Sweet potatoes, despite the name, are only distant cousins of the more popular potatoes. But if given a chance, you’ll love the flavors they offer just as much. They’re perfect for Thanksgiving dishes.
From casseroles to pies, sweet potatoes casually invade the Thanksgiving menu. They’re so versatile you can use them for sweet and savory appetizers, side dishes, main courses, and even desserts.
So, this is the sign to take advantage of the incredible flavor of these starchy crops. Use these sweet potato recipes to make the most impressive Thanksgiving sweet potatoes to serve at your holiday feast.
1. Sweet Potato Casserole with Marshmallow
The sweet potato casserole has a slight identity crisis. It’s a side dish, but it tastes more like a dessert. It often comes with a topping of toasted marshmallows, but some have streusel crumbs instead.
Whichever it is, though, this casserole always has the best flavors. It’s sweet and spice intertwined, with hints of brown sugar, cinnamon, paprika, pecans, and cayenne. The aroma and flavors give off a homey feel.
If you try this recipe, you’ll soon make this sweet potato casserole a Thanksgiving staple. You just can’t resist the creamy sweet potato mixture topped with gooey marshmallows.
2. Candied Sweet Potatoes
Candied sweet potatoes are a side dish that combines many flavors, like buttery, caramel, maple, vanilla, spices, and more. It’s incredibly rich yet easy to make. The texture is phenomenal, with soft insides and caramelized edges.
To make this recipe, you’ll slice sweet potatoes and then arrange them on a baking dish. Preheat oven as you make the sweet sauce, which makes all the difference for this dish.
The sweet sauce consists of unsalted butter, water, pure maple syrup, brown sugar, ground cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, vanilla extract, and orange zest. Pour over the sliced sweet potatoes, then bake.
3. Mashed Sweet Potatoes
Mashed potatoes are a Thanksgiving classic, but its cousin might want to compete with that. You can transform sweet potatoes into savory side dishes despite their inherent sweetness.
To do so, you’ll need fresh sweet potatoes, salt, green onions, chopped parsley, garlic cloves, sour cream, butter, black pepper, and extra-virgin olive oil. If you want, swap sour cream for Greek yogurt.
For a vegan version, use vegan sour cream and replace the butter with olive oil. The steps to making this dish are just like making regular mashed potatoes. Boil the sweet potatoes, mash, combine with other ingredients, then serve.
4. Sweet Potato Pumpkin Pie
Individually, sweet potatoes and pumpkins make fantastic Thanksgiving pies. Both are creamy, spiced desserts that deserve their places on the holiday table. Thus, it’s hard choosing from either of them.
With this great recipe, there’s no choosing – you get both! This sweet potato pumpkin pie offers so much flavor from the pumpkin, sweet potatoes, and spices. It’s also incredibly creamy and fluffy, much more than traditional pies.
To make this pie, you’ll need 100% pure canned pumpkin, mashed sweet potatoes, brown sugar, butter, ground spices, sweetened condensed milk, eggs, and pie shells. The spices are cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger.
5. Sweet Potato Cake
If there’s still a dessert slot on your Thanksgiving menu, consider that taken by this sweet potato cake recipe. It’s sweet, rich, and bursting with intense fall flavors. All these qualities make it the perfect holiday dessert.
This cake recipe calls for flour, baking powder, ground spices, salt, butter, oil, brown and white sugar, sweet potato puree, eggs, and vanilla. You’ll need three ground spices: cinnamon, nutmeg, and cardamom.
The spices and puree give this cake its fall profile. Build on those flavors by coating the cake with a cinnamon cream cheese frosting and topping it with candied pecans.
6. Sweet Potato Meringue Pie
Nothing is like that heavenly feeling you get when you dig into a fluffy and creamy pie. Give your dinner guests that luxurious experience with this sweet potato meringue pie.
This dessert is as enchanting as it looks: sweet, creamy, and light. It has three layers: crust, filling, and topping, all of which you’ll make from scratch. All components are full of flavors.
The crust isn’t a simple graham cracker crust – it has pecan halves, ginger, cinnamon, and brown sugar. The sweet potato filling also has a bold kick from bourbon. Meanwhile, the meringue has a toasted look and flavor.
7. Cranberry Sweet Potatoes
Cranberries and sweet potatoes are prominent holiday foods. But if you bring the two together in one baking dish? You have a phenomenal sweet treat that looks and tastes perfect.
This recipe for cranberry sweet potatoes introduces you to such impressive cuisine. It’s similar to candied sweet potatoes, but instead of a sweet sauce, you’ll glaze the crops with cranberry sauce.
Thus, you’ll need sweet potatoes, kosher salt, cranberry sauce and juice cocktail, butter, brown sugar, orange zest, cinnamon, and cloves. Top the finished dish with a cranberry topping made from dried berries and juice.
8. Sweet Potato Salad
As I’ve said, sweet potatoes are versatile. So far, the recipes above make savory side dishes, sweet desserts, and creamy pies out of these root crops. Now, you’ll make a sweet AND savory salad.
This salad is full of flavor, color, and texture. It’s fresh and healthy, and the ingredients come together so you can discern the individual tastes without them clashing with each other.
That’s impressive because much goes into the large bowl of this salad. There are sweet potatoes, baby arugula, shallot, dried fruits, pepitas, and feta/goat cheese. All those you’ll toss in a honey mustard dressing.
9. Maple Roasted Sweet Potatoes
Roasted sweet potatoes are usually components of other dishes, like a salad. However, they’re good food by themselves, especially when flavored. One such case is this maple-roasted sweet potato recipe.
To roast the potatoes, you must cube them and coat them with olive oil and salt. Place in a baking dish, then load into a preheated oven. While they roast, make the maple cinnamon mixture that will serve as the second coating.
Drizzle the maple cinnamon mixture over the roasted potatoes, then return to the oven until crispy. Place in a large bowl, then garnish with candied pecans and walnuts.
10. Scalloped Sweet Potatoes
Scalloped sweet potatoes look gorgeous. The golden color and well-defined slices are just a few of the impeccable things about it. Besides looks, the flavors are impressive, rich, and cheesy.
You’ll need sweet potatoes, butter, garlic cloves, flour, parmesan cheese, whole milk, heavy whipping cream, sea salt, black pepper, and Colby Jack cheese. To achieve that mesmerizing spiral pattern, you must slice the sweet potatoes into thin, even circles.
Although this recipe recommends Colby Jack, you can use other cheeses like Monterey Jack or Mexican Four Cheese. Add fresh herbs (rosemary or thyme) if you want more flavor.
10 Easy Sweet Potato Recipes for Thanksgiving
Fill your Thanksgiving feast with the goodness of these sweet potato recipes.
Ingredients
Sweet Potato Casserole with Marshmallow
Candied Sweet Potatoes
Mashed Sweet Potatoes
Sweet Potato Pumpkin Pie
Sweet Potato Cake
Sweet Potato Meringue Pie
Cranberry Sweet Potatoes
Sweet Potato Salad
Maple Roasted Sweet Potatoes
Scalloped Sweet Potatoes
Directions
- Select your favorite recipe.
- Organize all the required ingredients.
- Prep a sweet potato recipe for Thanksgiving in 30 minutes or less!