These Air Fryer Sweet Potato Cubes are crispy, slightly sweet, and perfect as a side dish or light dinner. Plus, these sweet potato cubes in the air fryer require a minimal amount of oil, so they are healthier for you.
While I love Air-Fryer Baked Sweet Potatoes and Air Fryer Sweet Potato Wedges, there is a faster way to enjoy sweet potatoes in the air fryer.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Cutting the sweet potato into cubes is a real game-changer for many reasons.
- Faster to air fry
- Super crispy
- Sweet as they caramelized on the sides
- Easy finger foods for kids
Ingredients and Substitutions
It’s super easy to make cubes of sweet potatoes in the air fryer with minimal ingredients.
Plus, you can play with spices to create a range of flavors, so feel free to swap some of the below to use your favorite dried spices.
- Red-Skinned Sweet Potatoes – This variety of sweet potatoes is sweet and caramelized in the air fryer compared to purple-skin ones. So while you can absolutely use this air fryer sweet potato recipe for other sweet potato varieties, I tend to prefer the orange flesh sweet potatoes.
- Olive Oil or avocado oil.
- Paprika or Cayenne Pepper.
- Garlic Powder – or fresh crushed garlic.
- Cumin – for flavor
- Onion Powder – for flavor.
How To Make Air Fryer Sweet Potato Cubes
This is the most important part of this recipe.
To make the best cubes of sweet potato in the air fryer, I recommend two main things:
- Peeling The Skin – While the skin of sweet potatoes contains many nutrients, it doesn’t give the best texture to air-fried sweet potato cubes, especially if you have picky eaters. They won’t like the skin because it won’t crisp as much as in an air fryer potato wedge.
- Cutting Into 1/2-Inch Cubes or so but not too small or the flesh of the cubes dry out so much that the cubes end up ’empty’ and dry.
- Peel off the sweet potatoes on a chopping board. Compost the skin.
- Rinse the peeled sweet potatoes under cold tap water.
- Place the sweet potatoes on the side and slice them into 1/2-inch lengthwise slices. If your sweet potatoes are very long, halve them first, then place the cut side on the chopping board to slice the sweet potatoes.
- Place each slice on the chopping board and slice them into long 1/2-inch sticks.
- Finally, slice all the sweet potato sticks into 1/2-inch cubes.
- Place the air fryer sweet potato chunks in a large bowl.
- Drizzle olive oil and spices on top. Use a spoon or your hands to stir and coat each cube with the olive oil mixture.
- Place the cubes in an (almost) single layer on the air fryer basket and air fry at 400°F (200°C) for 15 to 18 minutes, shaking halfway. Note that even if they overlap in the basket, the sweet potato cubes will cook well.
- Shake the basket every 3 to 4 minutes after 10 minutes of cooking.
- Keep air frying until they pass the color test: Stop the air fryer when the sweet potato cubes are golden and brown on the outside. If you insert a knife or toothpick into the cubes, it should easily go through them with their crispy exterior and tender interior.
Serving
Roasted Sweet Potatoes are the perfect side dish to any meal. Serve the warm sweet potato cubes with a:
- Pinch of salt
- Extra ground black pepper for a stronger taste
- Fresh chopped herbs like chopped parsley or scallion.
You can serve these sweet potato cubes as a side dish or light dinner or on a salad like in a quinoa spinach salad. If you are air frying a large batch, or your basket can’t handle all the cubes at once in a single layer, I recommend:
- Preheating the oven to 300°F (150°C).
- Placing the air-fried cubes in an oven-safe baking pan.
- Keeping them in the oven until the remaining cubes are air fried.
Sweet potato cubes are delicious dipped in sauce like:
- Cucumber Dip
- Tomato Sauce
- Aioli
Storage Instructions
Once roasted, these air fryer sweet potato cubes can be stored in the fridge in an airtight container for up to one week. Rewarm them in the air fryer for a couple of minutes or on a hot frying pan. You can also freeze leftovers and keep them in the freezer in a sealed box for up to two months.
Frequently Asked Questions
Below are your most frequent questions about this recipe:
No, you can air fry the cubes with oil only.
All the spices are optional and only here to add a boost of flavor.
Yes, but cut the sweet potatoes into fries shapes and make sure they don’t overlap in the basket, or they won’t crisp as much.
No, I never preheat mine because I prefer to add the vegetable into a cold basket to avoid burning myself.
Preheating air frying doesn’t impact the air frying time very much, as an air fryer reaches its set temperature pretty instantly compared to an oven.
Yes, you can add parchment paper to the air fryer, but I won’t recommend adding any for this recipe, or the sweet potato cubes will not crisp well.
More Sweet Potato Recipes
Below are more sweet potato recipes for you to try:
More Air Fryer Recipes
If you love your air fryer, try some of my most popular air fryer recipes:
Like This Recipe?
Leave a comment below or head to our Facebook page for tips, our Instagram page for inspiration, our Pinterest for saving recipes, and Flipboard to get all the new ones!
Air Fryer Sweet Potato Cubes
Ingredients
- 2 pounds Sweet Potato - about 3 large red skinned sweet potatoes
- 2 tablespoons Olive Oil
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- ½ teaspoon Garlic Powder
- ½ teaspoon Paprika
- ¼ teaspoon Ground Cumin
- ½ teaspoon Onion Powder
Instructions
- Before you start, scroll up to watch my pictures on how to cut perfect sweet potato cubes.
- Peel the sweet potatoes then cut them lengthwise into thick slices. In one medium sweet potato, I get 3 slices.
- Cut each slice into 1/2-inch sticks then cut the stick into 1/2-inch cubes.
- Place the cubes in a large mixing bowl.
- Drizzle olive oil and spices over the sweet potato cubes.
- Toss with a spoon to evenly coat the cubes with the olive oil mixture.
- Place the cubes in the air fryer basket in a single layer (no need to preheat the air fryer).
- Air fry at 400°F (200°C) for 15-18 minutes shaking the basket halfway. Stop when the cubes looks puffed and they have a lightly golden brown color.
Serving/Large batch
- Serve immediately with a pinch of salt and freshly chopped herbs like Italian parsley or scallions.
- For large batch, preheat oven to 300°F (150°C) and place the cooked sweet potato cubes in a oven-safe pan and keep them warm in the oven while air frying remaining batch store.
Could I use yams instead of sweet potatoes? I bought yams because they were much cheaper than sweet potatoes. Thank you.
I guess but I didn’t try air frying yams before so I am not sure how it will impact the air frying time.
Simple and tasty, just the type of recipes I like. Thank you.