If you love the sweet potato casserole that makes its appearance on Thanksgiving and is topped with bubbling marshmallows and an almost equal sugar to sweet potato ratio, then you may be surprised at the sweet potato’s versatility.

This is a SAVORY side dish. It still has a sweet taste (due to the sweetness of sweet potatoes) but by and by it is savory. No maple syrup. No sugar. No marshmallows.

Jeremy and I have been tweaking this recipe since I can remember. But we finally found it. And we make it at least once a week.

Also, bonus! A sweet potato is loaded with Vitamin C. It is also high in Vitamin A and beta-carotene which is like super food to your skin. Beta-carotene has been linked to fighting the free radicals in our skin which result in aging. The sweet potato is very VERY good to us.

Let’s mash!

Savory Mashed Sweet Potato Recipe

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and grab a baking sheet. Cover the baking sheet with tinfoil (for easy clean-up). (UPDATE: instructions for how to cook these in an Instant Pot are in the recipe card below!)

Grab two sweet potatoes and scrub them. Then lay them on the baking sheet.

Bake them for 45 minutes. After 45 minutes check them to see if they are oozing juice onto the baking sheet. If they are, they’re done! If not, keep them in there for about 10-15 more minutes.

When they come out let them cool for a little bit.

While they are cooling add 2 cloves of minced garlic and 1 tablespoon of olive oil to a small sauté pan. Sauté the garlic on medium-low heat until it starts to slightly brown and you can smell it! This will take about 3-5 minutes.

We call this liquid gold in our house. Because, I mean…

Remove the pan from the heat and set aside.

Meanwhile, remove the skin from the potato. It should peel right off, like so:

There are a variety of ways you can mash these. You can add them to your mixer  or use a handheld mixer to whip them up. You can add them to a bowl and use a masher. Or, one of our favorites (which gets them really creamy and smooth), is to use a food mill (and to all you who asked, this is our FAVORITE food mill —> here. We’ve been using it for years!)

Mash or mix until you reach your level of consistency.

Now it is time to add THE SECRET INGREDIENT!!!

1 tablespoon of FRESH thyme. The thyme is really what brings in a complexity of flavor and adds that savory taste to these mashers. It is so yummy.

Then add 1 teaspoon of salt, 1/4 teaspoon of pepper, 3 tablespoons of butter and the garlic and oil from the sauté pan.

Give it a good mix. Taste and add more salt or pepper if needed. Or, if you want a bit of heat add 1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes.

Serve warm.

We like to serve these with just about anything. Chicken, steak, the best pot roast recipe (all of which we made this past weekend!).

Your body will thank you because you got some nutrition in AND these are paleo 🙂

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