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Try French-fried sweet potatoes with a sprinkle of sugar

With fresh locally-grown sweet potatoes still available at area farmers markets, try adding some to your breakfast, lunch or dinner menu.

Sweet potatoes, native to the Americas, are an excellent source of beta carotene, potassium, and Vitamins A and C, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Such health benefits make sweet potatoes an inexpensive and important choice for a side dish.

I like to eat sweet potatoes fried – granted, frying up vegetables might not be the healthiest choice – and they also taste delicious just baked. Because of the sweetness in this orange potato, little else needs to be added.

But here’s one recipe that’s simple and different. A friend who’s since passed on suggested making sweet potato fries, which he said “will make you forget what regular fries taste like.”

Here’s what you’ll need to make sweet potato fries:

1-2 large sweet potatoes peeled

¼ cup of canola or olive oil

2 teaspoons of sugar

To begin, cut the sweet potatoes lengthwise and slice them as you would French fries – long, slender pieces.

Before you begin to slice, you may want to

place your canola or olive oil in your frying pan, heat to medium low to give the oil a chance to warm up.

Once you’ve sliced up your potatoes, place them into the heated pan.

Depending on your range, you may want to increase the temperature to medium, but cooking the fries on medium may cause them to cook too quickly and burn.

Continue to fry the sweet potato slices for about 10 minutes or until the pieces become tender. You’ll be able to determine this by the change in color from light orange to a deeper orange color.

Remove the fries, and place them on a plate covered with either a paper towel or a cloth towel to drain. Then, sprinkle with the sugar.

I’ve often fried already baked sweet potatoes for breakfast, but the French-fried sweet potatoes tasted delicious and offered a similar flavor without having to bake the potatoes first.

Interestingly, most sweet potatoes eaten in the United States come from one of four states – North Carolina, Mississippi, Louisiana or California – with North Carolina leading the nation in sweet potato production, according to the Agriculture Marketing Resource Center.

   – Bobbie Whitehead