Savory Sweet Potato Casserole ♥

A Savory Sweet Potato Casserole, that's right, a sweet potato casserole without marshmallows! #AVeggieVenture
A savory sweet potato casserole, yes, that's right, a sweet potato casserole without marshmallows! Instead, the natural sweetness of sweet potatoes is mellowed with goat cheese and green chile salsa.

It's November at A Veggie Venture! That means the focus is adding new recipes to Favorite Recipes for Thanksgiving's Favorite Vegetables, a five-year collection of more than three dozen seasonal, delicious vegetable recipes perfect for Thanksgiving.

So we're turning orange around here. Our skin, our eyes, our lips, our teeth ... ... ... ... ... kidding! But if we are what we eat, then we are turning into sweet potatoes because I've made one savory sweet potato casserole recipe after another for the last couple of weeks. Because this is a classic concept recipe, mostly the casseroles have been variations on a theme:

Sweet potatoes cooked and then mashed with a fork, mixing in something creamy like goat cheese, ricotta cheese, even sour cream.
Then thinned with a little milk to create the light and fluffy texture that befits the richest and fluffiest mashed potatoes.
Then the flavors deepened or brightened or turned dark and savory with pantry ingredients.
Then turned into an oven-safe dish for heating through either right away or the next day.
Then sighing with satisfaction, the natural sweetness of the sweet potatoes plenty sweet enough without the addition of butter or cream or maple syrup or marshmallows or all the stuff we use to cover up the goodness, themselves, that are sweet potatoes.

The recipe that follows is one of two that I kept returning to. It shouts 'fall' to me and would be a wonderful contribution to a Thanksgiving table. That said, paired with a salad and an icy glass of Viognier one night, it was a most tasty vegetarian supper, too.

COMPLIMENTS!
"I made this for Thanksgiving dinner with sour cream ... and it was a huge hit!" ~ Lisa

RECIPE for SAVORY SWEET POTATO CASSEROLE

Hands-on time: 15 minutes
Time to table: 50 minutes
Serves 4, easily multipled

Water to cover
1 pound sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into equal-sized pieces

1/4 cup part-skim ricotta, low-fat sour cream or goat cheese
1/4 cup skim milk
Generous salt & pepper

1 tablespoon green chile salsa (or more, to taste)

Pepitas (hulled pumpkin seeds), for garnish, pretty but optional

Preheat oven to 350F.

Put the water on to boil, add the sweet potatoes as they're prepped, cover and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to maintain a fast simmer, let the sweet potatoes cook until soft, about 20 minutes. Drain and return to the cooking pot or a bowl. Mash the sweet potatoes with a fork (if you're making a bunch, a hand mixer will make the job go faster but for just a pound of sweet potatoes, it takes about a minute with a fork), add the goat cheese, ricotta or sour cream when they're partly mashed and finish mashing until quite smooth. Stir in the milk, salt and pepper and the green chile salsa. The potatoes will be quite cold at this point, so transfer the sweet potatoes to an oven-safe serving dish or to individual serving dishes. (Stop here if making ahead.) If you like, top with the pepitas and warm in the oven until hot-hot, about 15 minutes.

TO PREP AHEAD
DAY BEFORE Cook and mash the potatoes, transfer to a serving dish but don't add the pepitas or heat in the oven. Cover and refrigerate.
BEFORE DINNER Return the dish to room temperature. Bake at 350F for about 30 minutes or until hot clear through.

ALANNA's TIPS & KITCHEN NOTES
Watch for red-skinned sweet potatoes called Red Garnet. They are more perishable and more expensive than the tan-skinned sweet potatoes that are more common but the flesh is a bright-bright orange, slightly sweeter and less mealy.



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© Copyright Kitchen Parade 2010, 2014
Alanna Kellogg
Alanna Kellogg

A Veggie Venture is home of "veggie evangelist" Alanna Kellogg and the famous asparagus-to-zucchini Alphabet of Vegetables.

Comments

  1. I always have green salsa in the pantry, and I love the idea of this combination of flavors. Will try.

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  2. And I thought I was the only person who liked goat cheese with sweet potatoes. Yum.

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  3. This looks amazing. I can see why you are addicted to it, I would be too...

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  4. I've done sweet potatoes with onions and parmesan cheese and it's great as a savory. In fact, I don't think there's anything you can do wrong with a sweet potato.

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  5. Awww... another sweet potato recipe! Yay! I'm sure I'm going to try to cook it this coming weekend. Great!

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  6. Hi, I'm a long time fan of your blog but i can't remember if i've ever posted before.

    Anyway, just wanted to let you know I made this for Thanksgiving dinner today with rf sour cream (couldn't afford the goat cheese this year) and it was a huge hit!

    Thanks for a great recipe :)

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  7. I especially love the idea of using goat cheese with sweet potatoes!

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  10. For healthier eating I prefer sweet potatoes to regular potatoes and I have done this numerous times in different variations based on what I have on hand for cheese or sour cream. A favorite addition for us is a little chipotle chile in adobo added with chopped green chile which gives a wonderful smoky flavor to it all. Sweet potatoes are just about the only thing my husband wouldn't eat (his mother seriously over did the sugar and marshmallows) but he has learned to really like them when I cook them this way or as oven roasted wedges with mesquite seasoning. Thanks for showing me sweet potatoes can be done another way!

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Thank you for taking a moment to write! I read each and every comment, for each and every recipe, whether a current recipe or a long-ago favorite. If you have a specific question, it's nearly always answered quick-quick. ~ Alanna