Some days my kids just decide that they do not want to eat anything that I make. Isn’t that wonderful? What’s a Mom to do?! I’m sure not going to resort to feeding them junk just to make them happy. I have learned to be tricky over the years and have been developing recipes that appear to be junk food to the kids, but are in fact healthy. Baked sweet potato tots are definitely one of my favorites, I always have them on hand! Easy to make, inexpensive, and they keep well in the freezer.
Why I love giving these to my kids:
- Parmesan cheese is a great source of protein, the kind we buy has 40g of protein per cup!
- Sweet potatoes are a good source of vitamin B6, vitamin C, vitamin D, iron and magnesium
- They are gluten-free and because they are baked not fried, they do not contain any seed oils (like canola or cottonseed oil)
Here is a quick visual of what regular Tater Tots contain. No thank you!
Baked Sweet Potato Tots
Baked sweet potato tots are definitely one of my kids' favorites, I always have them on hand! Easy to make, inexpensive, and they keep well in the freezer.
Ingredients
- 3 cups sweet potatoes
- 1 cup grated raw parmesan cheese, plus more for rolling tots
- Sea salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425 F.
- Peel and quarter sweet potatoes.
- Steam them until just starting to get tender, but not cooked through.
- In a food processor, pulse sweet potato until small crumbles form.
- In a mixing bowl, combine sweet potatoes and cheese, mash together with your hands until well combined.
- Form into balls (I used this this tool to get uniform balls) and roll in parmesan until lightly coated.
- Place onto a cookie sheet and bake for 10-15 minutes, turning every 5 minutes to cook evenly on all sides.
- These freeze very well, but freeze after rolling into balls — do not bake first. I freeze them on a cookie sheet until firm and then place into a freezer bag.
- I keep a bag of them in the freezer at all times. In case of a picky kid emergency, I just pop a few sweet potato tots into our toaster oven, and in minutes I have a quick healthy snack or a great side for dinner.
Recommended Products
As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.
67 Replies to “Gluten-Free Baked Sweet Potato Tots”
Raw, peeled potatoes into food processor or partially baked?
Slightly cooked, otherwise they will get too mushy
Will mozzarella work too?
It should work, they will just be stringy when you eat them. Make sure to use moz that is not too dry though, or they will fall apart.
We make tots like this, but we substitute about 1/4 C of the Parmesan cheese for our graw crumbs magic mix. It actually ensures that they don’t fall apart. We also use them for the coating (you could do a 50/50 mix Parm & magic mix). They actually get a little bit crispier and brown with the graw crumbs. So delicious! https://bit.ly/18qDrGw
Making these today and am super excited to see if I finally found a replacement for store tots that are terrible for eating! When you cook from the freezer, how long do you put them in for?
Kit, I put them in the toaster oven at 350* for maybe 10 minutes. Watch them, once they are crisping up on the outside, they are ready to eat. Just watch out, they can be very hot on the inside initially!
Wow! I feel so thankful that you have shared this recipe today. I am recently working with a natural doctor and changing my eating habits. This will be great! God bless your work.
Thank you for the nice comment Kathi, I hope you enjoy them!
What is graw,thank YOU for the recipe,bless you
I’m not sure where you are seeing “graw”
“graw” is in the post by graw foods above dated 11/23′
I was wondering the same thing.
Will Romano cheese work as well? It’s what I must use in place of Parm, due to cow’s milk sensitivity.
Sure, Romano should work
Awesome! Can’t wait to try this!
Let potato cool before putting in processor?
um, there must be a trick to these. i think mine are going to be mushy.
Sometimes I have had to wring the potato shreds out in a towel if I thought they were too wet. similar to how you make a cauliflower crust. But not always.
Do you have to use cheese for this? WIll they hold without it or would eggs or anything else work?
You could certainly try using something else like eggs. Let me know how they turn out!
I’ve made sweet potato tots before by rolling the sweet potato balls in crushed sweet potato chips (find a kind made with only sweet potatoes and olive or coconut oil).
Yum, that sounds delicious. Great idea!
These just went on my menu plan!
Awesome Lydia 🙂
So easy and a great idea to get the kids eating more sweet potatoes! I see in your pics that there is a white version of these tots. Are they made with white sweet potato? Cauliflower? Regular white potato?? 😀 Thanks!
Ah, good eye 🙂 Those were made with cauliflower. I guess I should mention that in the post too 😉
Are the cauliflower ones made the exact same way? I can’t wait to make these since we have changed our eating habits recently. Thanks for a great alternative!!
Yes they are 🙂
3 cups of sweet potato after food processing? For you, how many sweet potatoes was that? Also, how long did you steam them before they got to the desired tenderness?
I would say about 3 large sweet potatoes. I steamed them for 10 minutes or so
These look great! But a tip for anyone who finds the prep on the sweet potato to be too much work… I bake mine, skin and all at 375. Then peel while warm. So easy.
How long do you bake them at 375?
Does anyone know what this counts as on the 21 Day Fix meal plan?
Can these be made dairy free? What would you substitute for the cheese?
I have not tried making them without the cheese. It is kind of the glue that holds them together, so I am not sure what you could sub
Do I just made these, but something went wrong. …. they taste phenomenal, but starting with the first 5 min in the oven they stuck to the cookie sheet (and I used nonstick spray). Every turn was worse… what did I do wrong? (Will male again though because the taste cannot be beat!)
Where is the creamy ketchup recipe? The Pintrest post mentions it and it’s in the photo.
I want o know also, I can’t find it anywhere????
Mine came out goopy! I wish I could post a picture… this did not work for me at ALL.
Hmm, I have not had that happen. Did you use a different cheese?
I really love sweet potato casserole on Thanksgiving with brown sugar and mini marshmallows so I was thinking your recipe sounds great with the cheese and for a sweet snack I might try stuffing the ball with a couple mini marshmallows and then rolling the ball in crushed walnuts and brown sugar. What do you think?
Sounds interesting, I say give it a try! Let me know how it turns out 🙂
The answer seems to be yes, you can omit the parmesan cheese. Sadly hubby is allergic to casein. To 3 baked sweet potatoes I added an egg and 8 TBSP of Almond flour, and then rolled them in chopped walnuts. You might not need as much almond flour. I had cooked these potatoes with a lid to keep the moisture in, as hubby likes them that way. Now I am trying some with a little salt, pepper and cinnamon.
I don’t know what kind of food processor ya all have but mine turns my potato quarters into mashed even on pulse. Boy you can’t steam these to much. Knife point goes in about a half inch then stop.
Mine taste okay but melted together.
I think I need some more clear details with this recipe. For starters, how many minutes to steam the potatoes?? Mine ended up mashing in the food processor as well and I am a pretty good cook. Also does everyone know how many potatoes equal 3 cups off the top of their head? Because I sure don’t. And when you bake after frozen, how many minutes?