this recipe is a love letter to my local Assyrian food truck <3 if you are ever in olympia, wa (though i really don't know why you would be) please visit Nineveh Assyria on plum & 4th i promise you it's worth it.
they recently started selling sweet potato fries with za'atar and toum sauce which i ate allllll summer but i wanted to see if i could make a version at home for the lovely people who read my newsletter and who can't simply go get some at their local Assyrian food truck. i also make sweet potato fries a lot at home so i liked the idea of making a hybrid recipe. i added some additional spices that they don't use and the consistency is different since they're baked not fried, but all in all i think this is a good home substitute. enjoy!
> preheat oven to 400° F*
* baking strategies vary based on the texture you want. this is the temp i used for the pictured fries and they were slightly crispy, soft in the middle and not burnt at all. more on this later.
3 medium-large sweet potatoes
> peel and cut these as evenly as possible into 1/4 inch sticks
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp chili powder
2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp za'atar (whatever variety is fine but i prefer Palestinian green za'atar)
1 Tbsp flour
> mix all the spices together in a small bowl
> in a large bowl, add the cut potatoes and ~ 2 Tbsp olive oil (really as much as you want as long as the fries get well coated)
> sprinkle on the spice mix and mix with your hand until most of the spices are coating the fries. you can add more oil if needed.
> spread fries in a single layer on a baking sheet and bake for approximately 25 minutes at 400° F, flipping after about 10 minutes.
> i then left them in the oven for 5 minutes with the oven turned off. if you let them cool out of the oven for 5-10 minutes as well they will be slightly crispier. i've also made sweet potato fries by cooking them at 450° for 15-18 minutes, and some will get crispier but you run the risk of burning. feel free to experiment with different cooking techniques and let me know what works! all in all it's hard to get sweet potatoes really crispy in the oven.
notes on sauce:
> at Nineveh they serve these with toum and i really wanted to try it but simply didn't have the time. hopefully i'll make it soon. what i did for these was make a little vegan aioli type sauce. i added:
2 Tbsp vegan mayonaise
zest of 1/2 lemon
~ 1 tsp of lemon juice
garlic to taste (i used powdered since i was out of fresh but fresh is strongly preferred. 1-2 cloves is good for this amount)