One Incredibly Delicious 2-for-1 Paleo Recipe
Not only will this recipe show you how to make ridiculously flavorful sweet potato wedges (wrapping anything in bacon automatically makes it 100% better if you ask me), but the homemade avocado aioli is also a star on its own.
You’ll first need to preheat your oven to 400°F. You’ll also need to line a baking sheet with parchment paper before adding your sweet potato wedges into a large bowl. Drizzle olive oil over top of them and then sprinkle them with the smoked paprika and black pepper.
Season to taste with a bit of salt and toss to coat. Next, wrap each of your wedges with one slice of bacon. Place your wedges on the baking sheet and bake them for 30-35 minutes or until the sweet potatoes are tender and the bacon is crispy.
While your wedges are cooking, you can turn your attention to making the avocado aioli. You’ll need to use a food processor to combine one avocado with mayonnaise, freshly squeezed lemon juice, and salt and black pepper. Process everything together until it makes a nice and smooth mixture and then serve it along with your warm sweet potato wedges.
What Kind of Sweet Potatoes Should I Use for These Sweet Potato Wedges?
If you’re planning on making sweet potato wedges, the absolute best bang for your buck pick when it comes to sweet potatoes are the purple flesh varieties like Carolina Ruby, Cordner’s Red, and Georgia Jet.
Sweet potatoes with purple flesh have higher concentrations of phenolics, antioxidants, and soluble dietary fiber. (1) However, you could absolutely make these with orange-fleshed sweet potato as well!
How to Keep Your Potato Wedges from Sticking
There’s nothing more annoying than almost digging into some tasty sweet potato wedges only for them to come out of the oven in one big sticky mess. Here are a few handy tips that you can use to prevent your wedges from sticking:
- Soak your sweet potato wedges in water to remove some of the potato starch that’s responsible for their stickiness
- Make sure to keep your wedges spaced apart when you place them on the baking sheet
- If you plan on adding anything extra to your wedges like cheese, make sure to wait until after they’re finished baking
5 Reasons Why Sweet Potatoes Are Such a Great Choice on the Paleo Diet
I mentioned earlier how much I’ve always loved potatoes, and how I was so thrilled when I realized that I could still enjoy sweet potatoes while on the paleo diet.
If you’ve been on the fence because you’re not quite sure if you should include them as well, here are 5 great reasons why sweet potatoes are such a great choice on the paleo diet:
- Sweet potatoes are incredibly nutritious. They’re packed full of essential nutrients like vitamin A, manganese, potassium, vitamin C, copper, niacin, folate, and dietary fiber.
- We tackled this in a separate post and while sweet potatoes do indeed contain starch, it’s a different kind of starch compared to white potatoes. The type of starch found in sweet potatoes raises blood sugar levels more slowly, making it an ideal carb choice not only for individuals on the paleo diet, but especially for anyone who is diabetic as well. (2)
- Sweet potatoes can help protect you against certain diseases and free radical damage thanks to their high concentration of antioxidants. Sweet potatoes with purple flesh have an especially high concentration of anthocyanins, a type of antioxidant that has been found to slow the growth of cancer cells. (3)
- Since they’re such an excellent source of dietary fiber, they also provide you with numerous health benefits like regulating bowel movements, helping with weight management due to increased feelings of satiety, maintaining overall gut health, and even helping to protect against cancer. (4)
- Sweet potatoes can support healthy vision because they’re such an excellent source of beta-carotene. Not only does this particular antioxidant give the vegetable its bright coloring, but it also converts to vitamin A in your body, which plays a role in helping to prevent vision loss. (5)
