You don’t have to be a kid to love tater tots. Case in point, I recently went out to eat and ordered tater tots. It’s the kid in me and there’s no denying that tater tots are an awesome side to any meal, or even a fun appetizer to share.
But as I was eating them, I had a thought. “Why not make sweet potato tots?” Seriously, have you seen them before? Think about it. We’ve got sweet potato fries, so why not sweet potato tots? Brilliant! You know me. I had to go make them.
I picked up a few sweet potatoes and attempted to make these at home. They were fairly easy to make, but I must admit, a bit tedious. I parboiled the sweet potatoes and then grated them. That was easy. The tedious part was squeezing all of the excess water out of them though. It’s a necessary step or else you wind up with sweet potato mush.
I mixed the grated sweet potato with a little bit of flour and then seasoned them with nutmeg and cinnamon. Next, I shaped them into little tots and fried them.
As tater tots are best with something to dip them in, I made a creamy maple sauce just for that reason. I’m warning you now that while the sweet potato tots are great, my creamy maple sauce is absolutely amazing. You’re probably going to want to put it on everything, even your own fingers, which is fine. I won’t tell!
Sweet Potato Tots
Ingredients
2 large sweet potatoes, unpeeled
4 heaping tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
Directions
Boil a pot of water. Add the potatoes to the water.
Boil potatoes for about 15 minutes to partially cook them.
When the potatoes are cool enough to handle, peel potatoes, then shred them using either a box grater or shredding attachment on a food processor.
Using a kitchen towel or cheese cloth squeeze as much moisture out of the potatoes as possible. (This step is very important because if the potatoes have too much moisture the tots will break apart and there will be small pieces of potato floating in the oil.)
Heat the oil to 300 degrees F in your favorite frying pan.
Combine the potatoes the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Mix well. Form potatoes into small logs using about 1 tbsp of the potato mixture.
Working in batches fry the tots until golden brown (2-3 minutes)
Line a plate with paper towel, and transfer the tots to the plate to drain.
Creamy Maple Sauce
Ingredients
1 1/2 cup Heavy Cream
5 Tbsp Pure Maple Syrup
5 Tbsp Light Corn Syrup
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Directions
Combine heavy cream, maple syrup and corn syrup in a sauce pan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, for 15 minutes or until sauce is reduced and thick.
The sauce will bubble as it cooks.
When sauce has thickened, add vanilla extract, nutmeg and cinnamon.
Sauce will thicken more as it cools.
