Save Those Sweet Potato Peels For A Creative Crunchy Snack

Don't throw away your sweet potato peels. With a little bit of oil and your oven or air fryer, you can transform them from trash into snacky treasures. Roasted sweet potato skins are like potato chips, only zero waste, high in fiber, and, well, sweet.

All you have to do to save your sweet potato skins from the compost is plan ahead. The next time you make sweet potato pie, sweet potato soup, or sweet potato fries, remember to take special care with your peelings. Remove the skins with care in long, wide strips. Then, instead of composting them, you can toss them with your favorite seasonings. (It's best not to be shy with the salt — these are sweet potatoes, after all).

After a short stint cooking, your peels will be crisped and crunchy. Some recipes for sweet potato chips call for a 350-degree Fahrenheit oven, but you can crank up the heat to 400 degrees Fahrenheit for these hardy scraps. Give them about a half hour (or 10 minutes in an air fryer). Expect the sweet, earthy flavor you know and love, plus whatever other herbs and spices you choose to incorporate.

You can always keep your sweet potato skins simple with salt, pepper, and a few glugs of oil. Neutral oils with a high smoke point, like avocado or safflower oil, are a solid choice. But one easy way to boost flavor is upgrading your oil. Fancy something intense and buttery? Try ghee. In the mood for light, vegetal crisps? Opt for olive oil. Or get really luxe with animal fat. Schmaltz, duck fat, beef tallow, or even lard can give your oven crisps extra oomph.

From there, the fun really begins. Go all in on fall flavor with rosemary and thyme. Use your favorite curry blend — turmeric and sweet potato, in particular, is a match made in heaven.

You could take your crisps in a totally different direction by adding sugar and spice (if you don't have all things nice, store-bought is fine). Pro-tip: If you're worried about burning the sugar in the oven, you can always toss them in flavored sugar after baking.

Sweet potato peel crisps are a delicious way to use up food waste. You can just snack on them like you would normal potato chips, but if that gets boring, there are plenty of other ways to eat them.

Add them to your sandwich for a little extra crunch. If you make sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving, why not crisp up the peels for an epic leftover sandwich? Turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing, gravy, and crunchy sweet potato skins sound like an ideal combination. The rest of the year, add them to your ham or beef sandwiches to evoke a real Sunday roast. You can also save the skins for use as a soup garnish. Pureed soups, in particular, will benefit from the texture contrast. Or walk on the sweet side and use sugary sweet potato skin chips as a topping for your morning oatmeal.

Clearly, there is no shortage of tasty ways to use up sweet potato skins. If these recipe ideas don't convince you to start eating the skins of your sweet potatoes, maybe the nutrition benefits will. The skin of a sweet potato is rich in vitamins, minerals, and fiber. When you eat sweet potato peels, you gain lots of extra nutrition and risk nothing except accidentally getting dirt in your mouth. Effectively clean your sweet potatoes and you're good to go.