The Best Ways to Cook Spiralized Sweet Potato Noodles

Best Way to Cook Sweet Potato Noodles

These are the Best Ways to Cook Sweet Potato Noodles after spiralizing them so they stay sweet, crisp and easy to toss with your favorite sauces and dressings. 

The Best Ways to Cook Spiralized Sweet Potato Noodles

Since you all loved my post on the Three Best Ways to Cook Zucchini Noodles, I wanted to do a deep dive into how to cook sweet potato noodles.

This post covers everything you need to know about cooking sweet potato noodles, including:

  • How to cut them
  • If you should peel them or not
  • My three favorite ways to cook sweet potato noodles

And a bonus: how to make sweet potato rice!

How To cut Sweet Potato Noodles

The first step you must take to ensure that your sweet potato noodles come out well is to cut them properly. The best way to do that? With a spiralizer, of course.

Once you have your spiralizer, it’s easy and straightforward to cut a sweet potato into long, curly noodles.

Tips for Cooking Sweet Potato Noodles

Before I go over the three best ways to cook sweet potato noodles, here are my top tips for creating those gorgeous orange noodles:

Peel your Potatoes

Unless you’re making sweet potato fries or something similar, peel the sweet potato before spiralizing. The skin is tough. And when you go to spiralize the sweet potato, the skin can make things difficult. Plus, the sweet potato comes out more like pasta when it doesn’t have the texture from potato skin. However, if you’re making sweet potato fries, keep the skin on and just use a bit more elbow grease.

Put on the Pressure

Don’t be afraid to use pressure and force when spiralizing sweet potatoes. I ran a spiralizing demo once and asked someone in the audience to try out the spiralizer with a sweet potato and the first thing I noticed was that they barely used any pressure. Sweet potatoes have a tough flesh, so if you don’t apply a good amount of pressure while spiralizing, it won’t work properly! Think about cutting a sweet potato with a knife: it takes a little bit more elbow grease than a zucchini, for example.

Also, make sure you’re always using that side handle for leverage. To learn how to use a spiralizer properly, watch this video.

Choose the Right Pan

Cook sweet potato noodles in a nonstick skillet or use plenty of oil. If you’ve ever tried to cook sweet potato noodles and they’ve broken up in the pan, there could be two issues:

  1. You could be grasping them too roughly with your tongs. They’re veggies, be nice and gentle!
  2. The noodles are sticking to the pan and breaking. To avoid this, use a non-stick skillet or plenty of oil.

Choose the Right Potato

Choose the right sweet potato for spiralizing. Overripe sweet potatoes don’t spiralize well. Instead, they fall apart and the noodles become very brittle. Make sure the flesh is firm and doesn’t have many flaws in the skin (like dark spots).

Three Best Ways to Cook Sweet Potatoes

Keeping these tips in mind, these are the three methods that I recommend for cooking spiralized sweet potatoes:

Sautéed Sweet Potato Noodles

The Best Ways to Cook Spiralized Sweet Potato Noodles

Sautéing on the stove is my favorite way to prepare sweet potato noodles.

Here’s how to do it in two simple steps:

  1. Place a skillet over medium-high heat. Add a drizzle of olive oil.
  2. When the skillet is hot (flick water in, it should sizzle), add in the sweet potato noodles. Toss the noodles lightly with pasta tongs and cook for 5-7 minutes or until cooked through.

Tip: Don’t let the noodles cook for longer or they’ll start to break apart.

For faster cooking, cover the skillet to steam the noodles. Note that this will cause the noodles to become slightly soggier and more likely to break apart. If you don’t mind a little breakage, this method is great!

Best Sautéed Sweet Potato Noodle Recipes:

Oven-Roasted Sweet Potato Noodles

The Best Ways to Cook Spiralized Sweet Potato Noodles

 

Roasting is an easy no-mess way to cook sweet potato noodles. Plus, the noodles take on a delicious caramel flavor and texture that is crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.

Here’s how to make roasted sweet potato noodles:

  1. Season the noodles: On a baking sheet, toss the sweet potato noodles with olive oil. To keep things light, I like to spritz the noodles with an olive oil mister or cooking spray. Add salt, pepper and other seasonings to taste and toss well.
  2. Roast in a 425°F oven for 10-12 minutes, depending on the thickness of your noodles.

Tip: Sweet potato noodles roast well with other ingredients too, as in my recipe for Mom’s Chicken over Root Veggies.

Best Roasted Sweet Potato Noodle Recipes

Cook Separately and Add to Soup (NEVER BOIL!)

The Best Ways to Cook Spiralized Sweet Potato Noodles

You should never boil your sweet potato noodles or simmer them too long in a soup. They’ll break up and eventually dissolve altogether.

However, if you cook the noodles first on the stove and stir them into the liquid just before serving, they’ll maintain their texture well.

Best Sweet Potato Noodle Soup Recipes

Bonus: Make Riced Sweet Potato

Are you already bored with sweet potato noodles? Good news! Sweet potatoes make the BEST vegetable rice!

To make sweet potatoes into rice, watch this how-to video. It’s quick and easy after you’ve spiralized the potato.

Then, you can turn riced sweet potato into curry, soups, stews, chilis, or just sauté it with some olive oil in a skillet and make a grain-free “grain” bowl. It takes about 5-7 minutes to cook sweet potato rice. To speed up the cooking process, add some moisture.  1/2 cup of veggie or chicken broth will help soften up the “rice” in no time and add extra flavor.

The Best Ways to Cook Spiralized Sweet Potato Noodles

Best Sweet Potato Rice Recipes

And if you want to see a sweet potato being spiralized, watch below:

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with love, Ali

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comments

  • When making rice, does spiralizing the veggie first add something to the texture, compared to just pulsing the veggie in a food processor?
    • hi Kate - That was the same question I had some time ago. But since I tried pulsing 'spiralized noodles' in the food processor I'll never go back! The reason for me is that the pcs are more uniform in size than when you just put chunks of a vegetable in the f.p. All different sizes are OK for soup, but if you want to plate it as 'rice', it cooks more uniformly (and looks better too)! ~ ruth
    • Yes, it makes them into the perfect rice width and texture! I've tried it with a grater or just pulsing cubes in a food processor and it doesn't work as well!
  • The spiralizer that they sell at Williams Sonoma, is this your brand? I really want to buy the spiralizer you created because my sister bought it and it works great.
    • No, it is not available in stores at Williams Sonoma, but they do carry it online (http://bit.ly/wsinspiralizer). Otherwise, you can buy it on my website (click "shop" at the top.) Thanks!
  • Wow, I didn't even know that sweet potatoes could be overripe! That is very interesting! I will definitely keep that in mind when making sweet potato dishes, thank you :)
  • where's the recipe for that yummy looking bowl at the start of this post? it looks like spiralized sweet potato, brussels sprouts, and pomegranate seeds? p.s. i recently bought my own Inspiralizer, and just ordered one for my sister. love it.
    • Did you ever get an answer to where the sweet potato Brussels sprout recipe can be found?
    • I had the same question! That looks so good.
      • I came here to ask the same question. That dish looks really tasty!
    • I pinned that a while back! Here's the link: https://inspiralized.com/brussels-sprouts-and-sweet-potato-noodle-bowl-with-pomegranates-and-maple-sesame-vinaigrette/
  • p.p.s. i recently heard that purple sweet potatoes are the (new) BOMB of superfoods. so i bought some: they're much thinner than even the thinnest sweet potatoes, but i tried to pick some that looked at least as thick as a decent sized carrot. haven't tried spiralizing them yet--anyone else? suggestions?
  • Handle on Inspiralizer keeps coming off...even when doing zucchini. Fed up!
  • Do these freeze well? Cooked or raw?
  • I'm so glad I was able to find this site. I've totally been INSPIRALIZED. Never thought the kids would enjoy eating sweet potatoes, but this recipe kills it!
    • Sue! We're so happy you're here too and that the kids are loving it!!
  • Can you deep fry sweet potato noodles?
    • While we haven't given that method a shot, it would certainly work like any other potato. Give it a try and let us know how it goes!
  • What great recipes! I only have to make small changes in sweeteners to achieve Keto Low Carb meals of variety and excellent flavor combinations. I was hoping to use my Inspiralizer more often and now your inspirational recipes give me imaginative meal planning! Recipes with spiralized daikon radish would be welcome...with tips on cooking properly to reduce that peppery radish taste. Also, please explain the various spiralized blades to use for properly sized noodles in your recipes. Gotta go start my next spiralized meal! Many thanks from Karen...
    • Hi Karen! We're so glad you're here and being totally Inspiralized! Our website is FULL of resources that you'll find super useful. Poke around and check it all out. Search "Daikon" and you'll find a bunch of inspo!