Can You Reheat Sweet Potatoes – The Best Way

Sweet potatoes. You either love them or hate them. We happen to absolutely adore sweet potatoes in any form! Mashed, baked, fried…you name it.

Sweet potatoes are considered a healthy alternative to regular potatoes, and they also have an earthy, sweet flavor that’s incredibly versatile. Some people only think about sweet potatoes during Thanksgiving, when it’s common to combine sweet potatoes with marshmallow fluff to create a dessert-like side dish.

But we want you to know that there are so many more delicious ways to use your sweet potatoes! So, no matter how you cook them, once you’ve enjoyed all that you can manage to fit in your belly, how do you properly store and then reheat them?

Can you reheat sweet potatoes? The best way to reheat sweet potatoes is in the oven or an air fryer, depending on how they were originally cooked.

Reheating sweet potatoes in the oven is the most widely accessible and convenient way to reheat individual sweet potatoes or any dish containing sweet potatoes. We recommend pre-heating the oven to 400 degrees F and reheating the sweet potatoes for 10-15 minutes.

Keep reading to learn how to reheat sweet potatoes properly. We’ll show you how to reheat pretty much every type of sweet potato dish. We hope you find this helpful and enjoyable!

Reheat Sweet Potatoes – The Ultimate Guide

Since there are so many ways to cook sweet potatoes, we’re going to break down this list into specific types of cooked sweet potatoes so you know exactly how to reheat them without sacrificing texture and flavor.

But first, we’re going to talk about how to properly store cooked sweet potatoes so that you can get to the reheating portion without anything getting in your way (like mold from cooling your sweet potato too slowly—yes, that can happen!)

Cooling and Storing Sweet Potatoes

Okay, so you have made some sweet potatoes, eaten your fill, and now you’re looking for a way to cool them so that they keep their texture—crispy, fluffy, soft—depending on how you cooked them.

You’re going to need good storage containers. I’ve had this set from Amazon for years and I’m obsessed with it. They’re airtight and fridge, freezer, and microwave-safe.

Storing Fried Potatoes (aka Sweet Potato Fries)

For crispy sweet potatoes, such as sweet potato fries, you’ll want to give them enough time to cool down so that there won’t be any condensation on the fries when they cool down in the fridge or freezer.

Condensation in the freezer equals freezer burn, which will not only dull the color of your food but also change the flavor, and not in a good way.

If you stick them into the fridge while they’re hot, they’ll turn into soggy slices of sadness instead of the delicious crispy-on-the-outside fluffy-on-the-inside fries that we all crave from time to time (or all the time, if we’re being honest).

Storing Steamed or Baked Sweet Potatoes

For steamed or baked sweet potatoes, you can feel free to stick those directly into the fridge immediately.

You want to quick-cool your sweet potatoes, and placing them directly into the fridge will allow them to cool down quickly.

Interestingly, because a whole potato takes longer to cool down than say, sweet potato fries, they have a greater chance at developing mold in the inside.

This is why it’s important to immediately put sweet potatoes in the fridge (unless you’re planning on eating them, of course), instead of leaving them out on the counter to cool.

Make sure to allow your whole sweet potato to cool completely in the fridge before sticking it in the freezer to avoid freezer burn.

Storing Sauteed (or Any Type of Chopped Sweet Potatoes)

The important distinction here between sauteed sweet potatoes and baked or steamed sweet potatoes is that sauteed sweet potatoes have usually been chopped up into smaller pieces, so it’s not really the cooking method that matters here as much as the size of the potato pieces.

As we mentioned before, whole potatoes take quite a long time to fully cool, making them the perfect breeding ground for mold and bacteria.

Sauteed sweet potatoes, on the other hand, are small enough that they will cool fast enough before mold starts to grow. This is not to say that you can just leave them on the counter all day, but you can cool them on the countertop and put them directly into the freezer if you want, and skip the fridge step.

Storing Mashed Sweet Potatoes

Mashed sweet potatoes cool down quite easily if given a few stirs once in a while to allow hot air to escape.

If you freeze mashed sweet potatoes, you might sacrifice the consistency and texture, so it’s best to store mashed sweet potatoes in the fridge for a day or two and eat them for lunch or dinner the next day. Just be sure you use a good airtight storage container.

Reheating Sweet Potatoes – The Best Way

Okay, so now you know how to safely cool and store your sweet potatoes. Now it’s time to talk about the question of the day—how to reheat sweet potatoes!

We will follow our trend and address reheating sweet potatoes in the same way we talked about cooling and storing them. Starting with our favorite, sweet potato fries!

Reheating Fried Sweet Potatoes

The best way to reheat sweet potato fries is by baking them in the oven at 400 degrees 5 for 10-15 minutes. This will help them retain their crispy outside texture and soft and fluffy center.

The best part is that you can take them right out of the freezer and put them directly into your preheated oven!

How to reheat frozen sweet potato fries in the oven:

• Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.
• Take your frozen sweet potato fries out of the freezer.
• Line them on a baking sheet lined with baking liner (like this liner from Dioro) (make sure there is enough space in between each fry so that they can crisp properly).
• Bake sweet potato fries for 10-15 minutes, until hot.
• Enjoy your crispy and delicious sweet potato fries!

Another great way to reheat sweet potato fries is in an air fryer (like our favorite from Amazon.)

This will essentially give you the same results as baking them, but you have to make sure that you don’t overfill your air fryer or the fries won’t crisp properly.

You may need to reheat fries in smaller batches in order to get the best results.

This is why we recommend baking them in the oven—you are more likely to be able to reheat them all at once, saving time and saliva as you drool over these delicious savory-sweet slices of starch.

Reheating Steamed or Baked Sweet Potatoes

Again, the oven is the winner when it comes to reheating baked or steamed sweet potatoes.

To reheat frozen whole baked or steamed sweet potatoes in the oven:

• Follow the same steps as the fries, but you’ll need to leave them in the oven for much longer, up to one hour.
• If you are reheating smaller sweet potatoes, go ahead and check them after 30-45 minutes, just to be safe. Larger sweet potatoes will take longer to reheat.

Reheating Sauteed Sweet Potatoes

We personally love adding sauteed sweet potatoes to new dishes, such as soups and stews.

However, if you want to reheat them on their own, you can bake them similar to how you baked the sweet potato fries, or you can sautee them again.

How to reheat sauteed sweet potatoes:

• You’ll want to sautee them the same way that you did to start, adding oil to your pan on medium heat and sauteeing until hot.
• One thing to be wary of is that it’s possible for your sweet potatoes to disintegrate a bit inside the pan since they are pre-cooked and once warm, will already be soft and more likely to turn mushy.
  • If you have your burner on high enough heat (but no higher than medium-high depending on the smoke point of the oil you’re using), you should be able to avoid this problem—just be sure you don’t burn them!

Reheating Mashed Sweet Potatoes

Mashed sweet potatoes require a little more work in order to reheat, especially if you’ve frozen them. Hopefully, you didn’t freeze them due to our recommendations earlier, but if you did, you can still salvage your mash!

To reheat mashed sweet potatoes, the microwave is actually your best bet. Here’s how:

• Place the mashed sweet potatoes into a microwave-safe bowl.
• Microwave on high heat for 1 minute, and then in additional 30-second increments until warmed thoroughly.
• Thanks to the properties of the high-heating component of the microwave, it should keep your mash relatively intact when reheating.

You can also reheat your mashed potatoes in the oven and make a sweet potato mash bake with a crispy top.

If you want to learn how to fry mashed sweet potatoes, read our detailed article about frying mashed potatoes.

Related Questions

Now you know how to reheat sweet potatoes of all kinds! Fried, baked, steamed, sauteed, or mashed, you are now equipped to properly reheat your sweet potato so that you can enjoy its savory-sweet flavor.

You may have some additional questions, so we hope to answer anything else you may be wondering in our related questions section.

What Is the Difference Between Yams and Sweet Potatoes?

Fun Fact: the “yams” you buy at the grocery store are actually orange-fleshed sweet potatoes! It’s less common to find yams at your local grocery store if you live in the States.

A yam actually has a starchy, less sweet inside with an exterior that resembles bark. It is a root vegetable that originates in the Caribbean and is very low in beta carotene, which is found in large amounts in sweet potatoes, especially the orange variety!

Sweet potatoes are commonly grown in the States and are much sweeter than yams. They are what you commonly see in the store falsely labeled as “yams.”

Both root vegetables are incredibly nutritious but are ultimately completely different vegetables!

What if My Sweet Potato Is Mixed into a Dish, Like Curry or Rice?

If your sweet potato is mixed into another dish, don’t worry, just reheat the dish as you normally would.

For example, if you’re reheating sweet potato chili in a pot on the stovetop, just make sure it’s heated thoroughly and that you stir it every so often to keep the bottom portion from overcooking.

Can I Store Reheated Sweet Potatoes?

We wouldn’t recommend it. Like any food that has been cooked, cooled, and reheated, it’s best to just reheat once and consume all of it in one go.

If you don’t think you can eat it all in one sitting, only reheat the portion that you will be able to consume to avoid wasting food.