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These Mexican fries are insanely delicious sweet potato wedges loaded with black beans, salsa, cumin lime crema, and feta cheese.
This post was created in partnership with North Carolina Sweet Potatoes. All opinions are our own.
The other day I came across a post called Habit Shift: Meal Prep, where author Erin Boyle offers tips on developing the habit of prepping for meals in advance. For example, try scrubbing and chopping sweet potatoes in the morning or the night before instead of right before dinner. Which made me think, it’s all about habit shifting, isn’t it? The journey for Alex and I over the past 8 years of cooking together has been one of shifting habits: completely changing our minds about the way we eat to focus on fresh, home-cooked meals instead of frozen or packaged ones. Keep reading for more on habit shifts, and this Mexican fries recipe!
Related: Easy Dinner Recipes for Two
How to habit shift to healthy cooking
It hasn’t been that hard for us to change the way we think about food: it’s just been a change. It’s all about shifting habits, and that has happened gradually. It’s reaching for a handful of nuts and dried cherries for a snack instead of potato chips. Or chopping up veggies for a stir fry or curry instead of dumping flavor packets into a skillet and stirring. It’s making these healthy Mexican fries instead of going out for takeout. It’s not painful at all! It’s just a different way of thinking.
We certainly still don’t have it all figured out, but we’re getting closer. For us, prepping most meals on the weekends suits us, and we’ve found a few easy meals that work on weeknights. It’s not glamorous or perfect, but it works. And each time we cook, we learn more about what works. In this phase of life, roasting whole sweet potatoes for 1 hour before dinner doesn’t work, but cutting potatoes for Mexican fries and roasting for 25 minutes might.
How about you — what habits have you shifted to cook more at home? Or what habits would you like to shift?
How to make Mexican fries
Alex and I have often confessed our obsession with sweet potatoes, as well as with Mexican inspired flavors. Combined, the two compliment each other perfectly. And what better than sweet potato Mexican fries? While these Mexican fries may sound indulgent, they’re actually quite nourishing…perhaps we could even say healthy fries?
These Mexican fries are simply roasted sweet potatoes topped with black beans, salsa, and a Mexican style vegan crema made out of tahini and lime. (You could also use traditional Mexican Crema.) Sweet potato fries don’t end up quite as crispy as russet potatoes, but the sweet, gooey potatoes against the zesty topping is fantastically satisfying.
The only remotely difficult thing about Mexican fries is cutting the sweet potatoes into fries. To do so, you slice off the ends of each potato, then slice the potato in half lengthwise. Then, place the potato half cut side down and cut off a ¼-inch slice. Lay that slice on its side and cut it into several long strips, which makes the fries! Below is a video tutorial on how to cut potatoes into fries!
Related: What is Tahini?
Video: How to cut potatoes into fries
Wondering exactly how to cut potatoes into fries? Here’s our quick tutorial showing me cutting fries in our kitchen!
More sweet potato recipes
As we confessed above, we love sweet potatoes! Outside these Mexican fries recipe, here are some more sweet potato recipes we love:
- Sweet Potato Wedges
- Roasted Two-Potato Salad
- Stuffed Sweet Potatoes
- Loaded Sweet Potato Skins
- Roasted Nourish Bowl
- Loaded Sweet Potato Rounds (a fan favorite!)
- Sweet Potato and Black Bean Enchiladas (another fan favorite!)
- Sweet Potato Hash Browns
This Mexican fries recipe is…
Vegetarian, gluten-free, vegan, plant-based, and dairy-free. For vegan, omit the feta.
Mexican Loaded Fries with Sweet Potatoes
These Mexican fries are insanely delicious sweet potato wedges loaded with black beans, salsa, cumin lime crema, and feta cheese.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
- Category: Main Dish
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: Mexican Inspired
Ingredients
For the sweet potato fries
- 3 pounds sweet potatoes
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 ½ teaspoons garlic powder
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt
For the cumin lime crema
- 1 garlic clove
- ¼ cup fresh lime juice (2 limes)
- 2 ½ tablespoons tahini
- 1 tablespoon Mexican hot sauce (such as Cholula)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ½ teaspoon cumin
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
For the Mexican fries toppings
- 15-ounce can black beans
- 1 cup salsa
- ½ cup feta crumbles (optional, omit for dairy-free or vegan)
- Fresh cilantro, for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425°F.
- Cut the potatoes into fries (watch the video below): Wash the sweet potatoes, leaving on the skin. Slice off the ends of each potato, then slice the potato in half lengthwise. Place the potato half cut side down and cut off a ¼-inch slice, then lay the slice on its side and cut it into several long strips. Repeat until all potatoes have been cut into fries. The pieces can be uneven, but aim for as uniform of thickness as possible. Watch the video below to see!
- Place the fries in a large bowl; drizzle with the olive oil, then add the garlic powder, chili powder, cornstarch, and kosher salt. Mix thoroughly to combine. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Spread the fries on the paper, placing them as far apart as possible.
- Bake 15 minutes on one side, then flip the fries and bake 10 to 20 additional minutes until the fries are dry and slightly browned; watch them carefully as the cooking time can depend on the thickness and the heat of your oven. (If the majority of the fries seem soft, continue to cook.)
- Meanwhile, make the cumin lime crema: finely mince the garlic clove. Juice the limes. In a small bowl, stir together the garlic and lime juice with the tahini, Mexican hot sauce, olive oil, cumin, and kosher salt.
- Drain and rinse the black beans and sprinkle with a few pinches kosher salt.
- When the fries are done, cool for a few minutes, then serve immediately. Some fries may be slightly soft, but the outside of the majority of the fries will be crispy. (Note: Fries are best right out of the oven; they become softer as they sit.) To serve, top the Mexican fries with black beans, cumin lime crema, salsa, feta crumbles and torn cilantro leaves.
We LOVED this recipe! We just ate it last night and I know we will make it again. We also made your sweet potato enchiladas recently. Do you have other sweet potato recipes? We can”t get enough!
Oh fantastic! So glad to hear this. Some of our other favorites are up in the body of this post (bullets under “A few of our favorite sweet potato recipes”). Let us know if you try any out!
This was incredible. We were practically licking our plates- ok, we may actually have licked them. Delicious!
SO glad these were a hit! Thank you so much for making them and letting us know!
These look amazing!
http://confusedgirlinthecity.com/blog/
Loaded fries are so delicious! I still haven’t tried making sweet potato fries but these look delicious!
Kari
http://www.sweetteasweetie.com
This was so good! I made the recipe last night for dinner, finished off the last of the sweet potato fries last night (I only had two sweet potatoes at home to cook with) and am honestly considering picking up more sweet potatoes after work to bake. I didn’t even have to use the salsa because the fries and crema packed enough flavor. It was a LITTLE salty, but that was ok for me b/c I like salt, spices, etc.
So glad you enjoyed this — and can’t believe you already made it! Happy to hear the crema brought enough flavor to the party too. Fantastic! Let us know if you try it again :)
That cumin lime crema sounds amazing! I looooove tahini. I’m not a vegetarian, so whenever I made a similar recipe, I top mine with ground turkey and they are the best! http://hungrybynature.com/2016/01/superbowl-sweet-potato-nachos/
I can’t stop using tahini to make various sauces — it’s so easy since it’s always in my refrigerator (vs dairy, which can go bad). Plus then it works for all sorts of diets! Your nachos look fabulous!
Now this is what Im talking about! Move over nachos, sweet potato fries are taking your place!
And that’s how it’s done!!! These loaded fries look completely crave-worthy!