Smashed Sweet Potatoes with Garlic Butter

I’ve always thought sweet potatoes were only okay- I’ve never been crazy about them… even the beautiful glowing purple ones we grow in our own garden.

And Karl is simply just offended by sweet potatoes, maintaining that they are indeed “not a potato.” I had to start calling them Yams, just so that he would consider eating them! Yes, it worked.

They really are a wonderful lightly-starchy vegetable with a nice amount of carbohydrates and an impressive nutrient profile. I badly WANTED to love them! After trying pretty much every preparation of sweet potato ever invented, I finally found a way to make them that I DO love and actually WANT to eat!

The garlic butter is what makes them… plus the middle is soft and creamy, the skins turn crispy, and the bottoms brown. These are so good- I’ve been making them almost weekly!

Smashed Sweet Potatoes with Garlic Butter

1 pound sweet potatoes (about 2-3 medium sized)
1 Tbs avocado oil or extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp sea salt
2-3 Tbs butter
1 clove fresh garlic
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp dried parsley

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Leave the skin of the sweet potatoes on and scrub them to get any dirt off.

How to cut them:
Skinny Sweet Potatoes: for sweet potatoes close to or less than an inch in diameter, just move down the whole potato cutting it into chunks about 1.5-inches long.

Medium and Large Sweet Potatoes: this is the size that most will be; cut into 1/4-inch slices.

Place all the cut sweet potatoes on a pan in a heap, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil or avocado oil and use your hands to toss them until evenly coated. Arrange them so that they are evenly spaced- place all the sweet potatoes with a cut side on the pan.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until tender and starting to brown on the bottom.

Remove the pan from the oven and use a fork to gently smash each potato piece (see photos for what they should look like!). Sprinkle the smashed pieces evenly with sea salt.

Melt the butter and mix in both types of garlic and the dried parsley. Use a spoon to drizzle some of the garlic butter mixture evenly on each potato pieces.

Return the pan to the oven and bake for 15-20 more minutes. Serve and enjoy!

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