This simple savory mashed sweet potato makes a lovely vibrant side dish.
I show you how to make it from scratch with or without a blender.
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Tools to mash potatoes
You can mash your sweet potatoes with various kitchen tools.
- potato masher - the best and most straightforward way to do that. I use this tool most of the time.
- fork - if you don't have a masher, use a fork. More tedious but it can be done.
- blender/hand blender - faster and most effortless solution but the potatoes turn to a puree and it will get gooey. Don't over blend if that's your choice of tool!
How to make mashed sweet potatoes?
Here is how you can prepare mashed sweet potatoes, the fastest and most straightforward way.
This is a process overview, so that you get the picture. The complete recipe is located in the printable recipe card at the bottom of this post.
The video is the pop up. If you close it by accident, refresh the page.
Step 1
Wash and scrub potatoes to get rid of mud.
Peel sweet potatoes and cut into chunks.
Step 2
Boil potatoes with salt water until soft and cooked through. Strain when done.
Step 3
Place potatoes back into pot with milk, butter and seasoning.
Mash them to the desired consistency. Serve up.
Flavor Ideas and Variations
The base recipe is already low carb and diabetic friendly. It's a healthy savory sweet potato mash.
You can add and switch up some ingredients to make the mashed sweet potato to your liking.
You can make your sweet potato mash...
- Vegan - use coconut milk instead of cow milk and vegetable oil instead of butter
- Sweet - add honey, maple syrup, brown sugar, and some cinnamon
- Baby friendly puree - prepare it the same way but skip the butter and black pepper. Reduce the salt.
- Creamy - add more butter and switch the milk with table cream
- Spicy - sprinkle some seasoning in such as chili pepper, oregano, Italian seasoning or garlic powder.
Serving
Normally savory mashed sweet potato makes a great holiday side dish. Serve it up for Thanksgiving, Christmas, or even Easter.
It goes well with a roasted bird, lamb chops and baked salmon.
I love a mashed sweet potato with a fried egg. This is my lazy night time tv meal. My husband, Paul, likes to add some bacon too.
Storing & Leftover Uses
Store leftovers in air tight containers in your fridge. They keep well for at least 5 days.
You can freeze your potato mash in batches. That way you can take them out and thaw in the fridge over night before you heat them up again to eat.
That's also useful because oyu can use sweet potato mash leftovers the same way you would use classic mashed potatoes.
I have used it in shepherd's pie, regular pies, lasagna, to make latkes, hash and in enchiladas.
FAQs
Whole unpeeled raw sweet potatoes don't have a uniform size so they can take somewhere from 20-40 minutes to boil through. I recommend you peel and cut your sweet potatoes in chunks. The smaller you cut them the faster they will cook through. In average sweet potatoes take 20 minutes to cook through if peeled and cut small.
Some sweet potato varieties can be stringy. This can also occur when potatoes had a tough season to grow smooth and nice. If you are having stringy boiled sweet potatoes, cook them further down and bend them smooth with a food processor or hand blender.
More Mashed Veggies
Please feel free to share your thoughts and ideas with us in the comment section further below!
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📖 Recipe
Mashed Sweet Potato Recipe
Ingredients
To cook sweet potatoes
- 2.2 pounds Sweet Potatoes
- Water to cover
- Salt
To mash
- 1 cup Milk
- 2-3 Tablespoon Butter
- ½ Teaspoon Salt
- ½ Teaspoon Black Pepper
Instructions
- Wash and scrub sweet potatoes from mud if there is any. Peel potatoes and cut off the ends if necessary.
- Cut sweet potatoes into quarters and cut into smaller chunks. The smaller you cut them the faster they will cook through.
- Keep a pot on the fire with the sweet potato chunks and cover with water and add some salt.
- Boil potatoes until cooked through soft.
- Strain potatoes and keep the potatoes back in the pot from earlier. Place over the stove on a minimum heat setting so that nothing sticks in the pot.
- Add butter, milk, salt, and black pepper to the potatoes.
- Mash the sweet potatoes over the loved heat setting to the desired texture.
- Take from the heat and serve up hot with some extra tbs butter if you like.
Thank you for sharing this recipe...
so easy and good. I made it with
cinnamon, butter and brown sugar.
Everyone LOVED it!! Kathy
Awesome Kathy, it sounds delicious! Thanks for sharing. 🙂