Hooray! February 22nd is National Sweet Potato Day! Do you love potatoes but not the time it takes to bake them? Are you looking for a shortcut for baking these phytonutrient-packed root vegetables? Whether it is purple, Russet white, Yukon gold, sweet, purple, or white yams and anything in between, this super easy technique will get you from bag to tabletop in less than 30 minutes. Bring on the toppings and let’s learn how to quickly bake a potato.
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My husband loves sweet potatoes and swears I don’t cook them enough. After thinking about it, I tend to agree. Sweet potatoes, or any potatoes, do take time to bake. Potatoes,
particularly sweet potatoes, had not been my go-to vegetable unless I was steaming baby potatoes in an InstantPot to perfection in 6 minutes. But baking to perfection is a whole other matter.
Differences in Potatoes Growing up in the South, we tended to interchange the verbiage of sweet potato and yam. Most of the time, when we said “sweet potato”, we were referring to the big can of orange yams in sweet syrup on the store shelf. Pack on marshmallows and call it a dish. Now, there are many varieties of both. What’s the difference?
I could write a lot about the differences to improve my SEO, but the Mississippi Extension Service has a great image that defines the differences. Why mess with perfection? Thank you, Mississippi! And not to be outdone, the North Carolina Sweet Potato Commission has a full explanation as well.
How to Bake a Potato
The Idaho Potato instructions tell us to bake a potato for an hour at 400 degrees until the internal temperature is 210 degrees. I don’t know about you, but I don’t always have time to bake for an hour, not to mention the other 15-20 minutes of waiting for the oven to preheat. The internal potato temperature needs to be at least 205 degrees for the starches to break down. The more starch a potato contains, the more water from inside the potato will be absorbed during baking. Through the baking process, the starch granules swell with water and eventually separate into clumps for a dry and fluffy texture that we all love. Sweet potatoes get awesome creamy but not overdone mushy.
For years, I used Cook’s Illustrated method for baking the perfect potato and it works. But how could I shorten the process? By par-cooking in the microwave and finishing in my Ninja air-fryer oven. Full disclosure, this is an advertisement for this air-fry as 1) it has a tray, not a basket, 2) it takes up less head and foot space and 3)folds up out of the way. There are only two of us in our household, so not having to heat up the big oven is a plus. You can certainly use a toaster/baking oven for this as well!
In our household, we prefer a soft fluff inside and slightly crunchy skin, one that is still edible so we can get all the yummy nutrition from the skin. Here are the steps:
Scrub your potato and pat dry.
Poke a few holes in the skin.
Place in the microwave on high until the internal temperature is 200 degrees. (usually about 10 minutes for 2 potatoes)
Meanwhile, preheat your air-fryer or toaster oven to 375 degrees. Use 400 degrees if using a toaster oven.
When the potato’s internal temperature is 200 degrees, remove it from the microwave, spray it with spray oil, or coat it with olive oil.
Sprinkle with salt.
Place on a tray in the air fryer and cook at the described temperature above for 10 minutes. This will bring the internal temperature to the desired 205- 212 degrees (adjust for altitude).
I have used this technique for all potatoes, but note, a probe cooking thermometer is essential for this process. As much as I love squeezing a potato to see if it is done, the temperature is the key to knowing if a potato is done to culinary satisfaction.
How to Enjoy!
What’s not to love about butter, sour cream, cheese, and chives, plant-based or otherwise? But don’t forget all sweet potatoes, yams, and white varieties are great for stuffing other plant-based fillings such as chili, beans, nuts, seeds, and more. My personal favorite is Indian-inspired lentils, crunchy onions, pumpkin seeds, and pomegranates.
Don’t want to stuff? Then scoop out the perfect baked potato and use it for a mash, soup, or puree. It is the perfect consistency to make sweet potato or yam flatbreads! Make a sweet potato pone, mushroom Parmentier, or puree with steamed celeriac for a wonderful base for lentils!
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