Its hard to even sleep anymore. Sunlight creeps through my binds illuminating the room and I’m up. There’s something so exciting to be able to see a blue sky, green leaves on the trees and hear birds chirping.
Summer has its perks. The weather is warm enough to go on walks. I love to feel the warmth of the sun’s rays over my skin. After sitting cramped up in my room for 8+ hours, I am so ready to be out to soak up every bit of of summer. So my fiancé and I take long walks to go to have picnics out in the sun.
We recently found a beautiful spot where we lay a blanket down and picnic together. After eating, I like to stretch my legs out and lay down to look at the blue- blue sky. It fascinates me to see how clear the skies can be. Back home in Hong Kong, I remember looking up into the grey, polluted sky from my swimming pool just wondering when I would ever get to enjoy a beautiful blue view. Those beautiful blue skies were a rare treat to have, which is why I am so obsessed with them.
For the past few months, summer got me craving all things “bbq-ey” – burgers, fries, coleslaw and cornbread. Strange enough I’ve never been a burger -fries sort of gal, so this “craving” definitely surprised me. NO kidding, I’ve eaten burgers, coleslaw, homemade ketchup and fries on repeat 4 days a night, 3 weeks in a row. It’s tastes amazing and just so easy to prep . I like to make a big batch of ketchup and burgers the start of the week and dinner is sorted for the next few days. I love that I don’t have to think about dinner and it makes me feel naughty because I feel like I’m eating “junk food”. Best of all, my fiancé gets so excited to eat it!
You’re probably thinking – wow – crazy, why bother making my own ketchup? Who goes through all that hassle? You’re absolutely right! But this ketchup literally takes 5 mins to make. And the one thing I love the most about is that IT TASTES LIKE KETCHUP and its LOW in SUGAR. I’m a big fan of ketchup but started avoiding a few years back because its laden with sugar. Our world today intakes so much sugar from condiments, sugary drinks and added sugars to pre-packaged foods. So it makes me happy to be able to make one that even my fiancé and the rest of my family approves. I believe every step is one step closer to change and just by switching up one small thing it makes all the difference! NOT TO MENTION, it saves me so much money because sugar-free ketchup is so expensive.
Now I can happily eat ketchup with my fries and my burger. The ketchup tastes so good I even dunk my salad leaves in it. I can promise you I will NEVER buy ketchup again. It blows my mind how simple and cheap this is. 
And of course, what goes better with ketchup than sweet potato fries? I’m a HUGE fan of sweet potatoes so this is definitely my guilty pleasure. The key to making sweet potato fries CRISPY is to coat it with a tad bit of cornstarch. After a few experiments of soaking it first and spraying some oil, I believe we found the perfect solution. By baking it in the to oven, coating in cornstarch, adding the salt at the end and flipping it half-way through -> this creates the most crispy fries ever!
A few tips for crispy sweet potato fries:
- Make sure you cut them into uniform sizes so they cook evenly
- The sweet potatoes will shrink in size so don’t cut them too thin, but also not too thick or else it won’t crisp up!
- Make sure the cornstarch is coated evenly
- When turning over the fries, make sure you take the time to turn each piece over. THIS will ensure every piece is CRISPY
GUYS you’re in for a treat! This is truly a wonderful healthy “guilt-free” meal that should be on your dinner tables tonight!
- 1 large sweet potato (250g)
- 1 tsp cornstarch
- Smoked Paprika
- Garlic Powder
- Salt
- Preheat oven to 425F.
- Peel sweet potato and cut into French fry strips. Try to cut them to similar size so they baked evenly.
- Toss in cornstarch and spices. Mix to coat evenly.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Spread evenly on a pan in a single layer. Do not overcrowd the pan, try not to let them touch each other to avoid steaming.
- You can spray a little bit of oil over the top to let it crisp up (don't overdo it)
- Bake for 20 mins.
- Flip each piece then bake for 10 more mins or until crispy.
- Sprinkle on the salt before serving. Let it cool for 5 mins, fries gets slightly more crispy once its cooled.
- 1 6oz Tomato Paste
- ¾ cup Hot Water
- 2.5 tbsp Rice Vinegar
- 4 tsp Splenda/ Stevia (or you can sub with regular sugar)
- 1 tsp onion powder
- ½ tsp salt
- In a pan, cook paste over low heat to fry off the raw taste. It takes a few minutes.
- Transfer to a bowl/glass container. Mix in hot water and seasonings.
- Taste and adjust seasonings.
- Refridgerate till cold.
Leave a Reply