Smooth and creamy, these easy mashed sweet potatoes are the perfect side for your meal. These sweet potatoes are a family favorite holiday recipe for Thanksgiving or Christmas, but are light enough that they make a great weeknight side too.
Rinse and scrub sweet potatoes well. Peel all of the potatoes and cut into roughly 1-2 inch cubes. The exact number of pieces isn’t important, just try to keep all of the potato pieces about the same size so they steam evenly.
Place a steamer basket inside a large pot. Add water to the bottom of the pot until it comes up just to the bottom of the steamer basket, but not over the sweet potatoes. Add a good pinch of salt to the water. Add the sweet potato cubes to the top of the basket.
Cover the pot with a lid. Heat the water on medium-high until it starts bubbling. Then steam the sweet potatoes for 20-30 minutes. To check if they are done, pierce one of the pieces of sweet potato with a fork to make sure it’s tender all the way through.
Remove the sweet potatoes to a large bowl. Add butter, milk, ¼ teaspoon of salt and maple syrup. Whip with the beaters of an electric mixer until smooth or mash with a potato masher. Then serve and enjoy!
Notes
To make these sweet potatoes taste a little richer, you can double the amount of butter you add. Also swapping cream for milk will make these sweet potatoes taste richer.
If your sweet potatoes aren’t smooth enough, add up to another ¼ cup of milk and keep blending until they are your desired texture.
You can make this recipe dairy-free and vegan by using dairy-free butter (my favorite is Earth Balance) and swapping coconut milk for the milk. Coconut milk is one of the creamiest alternative milk and will make your potatoes feel richer than most other dairy-free substitutes.
An electric hand mixer also whips the potatoes a little more and makes them a little more creamy in texture than a potato masher does.
If you have an immersion blender, you drain the water and continue mixing these sweet potatoes upright in the pot with the other ingredients.