A baked whole sweet potato can take an hour, or longer, to cook. And that hour-long bake time doesn’t always result in soft potatoes. Ugh! Below, I share the secret to making the best and quickest baked sweet potatoes in under 30 minutes! This recipe is unlike any other baked sweet potato recipe. The caramelized flavor and quick nature of this recipe will leave you craving this vegetable all year long.
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How to Bake Sweet Potatoes
There are different ways to roast and bake sweet potatoes:
- Chop sweet potatoes into cubes, drizzle with olive oil, then bake on sheet pan at 425F for 30 minutes.
- Pierce sweet potatoes with a fork, wrap in foil, then bake in the oven for 1 hour, until soft and tender.
- Then there’s the no-baking way to bake a sweet potato in the Instant Pot.
All of these methods and recipes will render a delicious end result, but nothing is like the method I’m about to teach you. Prepare to be majorly wowed by the flavor of this recipe. Even if you don’t like sweet potatoes, I think this recipe will change your mind. And the best part, this recipe only requires 3 ingredients: sweet potatoes, olive oil, and salt.
Just real-food goodness that’s flavorful and super healthy! Just as real food should be.
What Readers Say:
“I made this recipe exactly as it stated. Omg! They came out delicious! Thank you so much for the easy way to bake a sweet potato. l will continue to use this recipe as it’s so easy!”
GLORIA
How to Make the Best & Quickest Oven Baked Sweet Potato Recipe
The secret to creating the best and quickest baked sweet potatoes is to first slice each potato in half. Sweet potatoes are an incredibly large and dense vegetable, in their raw state, which means they take forever to fully cook. When the sweet potatoes are halved, the baking time is dramatically reduced.
But something else happens when the potatoes are halved. The halved potatoes, when cooked flesh-side down, caramelize. Caramelization = incredible flavor and texture.
The end result is the best baked sweet potatoes!
I won’t ever go back to the slow method for baking a sweet potato ever again. Give this method a try and tell me what you think.
How to make this recipe…
- Step 1: Scrub any dirt or debris off the potatoes (you’ll want to eat the delicious and nutrient-dense potato skin once baked)
- Step 2: Use a large sharp knife to cut the potatoes in half.
- Step 3: Place a piece of parchment paper on a sheet pan. This will keep clean up quick and easy for you.
- Step 4: Drizzle the halved potatoes with olive oil.
- Step 5: Sprinkle sea salt over each potato half.
- Step 6: Flip the potato halves so the sweet potato is flesh side down.
- Step 7: Bake for 30 minutes at 400F in the center rack of the oven.
How to Serve Baked Sweet Potatoes
This recipe can be used in so many different ways to create a variety of nutrient-dense meals, from breakfast to lunch to a dinner main meal or side dish. Here are a few ideas:
- As a side dish, enjoy the fiber-rich sweet potatoes with a healthy fat like butter and cinnamon or pepper. Serve the potatoes alongside grilled boneless chicken thighs, a roasted whole chicken, grilled steak, or your favorite protein.
- For a dinner, top a sweet potato with homemade chili for a stuffed sweet potato meal.
- For a lunch, make buffalo chicken stuffed sweet potatoes by tossing roasted and shredded chicken with a buffalo sauce (like this one from primal kitchen), then top the roasted potato with the chicken and a dollop of sour cream and cilantro. You can also do this with Instant Pot BBQ chicken.
- For a protein breakfast, spoon nut butter (like peanut butter) over the potato and top with banana slices and cinnamon and a teaspoon of hemp seeds (optional). This is one of my favorite breakfasts! Serve with fluffy scrambled eggs, a simple cheese omelette, or one of 15 different ways to make eggs for breakfast.
How to Prep Sweet Potatoes in Advance
Baking sweet potatoes in advance will save you a ton of time and make eating healthy, real-food meals easier during the busy week.
To prep sweet potatoes in advance…
- Bake the sweet potatoes: cut in half, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt, then roast on a sheet pan for 30 minutes.
- Once baked to perfection, allow the sweet potatoes to cool on the sheet pan. You don’t want to place the sweet potatoes directly into a storage container while hot as this will cause condensation to build in the container.
- Once fully cool, place the potatoes in a storage container and place in the fridge. (Read: My best tips for storing fresh food in the fridge.)
How to Reheat
To reheat the prepared potatoes, place the cold potatoes on a sheet pan and warm in the oven (at 350F), in a skillet, or in the microwave or a toaster oven.
You’ll also love…
- This sweet potato casserole isn’t the marshmallow and brown sugar casserole from childhood. Oh no, it’s healthy, flavorful, and sure to have everyone asking for the recipe.
- Sausage and sweet potato hash is a protein and fiber rich breakfast that you can prep in advance on the weekend and reheat throughout the week.
- Apple and sweet potato bake is a sweet and savory side dish or topping for ice cream during the cooler months.
The Best and Quickest Baked Sweet Potatoes
Ingredients
- 3 sweet potatoes
- 1 tablespoon oil avocado oil, extra virgin olive oil, or melted coconut oil
- salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400F.
- Cut the sweet potatoes in half, lengthwise, with a sharp knife. Place the potatoes on a rimmed baking sheet.
- Drizzle the potatoes with one tablespoon of oil, then rub the oil on the flesh of each potato. Sprinkle each potato with just a pinch of salt.
- Flip the potatoes over, flesh-side down on the baking sheet. Some oil will spill over on the sheet pan–that's normal and okay.
- Bake the sweet potatoes, uncovered, for 30-35 minutes, until the skins begin to look shriveled and soft. Remove the potatoes from the oven.
- The baked sweet potatoes should be slightly brown and caramelized on the top of the flesh and soft throughout the potato. Enjoy the potatoes warm (I love to add a tablespoon of butter and cinnamon, or see other ideas in the post above), or place them in an air-tight container in the fridge to enjoy later in the week.
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OH my goodness! These turned out perfect! I have never had sweet potatoes turn out right! I just used sesame oil and salt because I wasn’t sure what it would taste like. Just the oil and salt alone was amazing. Eating them right now for an in between doing dishes “snack”. They are so versatile too, I may have found a new staple in our kitchen. Thank you so much for sharing 🙂
Omg! You have changed my life with this recipe. Every time I’ve roasted them they came out dry and never soft. These are delicious, easy and fast. Perfect recipe. Thank you for sharing this secret.
I was looking up different ideas for sweet potatoes and came across your site.
Hands down…This is best and most simple recipe!
So sweet, creamy and delicious. All I topped them with was butter.
I’ll be cooking them this way from now on.
Thanks so much!
That’s awesome, Pete! I’m so glad you’re enjoying the sweet potatoes!
Loved these!! It took me a little closer to 45 minutes but I had really big sweet potatoes to work with. Cutting them in half made it sooo much easier, and easier for serving!
I’m so glad you liked them, Ashley!
Can’t wait to try this!
Here’s another sweet potato method, if you chop them into rough 1-inch squares you can dump them on the same baking sheet as other roast vegetables (carrots, turnips, brussel sprouts, broccoli, etc. and roast them all together in a 400-degree oven. Roasting is simply the best way to cook veggies, period. Plus you don’t lose any of the nutrients like you do if you boil them in water.
Absolutely! Thanks, David!
Oh My Goodness! I jus baked up some big sweet potatoes I had using your recipe And they turned out fabulous. They are Sooo sweet and soft. And in half the time. Tonight we’re having our first freeze so the warm oven was a bonus. Thx so much… From east coast NC
I’m so glad you like them, Rebecca!
P.S. One other thing I do to reduce work time is put the potatoes on tinfoil!
Hi Kristin, have to share a funny story: my husband and I are applauding this! I started doing this over 10 years ago when I got home late from work and my kids were starving and I was planning to bake sweet potatoes! I have not baked sweet potatoes since then, b/c everyone loves these so much. My friends and family are all doing the same thing! Cheers for publishing!!
That’s awesome, Mary! Love it!
Glad to get these practical tips for make ahead vegetables.
Thanks, Janis!
(((LOVE LOVE LOVE))) these sweet potatoes, I made them and they were excellent.
Hey Wanda, I’m so glad you love them!
You inspired me! I have 4 sweet potatoes (actually 2 sweet potatoes and 2 yams) in the oven right now! Thanks for this easier way to cook them!!
Yay, Michele!
My mother and my Aunt would wrap several in foil then bake. When they were finished baking they would then let them cool stick them in freezer in any vacant spot that they could. When they wanted one or more they just had to pull them out and use in any manner they wanted but usually with just butter on them. That was the way they liked them.
This worked, thanks, my son saved his potato for breakfast, he is going to try your recipe with peanut butter banana and Cinnamon I top, I will have to take a bite, sounds good and vitamin rich.
So glad they worked well for you! Peanut butter, cinnamon, and a bit of banana on top is my fave–so good!
Wow! These turned out great! Nice and soft. I added butter, brown sugar and cinnamon – DELICIOUS!!! They were cooked perfectly. Doing it this way from now on. Thank You so much for the recipe! 🙂
I’m so glad you like them, Karen! YUM!!
These sweet potatoes are fantastic. I love that they only took about 40 minutes to bake and they taste creamier than when you bake them whole.
Yay, Francesca! I’m so glad you’re enjoying the sweet potatoes.
This is a wonderful idea!! I raise my own sweet potatoes and have a bunch so always looking for a quicker way to cook them. This recipe will be used weekly in my kitchen, for sure. Also, just FYI, you can also cook a big one in an instant pot and they turn out pretty good as well. God Bless you and your family.
That’s awesome, Kim! I have yet to grow sweet potatoes–it’s on my list. And I need to try making sweet potatoes in the IP–what time do you use?
These potatoes were so sweet and delicious!
Yay, Marianne! I’m so glad you liked them.
I don’t know which I like better – your sweet potato recipe or ideas for using roasted vegetables! Thank you for sharing both!
Thank you, Lisa! 🙂
These turned out great, I appreciate these healthy and simple recipes.
Awesome, Phil! I’m so glad you’re enjoying the recipes.
I do the same thing with roasted veggies- add to eggs in the morning or serve a bunch of quinoa for a quick and healthy lunch. Thanks for the sweet potatoes post! Love them in their pure form.
Love it, Terry! Roasted veggies are such an awesome way to add nutrients to a meal. Enjoy the sweet potatoes :).
Thank you for this! I have a few recipes that use roasted sweet potatoes, but I put them off due to the tiiiiiiiiiiiime…… These look amazing all on their own 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
I know what you mean, Adrianne! I used to do the same thing. Enjoy!!
Wow..those look delicious!!! I love sweet potatoes, but like you said they take forever to bake! I will be trying this recipe out!! Yum!!
Hey Holly, Enjoy!!
Amazing!!! Simple to make and quite yummy.
Thanks 4 this great hack.
I do the same thing with sweet potatoes but I use Lemmon n pepper and garlic salt. You get sweet and savory at the same time:))))
That sounds amazing, Candace! Will have that to try that next. Thanks for sharing!
I really appreciate your food/meal prep posts. I am definitely going to try this one out this week!
Thank you, TC!
Will the potato still caramelize if I line the baking sheet with foil?
I don’t know, I personally don’t have experience cooking with foil so can’t speak to this. My thought is it should still caramelize.
LS Team
Tried this with cooking spray instead of oil and it worked perfectly. New favorite way to bake sweet potatoes.
Hey Robbie, That’s good to hear. Thank you for sharing. Glad you found a new way to enjoy baked sweet potatoes!