So much more than a pie filling, sweet potatoes are incredibly versatile and delicious. From the Japanese candied daigaku imo to West African peanut stew, sweet potato recipes run aplenty. This sweet potato mash recipe is super easy, and the best way to quickly use up those taters sitting in the back of your pantry.
I find sweet potato mash to be a good substitute for regular mashed potatoes if you are going for a good steak side dish. It also makes a good Thanksgiving side, although not nearly as popular as the ubiquitous Green Bean Casserole. However due to the lightness and sweetness, you can use this mash in recipes where the regular counterpart doesn’t work, like on a crostini for example.
How To Make Sweet Potato Mash
There are only a few ingredients to make the best mashed sweet potatoes ever. And I promise you people will be asking for the recipe. Of course everyone can guess butter, salt, and pepper. But the mustard and sour cream and so much extra richness!
Best Mashed Sweet Potato Ingredients
- 2 large Sweet Potatoes – try to get red skinned/orange flesh sweet potatoes. The African yellow sweet potatoes are more dense, and the Asian sweet potatoes are too sweet (in my opinion). The standard American sweet potato works best for the mash.
- 2 tbsp Butter
- 1 tsp Black Pepper – freshly cracked
- 2 tbsp Sour Cream – as you can see in the photo I used smetana which is an Eastern European type of sour cream which is a bit richer than standard American sour cream due to the higher milkfat content. If you can’t find smetana then regular sour cream will work fine.
- 1 tsp Dijon Mustard – I love the kick a good Dijon mustard adds to any mashed potato recipe, and it definitely works well with sweet potatoes.
- Salt – for the water
The first thing to do is to peel and cube your sweet potatoes. This will help them boil faster. Add all the pieces to a pot and then add enough water to cover them. Add enough salt to equal 3% of the solution. For example I used about 1 liter of water, so added two tablespoons of salt.
Boil the sweet potatoes in the salty water until the pieces are soft, about 20 minutes. Then drain all the water and add in the rest of your ingredients. There is no need to add extra salt since the sweet potato pieces will have absorbed enough from the boiling water.
Give everything a good mash until rich and creamy. Of course, don’t forget to taste test as you work. This will tell you if you should adjust and add more of any ingredient. I recently bought my very ergonomic Joseph Joseph potato masher and I’m absolutely in love with it.
In fact, you can even copy the French whipped potatoes method and toss everything into your stand mixer. Just use the whisk attachment and whip everything quickly. By nature alone sweet potatoes do not get as gluey as regular potatoes, so you don’t even risk the chance of overwhipping. How easy does that sound?
Plate your sweet potato mash in a serving dish and garnish with a few sliced green onions for a good color contrast. Enjoy!
Sweet Potato Mash
Equipment
- 1 Pot
- 1 Potato Masher
Ingredients
- 2 large Sweet Potatoes try to get red skinned/orange flesh sweet potatoes. The African yellow sweet potatoes are more dense and the Asian sweet potatoes are too sweet (in my opinion). The standard American sweet potato works best for the mash.
- 2 tbsp Butter
- 1 tsp Black Pepper freshly cracked
- 2 tbsp Sour Cream as you can see in the photo I used smetana which is an Eastern European type of sour cream which is a bit richer than standard American sour cream due to the higher milkfat content. If you can't find smetana then regular sour cream will work fine.
- 1 tsp Dijon Mustard I love the kick a good Dijon mustard adds to any mashed potato recipe and it definitely works well with sweet potatoes.
- Salt for the water
Instructions
- Peel and cube the sweet potatoes and place them in a pot. Add enough water to just cover them. Then add salt equivalent to 3% of the water weight. For example if you use 1 liter of water use two tablespoons of salt.
- Boil the sweet potatoes until soft, about 20 minutes.
- Drain the potatoes and add the rest of the ingredients. Mash everything up until nice and creamy. Plate and garnish with some green onion or whatever you feel like. Enjoy!
