Air Fryer Sweet Potato Cubes

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.

How To Make Air Fryer Sweet Potato Cubes

It’s super easy to make cubes of sweet potatoes in the air fryer with minimal ingredients.

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
• Salt and Pepper
• Garlic Powder
• Cumin
• Onion Powder

Cutting Sweet Potatoes Into 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.

Peeling

Peel off the sweet potatoes on a chopping board. Compost the skin.

Rinse the peeled sweet potatoes under cold tap water.

Cutting Lengthwise

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.

Cutting Strips

Now, place each slice on the chopping board and slice them into long 1/2-inch sticks.

Making Cubes

Finally, slice all the sweet potato sticks into 1/2-inch cubes.

Coating

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.

Air-Frying

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 as long as you:

• Shake the basket every 3 to 4 minutes after 10 minutes of cooking.
• Keep air frying until they pass the color test.

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.

Large batch

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.

Serving Sauce

Sweet potato cubes are delicious dipped in sauce like:

• Cucumber Dip
• Vegan Spinach Artichoke Dip 
• Tomato Sauce
• Aioli

Frequently Asked Questions

Below are your most frequent questions about this recipe:

Do I Have To Add Spices?

No, you can air fry the cubes with oil only.

All the spices are optional and only here to add a boost of flavor.

Can I Use This Recipe To Make Air Fryer Sweet Potato Fries?

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.

Do I Have To Preheat The Air Fryer?

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.

Can I Protect The Basket With Parchment Paper?

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.

Are The Cubes Very Crispy?

Orange sweet potatoes never crisp as much as potatoes because they contain less starch.

However, if served just after air frying, they do have a pretty decent crisp, higher than roasted sweet potato cubes.

Can I Make Cinnamon Sweet Potato Cubes?

Absolutely! If you don’t like savory sweet potatoes, you can make them sweet.

Combine brown sugar and cinnamon in a small mixing bowl, sprinkle it on the sweet potatoes, and toss them for a few seconds.

You can also add a touch of maple syrup for an even sweeter taste.

What Are The Best Sweet Potatoes For Roasting?

Hannah sweet potatoes are the best variety for roasting and air-frying. They have a light color and rich flesh when cooked.