Baked Sweet Potatoes

A reliable baked sweet potato recipe is one of the great joys of fall and winter cooking. These jewels of the cooler months are warm, hearty, and nutritious; virtually hands-off to make; and equally at home at breakfast, lunch, and dinner—you could even top them with a little brown sugar and cream for an easy last-minute dessert.

We call these our Sunday Stash sweet potatoes because they’re great for meal prep: Roast them in bulk over the weekend and you can work them into meals all week long. We like to cube our roasted sweet potatoes for salads and grain bowls, add them to soup, purée them for a pie filling or sweet potato casserole, mix them with cream and maple syrup for our favorite Mashed Sweet Potatoes, or simply reheat them and enjoy as a dish unto themselves, either dolloped with a little sour cream or loaded with the works. No matter how you build your perfect baked sweet potato, a little extra attention to your roasting technique can pay dividends.

For superior flavor and texture, start by cutting the potatoes in half and coating them in oil and salt before roasting. Baking the sweet potatoes cut side down on sheet pans allows the flesh to brown and caramelize while the potato skins get toasty and crisp in the oven, no aluminum foil required. Because the sweet potatoes are halved, the cook time is significantly reduced, making this a great approach for busy cooks. If easy cleanup is your main objective, place the sweet potatoes on parchment paper; but for truly crispy edges, skip it so that the flesh has full contact with the pan.