Healthy, Crispy Baked Sweet Potato Fries are completely possible! Dip them in this smoky, sweet, easy homemade BBQ sauce with just a bit of spice for a fun and healthy side dish, appetizer, or snack. Paleo, vegan, refined sugar free, soy free, gluten free.
I started craving BBQ sauce and it was all over from there – I couldn’t get it out of my head. Now, I’ve never been a BBQ sauce fan, in fact, when I was a kid it just plain horrified me! Too smoky perhaps?
I’m not sure – it’s entirely possible that some traumatic BBQ sauce incident occurred that I can’t remember, but, whatever it was, it’s all in the past now and I think my craving means I’m over it.
The thing that stumped me though, was that since I’ve never been into this particular sauce, I didn’t know how to go about making it, let alone making it healthy and really delicious.
Looking at the ingredients in one supposedly healthy “natural” brand at the store was no help – it was full of sugar, soy, and other additives that I can’t even remember. From my limited knowledge on the sauce subject though, it seems like store bought BBQ sauce has some of the worst ingredients as far as store bought condiments though.
(Don’t quote me on that since I’m definitely NOT spending my time browsing labels in the salad dressing aisle. I’d much rather spend the time making my homemade mayo, ranch, chipotle aioli and ketchup!)
Anyway, the other thing that’s been nagging me lately is the fact that I made baked sweet potato fries probably 3 times per week and don’t actually have an “official recipe” for them on the blog. Literally, I make these the same way 3 times per week and have been doing so for two years I think, at least with my current method.
I’ve used orange ones, white ones, Japanese ones, and though the texture is different, they always come out caramelized and crispy, and my whole family can’t get enough. So, I decided to combine the two nagging forces and make some damn-good healthy homemade BBQ sauce for my beloved crispy baked sweet potato fries.
The “secret” to my baked fries seems so simple but it’s made a huge difference in helping them roast with that perfect crisp caramelized outside. Well, I guess it’s not just one thing, but the combination of the right heat, the right amount of oil, parchment paper, and lots of space. I’ve actually crowded them up for the picture above, but in order to make my fries their very best, I spread them way out on baking sheets and always use two sheets.
As for the sauce, it also has a “secret” ingredient that I personally think made it awesome! Ready for this? Tart cherry juice! (Are you excited?!) Maybe it’s not quite that exciting, but I’d been drinking tart cherry juice with water and lemon to get myself to drink more water, and thought it would make a fun addition to the BBQ sauce. I personally think it did, I mean can you really go wrong with tart cherry? I think not!
But let’s move along to the recipe – it’s incredibly easy and besides a bit of cooking on the stove, it’s really a mix and go sort of sauce. My favorite kind, of course!
Crispy Baked Sweet Potato Fries with Homemade BBQ Sauce {Paleo & Vegan}
Crispy Baked Sweet Potato Fries & Homemade BBQ Sauce {Paleo & Vegan}
Ingredients
For the Fries
- 1 very large sweet potato or 2 medium ones {any variety}
- 2 tbsp refined coconut oil melted
- sea salt and black pepper to taste
For the BBQ Sauce
- 6 oz organic tomato paste
- 3/4 cup tart cherry juice
- 1 tbsp blackstrap molasses
- 2 tbsp organic raw apple cider vinegar
- 1 and 1/2 tsp* liquid smoke
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
- 1/8-1/4 tsp chipotle pepper* for optional spice
- dash sea salt
Instructions
For the BBQ Sauce:
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In a small saucepan, whisk together all ingredients and cook over medium heat on the stove until it begins to bubble. Allow to simmer for 10 minutes while stirring occasionally, then remove from heat and allow to cool.
For the Sweet Potato Fries
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Preheat your oven to 450 degrees and line two large baking sheets (preferably dark, not shiny) with parchment paper
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Peel your sweet potato (or potatoes) and cut them evenly into "fry shape" which for me is about 1/2 inch thickness.
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Put the cut sweet potatoes into a large bowl and toss with the 2 tbsp melted coconut oil to fully coat each fry on all sides** Then, sprinkle fine grain sea salt and pepper to tasted toss again to evenly coat the fries.
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Arrange the sweet potatoes on both baking sheets in a single layer giving each one as much space as possible. This will help them bake to their absolute crispiest! The further from one another they bake, the crispier the result.
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Bake in the preheated oven as close to the middle racks as possible (just not right at the top or bottom) for 20-25 minutes, turn over as many as you can, and continue to bake for about another 15 minutes, checking on them often to prevent burning.
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Once nicely browned on all sides, remove from oven and serve right away as a side dish, appetizer, or snack along with the BBQ sauce (or your favorite dip!)
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Enjoy!
Recipe Notes
*The chipotle pepper provides a spicy/smoky flavor but if you want your sauce purely smoky, omit this and add another 1/4 tsp liquid smoke.
**Depending on your climate/temp in your home, the coconut oil will likely become solid again after tossing with the fries. This is fine as long as you make sure they're fully coated before this happens.
Have you tried tart cherry juice? I’ve been loving it lately!
Favorite homemade condiment?
Do you have a cooking “secret” that works every time?
I feel like my sweet potato fries come out a little different every time I makes them. I need to be better about making sure they are more spread out, because that definitely affects how crispy they come out! My favorite homemade condiment was the ketchup I made when doing the Whole30 last year. Ever since then I have been lazy about it though and just buy my ketchup in the store.
Oddly I still haven’t tried that Whole30 ketchup but it’s been in the back of my mind since you made it!
you know this is a meal for me! a full on meal lol. I love bbq sauce and can’t wait to try your recipe to make it from scratch! I always loved peter luger’s bbq sauce but stopped buying it years ago. I now love the Carolina gold bbq sauce from tj but totally want to try making this,especially with the sweet potato fries since I roast those up easily 6 days a week. isn’t it funny how we crave things we don’t normally eat? that happens to me randomly too.
I think the BBQ/sweet potato is such a great combo! I’ve been eating this stuff all weekend 🙂 I definitely go through dip/sauce phases.
Nice tip on the fries! I’ll have to try that. I have never been a fan of BBQ sauce either probably because it makes me feel weird and gives me a sugar high. I’ll have to give your version a try sometime.
For less sugar you can even omit the molasses and just sweeten with cherry 🙂
Lordy child, it is about to go DOWN. 2 of my favorite things. OMNOMNOMNOM
Good stuff!
Homemade condiment bandwagon win!! That cherry juice is such a good idea!!
I don’t think you need me to answer the question of which is the best condiment…. 😉
You’re the ketchup girl! This also made me want to try a new ketchup blend 🙂
i don’t even need the fries! i love BBQ sauce. How bad is that? lycopene though, right? glad you got over the trauma of BBQ sauce haha
Anything tomato based is good for us! I’ve been eating this sauce a whole lot this week!
I love sweet potato fries! I make sweet potatoes slices all the time but I’ve never tried fries with coconut oïl (I use olive) or parchment paper (I use alum foil). Can’t wait to see the difference. Project for Sunday post long run 😉 Thanks for sharing!
In my opinion the parchment makes a huge difference especially when they’re spread out!
Tart cherry juice?! No kidding! I’ve had it on it’s own before, but never in any kind of sauces. And I know exactly what you mean about BBQ sauce – it used to be way too smoky for my tastes, but I think I’ve been warming up to it over the years. Ketchup will always have my heart though.
It was a risk but it worked out! I think normally I would’ve done orange but didn’t have any. And BBQ is definitely acquired!
I’ve never liked BBQ sauce either but definitely trying this one, because this recipe is happening in my oven stat!
Haha any quick dips in my opinion are very much worth it! I love the variety.
Three things: 1. Tart cherry juice in BBQ sauce is brilliant; 2. this recipe rekindled my love for sweet potato fries (I haven’t had a sweet potato in weeks, if not months!), and 3. coconut oil for baking any potato elevates it to a whole new level. Love this recipe!
Thanks! Agree about coconut oil, I can’t get enough 🙂
This looks SO good! I wonder if it would work to sub nomato sauce for the tomato paste and cook it down a little bit…. hmmm!!!!
If you try that I’m really curious to know! Thanks!
Tart cherry juice is such a smart idea for that extra sweetness! And I’ve learned the hard way not to crowd sweet potatoes too… great tips!
They are seriously completely different depending on how they’re roasted, butternut squash too!
I love sweet potato fries and pretty much eat them everyday so I got excited when I saw these! Also never tried BBQ sauce with them and that sounds pretty fabulous! Gotta try that 🙂
The BBQ is so easy and totally worth a try! I also eat sweet potatoes daily, love them!
I feel like you can’t really every go wrong with sweet potato fries and a dipping sauce.
This recipe is awesome… But I am concerned about heating the coconut oil to a temperature far higher than it’s smoke point. Wondering what your thoughts are on that?
I use refined coconut oil which is better for higher temperatures. Better than most other fats, I figure, but you can use any cooking fat you prefer.
I am excited to make a bunch of your sauces and dips. Curious how long they keep in the fridge, and if you ever freeze them to use them longer?
I haven’t frozen them, and I tend to keep in the fridge for about 4 days before tossing, to be safe 🙂
My fries ended up burnt?. Next time I’m only leaving them in the oven for 10 min.
I didn’t make the sweet potatoes fries but I made the barbecue sauce. I didn’t like it, it tasted like a weird tomato sauce. This is the first recipe on the site I didn’t like😢, I couldn’t get the Tomato flavor to stop being so overpowering. The tart cherry juice was expensive so I’m sad about this. Any advice on how to adjust it to make it taste like barbecue sauce instead of weird ketchup?