical tips here to flow with life, breathe more easily, and create flavourful, nutritionally balanced, Ayurvedic-inspired meals- recipes I have made and shared with family and friends in support of a long, happy, and healthy life.
For a colourful plate of sweet potato fries look for white, purple, and orange sweet potato varieties.
Pictured here are five types of sweet potatoes- Japanese, purple, red, white and orange.
Baked Sweet Potato Fries
Yields: 3-4 servings
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 15-20 minutes
INGREDIENTS
4 medium size sweet potatoes - any variety or choose a few for colour
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 ½ tsps ground fennel
1 tsp ground coriander
½ tsp rose petals
½ tsp ground rosehip
⅛ tsp ground black pepper
2 Tablespoons fresh rosemary or 2 tsps dried rosemary
Soma salt to taste
DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 F.
Cut a piece or two of parchment paper and lay out onto large baking sheet.
Wash and peel sweet potatoes and cut into ¼ inch thick, ½ inch wide pieces.
Toss in a bowl with olive oil, rosemary and spices.
Spread out the sweet potatoes onto baking sheet.
Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown.
Add a sprinkling of soma salt before serving.
Serve immediately with your favourite vegetarian burger, or as a snack!
Enjoy!
Ayurvedic Profile of Spices and Herbs in Baked Sweet Potato Fries
Fennel - cooling quality; balances the heat of pitta dosha
Coriander - cooling; binds toxins and ushers them to the urinary channels
Rose petals - cooling to the body, and soothes the heart and mind; pacifies sadhaka pitta located at the heart
Rosehip - soothing to the heart and mind
Rosemary - slight heating quality, but soothing to the heart and mind
Black Peppercorns - slightly heating; opens the channels
Soma Salt - a Himalayan rock salt, high in minerals, with a cooling quality, compared to other salts
Vaidya R. K. Mishra - Notes from Shaka Vansiya Ayurveda Courses, Practicum, Conferences and Lectures 2003-2015
Chandika - Ayurvedic Knowledge, Blog, Pranic Formulations
