Mashed Sweet Potatoes
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.
Equipment
- Vegetable peeler
- Large pot with lid (I used a 3 ½ quart pot)
- Large Mixing Bowl
- Potato masher or electric mixer See notes
Ingredients
- 3 pounds sweet potatoes about 6 medium-sized sweet potatoes
- ¼ teaspoon salt plus a little extra
- 2 tablespoons butter melted, salted
- ½ cup milk use your milk of choice, I use 2%
- ¼ cup maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon parsley finely minced, optional garnish
Instructions
- 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.
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. You can use a stand mixer (Like a Kitchenaide), a hand mixer, a food processor or a potato masher, they all work for this recipe.
If you have an immersion blender (the large stick kind often used for blending soup,) you can blend the sweet potatoes in a large pot. I will usually steam the sweet potatoes, empty out the water, and then use my handheld stick immersion blender to blend them right in the pot at the holidays to save myself a mixing bowl.
Nutrition
Calories: 277kcal | Carbohydrates: 56g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 5g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Cholesterol: 12mg | Sodium: 265mg | Potassium: 821mg | Fiber: 7g | Sugar: 19g | Vitamin A: 32381IU | Vitamin C: 6mg | Calcium: 106mg | Iron: 1mg