Baked Sweet Potato Tater Tots

Happy weekend! I hope you all have time to relax and recharge this weekend. If you are, I have just the right snack for you. These tater tots are made with garlic parmesan mashed potatoes and are coated in perfectly seasoned and crispy breadcrumbs. Plus, they're baked so a little less oil than your ordinary deep fried taters.

These take a bit of time and effort to make but they're definitely worth it and would be a fun activity to do with your kids or friend/family member.

Serves: 4-6

Prep time: 25 min (for boiling & mashing), 20 min (for assembly)

Cook time: 30 min

Ingredients:

3 medium sweet potatoes

1/3 cup parmesan

2 tsp butter

Salt & pepper, to taste

1 cup Panko bread crumbs

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp onion powder

1/2 tsp dried parsley

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1 1/2 tbsp oil

Directions (Skip steps 1-2 if you already have mashed potatoes):

1. If you don't have mashed potatoes on hand, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Peel and cut the potatoes into about 1 1/2 cm cubes. Put in the pot and boil for 12-15 minutes until done. You can check with a fork for softness.

2. Drain the water out of the pot and then add the butter, salt and pepper, and parmesan and mash. Unless you really want a perfectly creamy tater tot, don't worry about having a few potato chunks after mashing.

3. Allow the potatoes to cool for 5-10 minutes. Meanwhile, mix together the bread crumbs and the remaining 4 ingredients in a deep plate. Add salt and pepper again if you wish.

4. Preheat oven to 425 and grease or lay parchment on a baking sheet (depends how good your pans are, the crumbs may stick to the pan if not).

5. Taking a tablespoon-sized amount of mashed potatoes, roll around in your hand and push the edges in to create a small cylinder. Then, roll around the bread crumbs to cover the tater tot and place on the pan. Repeat with the remaining of the potato mixture.

6. Ensure all tater tots on the pan aren't touching. Then, brush or drizzle oil over the tots. Flip them over and repeat.

7. Place the tater tots in the oven and cook for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, take the pan out carefully flip the tots over with a spatula. Cook for another 15 minutes.

8. Once done, place on a serving plate or casserole dish and serve with your favourite dipping sauces. Best enjoyed immediately.

If you want some sauce ideas, click here for my spicy mayo and honey mustard recipes. Both would go great with these!

Tips for making ahead of time and freezing:

• You can prepare this recipe to take down the prep time on the day you want to make them. You can either make the mashed potatoes ahead of time or you can go all the way up to forming the tots and coating in the bread crumbs.

• To freeze, do all the step up until coating the tots and laying them out on the baking pan. Place the pan in the freezer for an hour and then place the tots carefully into a ziplock bag or freezer-safe container and return to the freezer. These should freeze for up to 2 months.

• To cook after freezing, cook at 425 for 20-30 minutes (when crispy and warm on the inside).

Of course, if you wanted to make these even crispier without deep-frying them, use an air fryer if you have one.

This recipe is awesome to try for a weekend snack or appetiser. Also, keep this in mind for a game day appetiser. They're so good and anyone who likes sweet potatoes will love these!

Thanks for checking this out! I'm glad that you've all enjoyed my recipes so far. Let me know if you try these out and try to send me a picture! I'd love to post it on my Instagram and Facebook stories and show everyone how you made it!

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Have a great rest of your weekend!