Meet your new favourite sweet potato recipe! Set in a mesmerising ringed pattern, this Sweet Potato Bake is simple to make, eye-catching and tastes even better than it looks. Here’s an excellent, special occasion-worthy side dish that’s still easy enough for dinner tonight!
A sweet potato side dish to impress!
I actually don’t have that many sweet potato side dishes in my repertoire. I think it’s because when I think of potato side dishes, I tend to think crispy (like Duck Fat Potatoes) or creamy and cheesy (like Potato Dauphinoise). So sweet potatoes are never my natural choice. For one, cream + cheese + sweet potato sounds like an odd combination to me (perhaps someone can prove me wrong here). Secondly, sweet potato just doesn’t properly bake up to be crispy like regular potatoes do.
So I decided it was time to expand my sweet potato collection. This spiral Sweet Potato Bake is what I’ve come up, to put an eye-catching spin on an otherwise straightforward bake!
What you need to make this Sweet Potato Bake
Here’s what you need to make this dish:
Sweet potatoes – To make this dish look neat, look for long, evenly-shaped ones so the slices will be as similar size as possible. But really, if the sweet potato you find aren’t exactly shaped like the above, don’t let that stop you from making this!
Rosemary – I often pair rosemary with sweet potato. The strong, woody flavour and aroma goes so well, and as a hardy herb it can also stand up to the 50 minutes it takes to bake. Dried herbs would also work here: rosemary, thyme, oregano or a herb mix all come to mind;
Garlic – For flavour. Not many savoury dishes happen around here without garlic!
Butter and oil – Butter for flavour, oil to promote some nice crispy edges.
Did you know? Butter is ~20% water and dairy solids. This is enough to stops things from baking up to be crispy. Oil on the other hand is 100% fat and makes things truly crispy. We love butter for flavour, though. So to get the best of both worlds, I use a combination of both!
Salt and pepper
How to make a spiral Sweet Potato Bake
Slice sweet potato – Leave the skin on and slice the potatoes 3-4mm thick. You can make short work of this if you have a mandoline that can slice them to this thickness. We don’t want them too thin or they’ll flop over when you try to arrange them;
Toss – In a large bowl, toss the sweet potato slices with butter, oil, salt, pepper, garlic and rosemary. It’s best to use your hands. Separate the slices as you do this because they tend to stick together. We want each slice nicely coated!
Arrange in skillet – Arrange the sweet potato slices in an ovenproof skillet (mine is 26cm / 11″) in circles. (Yep, you got me, it’s not a true spiral! But rings actually make more sense here to fill the skillet properly.) To do this, gather a stack at a time (photo 3) and place them in the skillet on its side (photo 4). Continue placing end to end until you’re three quarters of the way around the skillet. Then push them over so they overlap each other. As they spread out, they should fill the perimeter of the skillet.
Other shapes: It doesn’t have to be round and it doesn’t have to be a skillet. I used my cast iron skillet because it looks great against the orange potato plus it retains heat so well. You can use a baking dish – round, oval or a 25cm/10″ square one. For square or rectangle dishes, I suggest arranging them in lines rather than spiral;
Arranging in skillet (continued) – As described in step 3 above;
Fill centre – Now do a small overlapping circle in the centre of the skillet, to fill the space as best you can;
Bake covered – Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes at 180°C/350°F (all oven types). In this step, the potatoes should cook most of the way through but not completely;
Bake uncovered – Remove from the oven then crank up the oven to 220°C/430°F (200°C fan) to brown the top of the potatoes. Remove the foil, drizzle with olive oil (just to give the potatoes a little helping hand for the browning), and pop it back into the oven for 20 minutes or until the tops are a nicely coloured and a bit crispy.
Crispy facts: Sweet potato just doesn’t go truly crispy, unlike regular potato. It’s just a plain fact of life, sadly. We will get some nice edges, but actually they’re more chewy caramelised edges rather than crispy. Still, the caramelised bits are delicious and everyone’s favourite part!
Finally, garnish if desired with a little sprinkle of fresh, finely chopped rosemary, maybe also a little whole sprig or two, and a pinch of sea salt flakes.
Now serve your dazzling sweet potato side dish with anything and everything! The only catch is that those edges do soften over time so it’s not the best to keep. As sweet potato already struggles to get real crispiness, it’s at its peak fresh out of the oven. As it cools, the crispy edges soften and they can’t be resurrected.
After leaving it in the fridge overnight, you’ll find it’s completely soft. But that’s not to say it’s not tasty! It still is, with the lovely rosemary-garlic-butter flavour. I’ve been known to give it a freshening by pan-frying slabs of it until golden and crispy. SO GOOD! – Nagi x
Watch how to make it
Hungry for more? Subscribe to my newsletter and follow along on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram for all of the latest updates.
Sweet Potato Bake
Ingredients
- 1.25 kg / 2.5 lb 4 -5 sweet potatoes (each 6cm / 2.5" wide, 20cm / 8" long, as evenly shaped as possible); finely sliced, skin on; (Note 1)
- 30g / 2 tbsp unsalted butter , melted
- 2 garlic cloves , finely minced
- 2 tbsp olive oil , plus a little extra for brushing the skillet
- 3/4 tsp kosher / cooking salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1 tbsp rosemary leaves, finely chopped , plus more for garnish / serving
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F. Brush skillet base and sides with a little olive oil.
- Slice potatoes: Slice potatoes 3-4mm thick. A mandoline will make short work of this.
- Toss: Place in large bowl, pour in all butter plus 1 tbsp olive oil, rosemary, salt and pepper. Toss well with hands, separating the slices so they are all coated with oil.
- Layer in skillet: Layer potato in skillet in a circular pattern, overlapping the slices. (See post for details)
- Bake covered 30 minutes: Cover with foil, bake for 30 minutes until potato is quite soft (almost fully cooked).
- Brush with oil: Remove from oven, turn up to 220°C/430°F (200°C fan). Remove foil, brush potato with remaining 1 tbsp oil.
- Bake uncovered 20 minutes: Bake 20 minutes until tops are golden and slightly crisp, and potato is cooked through (check with a knife or skewer).
- Serve: Scatter with more rosemary leaves, a whole sprig of rosemary and pinch of sea salt flakes if desired. Serve immediately! Sweet potato loses crispiness as it cools.
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
More sweet potato love
Life of Dozer
Photo from the Golden Retriever boarder while I’m in Tasmania – this is what surrounds her every morning when she’s munching on dry toast. (That’s Dozer’s big face at the front there, shoving his way to the front of the pack!).
If I don’t have a cast iron skillet what can I use instead?
Just use a ceramic casserole then Lydia! N x
Love your recipes…
Have cooked a lot of them for my family and have enjoyed every dish…. Thank you
Hi Nagi,
Love all of your recipes. Having a Boxing Day lunch and your site is my go to for guests. We have a dairy, allergies coming and someone on dialysis. This would be a perfect side dish other than butter. Is there something I can use in place of the butter to give it good flavour or should I just use extra oil?
Thx heaps
Sorry. Just realised not good for dialysis person, but still would like to know butter alternative please.
Thank you
Hi Lisa – butter adds some of the flavour here but you could use all oil. N x
Made this today for thanksgiving. Everyone loved it, great flavor and nice crispy edges. Only thing I did different was added shredded Parmesan at the end, but I put cheese on everything, lol.
The most delicious use of sweet potatoes ever. Thanks.
You are welcome John!! N x
Could you possibly just use a disposable round tin instead of cast iron? Or will it change the quality of the dish? Looking for thanksgiving dishes that I can bring, this looks delicious!
I think that would be fine Rebecca but I suggest putting it on a baking tray for support as it will be heavy for an aluminium tin. N x
Since the sweet potatoes don’t like to get crispy anyway, do you think this could be a prepare ahead type of recipe? If so, where in the recipe would you stop and store? Either way it looks absolutely beautiful and I can’t wait to try it out!
Hi Belinda – you can bake it ahead and reheat it but the edges won’t be crispy. See the notes at the bottom of the recipe. N x
Sorry to jump in here, but also wondering about preparation in advance. Could it be prepared and assembled the day before to bake on Christmas Day for example? Thanks!
Am I missing where to use the garlic in this recipe?
Oops! Thanks Marissa…I left it out of the written recipe…you toss it in with the herbs and oil and butter. I will fix that! N x
Why do so many recipe providers feel the need to include ‘kosher’ in their recipes? Kosher is a primitive, religious practice that has, at its core, systemic animal cruelty. Slicing the throat of a a animal which is not stunned is inhumane and causes painful last moments unnecessarily. I find the practice extremely morally repugnant & totally at odds with current moral & ethical standards.
Oh get over yourself. If you don’t like the recipe, find another. There are literally millions. You’re being rude for no reason over your own personal opinion. You’re totally allowed your opinions as everyone is. Trying to force your own beliefs and opinions on others for absolutely no reason other than you don’t like a word is absolutely ridiculous. Go elsewhere and leave this amazing woman and cook alone. This recipe is great and I’m making it for thanksgiving this year!
Err – it’s a type of salt. ie Kosher Salt.
Just mixed this in with some regular white potato….bit of a medley! This recipe is a keeper, Nagi. But then all your creations are! Keep it up! Nick
Yes sweet potato + cream + cheese can be done! old fashioned, but my mum had a recipe using part boiled chunks of sweet potato and then covered in a cream/milk/cheese/shallot/bacon/flour mixture and baked… delish!
Can I get the recipe please?
Can I sub yams for the sweet potatoes?
Sure can Christine! Great idea! N x
We realy enjoyed this dish. Very easy to make, another new family favourite!
Thnk you Nagi
DELICIOUS!!! I made these today for a dinner guest. Since our temp was 92 degrees I opted to put the iron skillet on the grill. They turned out perfect. This recipe goes straight into my recipe binder for future dinners.
Really yum. I sub’d thyme, oregano and sweet basil for rosemary and used avocado oil. I added bacon bits to the home stretch and served with poached eggs. Totally recommend. Satisfying.
I am going to be making this tonight as it looks delicious-hoping they will work in a cake pan vs. the cast iron skillet as I only have one of those and am making your pork tenderloin w/mustard sauce in the skillet already.
How did the cake pan work?
can i mix red potatoes and the sweet potatoes with the same cook time?
Sure can Wendy, it will be fabulous! N x
Hi Nagi,
Many years ago I was introduced to Oysters Irena, in Adelaide. They were plump and juicy oysters from Coffin Bay, Natural, coated in crumbley bacon cooked egg yoke, plus Caviar, you should try them they are delicious.cheers Neil. South Perth .
They sound to die for Neil!!! N x
Love all your recipes, love sweet potato and I often share recipes of yours on a couple of cooking groups I’m in xx thanks for the inspiration
Oh that’s awesome Esther, I’m so glad you’re loving the recipes, thanks so much for sharing them! N x
Wow, this recipe is delicious. It brings out all the sweetness in the sweet potato, making it almost dessert like. YUMMY!
Yes! I’m so happy you love it Averil!! N x