Sweet Potato Fries

January kinda sucks!  Not only did we come home from Montreal to -40 degree weather, but after all of the over indulging over the holidays (too many mince tarts) and in Montreal (mac and cheese, crème brûlée every night), I am now on a bit of a diet - no more treats for a while!

To ease myself into healthy eating, I made these sweet potato fries for dinner last night. (Sweet potatoes are healthy, and these are baked, not fried...Totally diet food, right?)

Ingredients
One large sweet potato
Coarse sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Good quality olive oil

Method
Preheat the oven to 425 F.

Either peel the potato or leave the skin on. After rinsing (and cleaning the sweet potato if it is not peeled), dry the potato well, to ensure that the olive oil will stick to it.

Slice the potato into thin strips. Toss with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, as well as the sea salt and black pepper. Place on a baking sheet, lined with foil, in one even layer.

Bake the fries in the oven for 15-20 minutes. Do not open the oven or fidget with them during this time. Just let them cook - this is the secret to crispy, oven baked fries. Take the pan out of the oven and flip the fries over. Once they're flipped, put them back in the oven for 10-15 minutes, depending on how crispy you like them. Again, do not open the oven. Remove from oven and you should have perfect fries, with both sides brown and crispy. One large sweet potato will serve 2-3 people as a side dish.

I like to serve the fries with what I jokingly call secret sauce. I mix together a bit of fat free mayo with some regular yellow mustard and dijon mustard. The secret ingredients are a bit of salt and pepper. Simple, but tasty!