Spicy Mashed Sweet Potatoes

These Spicy Mashed Sweet Potatoes are an excellent side dish – sweet, savoury, and spicy they are a delicious accompaniment to your favourite protein. Made with regular or vegan butter they will satisfy any diet.

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I have to confess. I don’t like sweet potatoes. I feel like I should. You can’t really be a foodie and not like sweet potatoes, right?

They are delicious, nutritious, healthy, pretty and are a food photographer and food stylist dream – great to add colour and dimension to photographs. I used to dice and roast them with some olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic cloves.

They turned out fine. Perfectly tender with crisp golden edges. Yet, I just couldn’t get on board. No matter how many times I tried to love sweet potatoes I just couldn’t. Until now.

A couple of weeks ago I started giving solids to my baby and one of the foods I decided to try was sweet potatoes. So, I bought one large potato and went on pinterest to check how to perfectly bake it.

I found an article with 5 tips for baking the perfect sweet potato from Healing Tomato. I followed some of the tips, adjusted the baking temperature to my oven (I seriously have no idea how sweet potatoes could be baked in 25 minutes, last time it took 1.5 hours) and got a delicious baked sweet potato.

Finally I knew what people were talking about. I scooped some of the sweet fluffy flesh into containers for the baby (who, by the way, hated sweet potatoes), added some cayenne pepper, chili powder, salt and a bit of butter to the rest. It was heavenly!

I love food. I love all kinds of food. I cook all the time. Yet, Spicy Mashed Sweet Potatoes were some of the most delicious food I ate in the past few weeks. I made them again and again.

Edit: After making this recipe five (maybe more) times over the past few weeks I now like all kinds of sweet potatoes, even not spicy and mashed. For example, check out my Sheet Pan Full Breakfast where I use sweet potatoes in a delicious hash.

If you like this Spicy Mashed Sweet Potatoes Recipe, then you must purchase my cookbook, The Ultimate One-Pan Oven Cookbook, I have another delicious Sweet Potato Mash recipe there.

How to make Spicy Mashed Sweet Potatoes

These Spicy Mashed Sweet Potatoes are super easy to make. They take a long time baking in my oven, but there’s less than 5 minutes of hands-on cooking, so they are a perfect mom recipe.

1. First, potatoes need to be washed, dried, lightly pierced with a fork all over.
2. Then I wrap each potato in foil and place in a roasting pan (otherwise they leak on occasion).
3. Bake in the oven at 400F until they are super soft.
   • Two large sweet potatoes that I used for the pictures took about 1.5 hours in my oven but all ovens are different so check after 30 minutes to see.
4. Once the sweet potatoes are baked to perfection take them out of the oven, unwrap and slice in half lengthwise.
5. Scoop out the tender flesh into a bowl (be careful not to burn fingers).
6. Add spices and some butter – vegan or regular, both would work but I highly recommend not skipping it.
7. Mash and mix with a fork and enjoy!

These Spicy Mashed Sweet Potatoes are sweet, savoury, and spicy. They are a delicious accompaniment to your favourite protein or just on their own with some toast as a quick lunch.

Don’t forget to watch the video!

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5 from 3 votes

Spicy Mashed Sweet Potatoes

These Spicy Mashed Sweet Potatoes are an excellent side dish - sweet, savoury, and spicy they are a delicious accompaniment to your favourite protein. Made with regular or vegan butter they will satisfy any diet | Imagelicious

Course Side Dish

Cuisine American, Vegetarian

Keyword sweet potatoes

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time 1 hour hour 30 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour 35 minutes minutes

Servings 2

Calories 54kcal

Author Julia

Ingredients

• 2 large sweet potatoes
• 1 tablespoon butter (vegan or regular)
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• black pepper and extra salt to taste

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 400F.
• Wash and dry sweet potatoes.
• Poke holes with a fork all over the potatoes.
• Wrap loosely in foil, place in a roasting pan and bake until potatoes are very soft. Depending on your oven it could take between 30 minutes to 1.5 hours. 
• Once potatoes are cooked very soft, take them out of the oven, unwrap them and slice in half lengthwise.
• Carefully so that not to burn fingers scoop out the flesh with a spoon into a bowl.
• Add butter, all the spices, mix and mash with a fork.
• Add more salt and pepper to taste and serve.

Video

Notes

• To make these Spicy Mashed Sweet Potatoes still have a kick but less spicy adjust the seasoning. You could use 1/4 teaspoon of chili powder and cayenne pepper each.
• You don't need to use butter but I highly recommend it as it adds a nice creaminess to the potatoes. Use either regular or vegan butter.
• As I mentioned earlier, baking time depends on your oven.

Nutrition

Calories: 54kcal | Fat: 5g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Cholesterol: 15mg | Sodium: 640mg | Vitamin A: 675IU

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