Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Food & Drink

This sweet potato casserole recipe will steal the show at Thanksgiving

Level up your sweet potato game with a crunchy, nutty surprise

Lindsay Parrill
By
Pinch of Yum sweet potato casserole
Pinch of Yum

One of the beautiful things about so many Thanksgiving dishes is that, on any other day, for any other meal, they would be considered desserts. It’s kind of similar to the way cake has been masquerading as a breakfast food for years under the alias of “muffin.” Are people really buying it? For the sake of traditional Thanksgiving, foods, and the magic that is the wonderful holiday, we’ll play along. Just know that if you want to eat this sweet potato casserole as a dessert, that would make sense, too. Otherwise, pile it right next to the green bean casserole.

Unlike many traditional, sweet potato casserole recipes, this one leaves out the marshmallows. Blasphemy, you may cry! But hear us out. While we all love a sweetly toasted marshmallow, the salty crunch this topping provides will have the white fluff out of your mind in no time. This topping adds a gorgeously nutty texture to an otherwise strictly creamy sweet potato casserole dish, and we are here for it. The savory nuttiness from the pecans is also a welcome addition, adding a depth of flavor and interest to the traditional side.

Recommended Videos

So this year, mix it up with this easy and delicious sweet potato casserole with a brown sugar topping. (OK, for you traditionalists, we’ve also included a classic sweet potato casserole recipe — you’re welcome.)

Sweet potato casserole dish
Pinch of Yum

Sweet potato casserole with brown sugar topping

(From Pinch of Yum)

Related

Ingredients

Sweet potatoes:

  • 3 cups (1 29-ounce can) sweet potatoes, drained
  • 1/2 cup butter, melted
  • 1/3 cup milk
  • 3/4 cup cane sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • Salt, to taste

Topping:

  • 5 tablespoons butter, melted
  • 2/3 cup brown sugar
  • 2/3 cup flour
  • 1 cup pecan pieces

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Mash the sweet potatoes and add all the other sweet potato ingredients, stirring until incorporated. Pour the mixture into a shallow baking dish or a cast-iron skillet.
  2. To make the topping, combine the topping ingredients in a small bowl, using your fingers to create moist crumbs. Sprinkle over the casserole.
  3. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes, until the edges pull away from the sides of the pan and the top is golden brown.
  4. Let the mixture cool and solidify before serving.
Whole sweet potatoes.
chefkeem / Pixabay

Traditional sweet potato casserole

(From Eating Well)

We know some of you just have to have the traditional marshmallow-covered sweet potato casserole, and we won’t judge. Here’s a recipe that’s got you covered. This year, you could make both recipes and see which one is the favorite.

Ingredients

  • 2 1/2 pounds whole sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
  • 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup softened unsalted butter
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cut finely chopped pecans, divided
  • 2 cups miniature marshmallows (you could make your own)

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
  2. Place the sweet potato cubes into a Dutch oven and cover with water.
  3. Bring to a boil.
  4. When it’s boiling, reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes, or until the sweet potatoes are very tender.
  5. Drain and let the sweet potatoes cool slightly.
  6. Put the potatoes in a large bowl and add butter, sugar, salt, and vanilla.
  7. Smash the mixture with a potato masher.
  8. Fold in 1/4 cup pecans.
  9. Transfer the mixture to an 11-by-7 baking dish coated with cooking spray.
  10. Sprinkle with the remaining pecans and top with the marshmallows.
  11. Bake for 25 minutes, or until golden.
  12. Enjoy!

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Lindsay Parrill
Lindsay Parrill
Contributor
Lindsay is a graduate of California Culinary Academy, Le Cordon Bleu, San Francisco, from where she holds a degree in…
Forget avocado toast – why sweet potato toast is the best fall breakfast
This amazing fall breakfast is better than avocado toast (yeah, we said it)
Healthy sandwich on sweet potato for breakfast or snack

For those of us who are good little millennials, avocado toast is a sacred part of our morning routine. Something about our day just feels amiss if it's not started with our trusty trendy toast, scarfed on the go, rinsed down with our favorite morning brew.

This healthy breakfast has been getting us going for a while now, and you're not getting any complaints from us. But what if we told you that the latest trend in breakfast food could add a little fall flavor to your old routine, while still maintaining many of the best parts of your tried-and-true avocado-y favorite?

Read more
Your Thanksgiving meal by the calories (and how to burn them off)
Read this before the holiday and prepare to work off those extra calories
Thanksgiving dinner

According to the Calorie Control Council, we eat a ton on Thanksgiving — about 4,500 plus calories. Most of us look forward to stuffing our faces and welcoming the food coma that follows, but in the spirit of the original Thanksgiving meal, which consisted of indigenous foods Native Americans presented to the Europeans as an offering of health, we broke down the modern, most popular dishes of Turkey Day by the nutrients and calories to get back to the root of the feast.

"The meal we’re having today is an adulterated version of the original," said Adam Kelinson, high-performance nutritionist, organic chef, and creator of Organic Performance. "Try and have an understanding of where your food came from. We tend to be so detached from the genesis of that original Thanksgiving story and meal."

Read more
5 simple tips for doing Thanksgiving wine the right way
What wine goes best with Thanksgiving turkey?
Food dinner meal on table for christmas and thanksgiving celebration

Everyone has their favorite thing on the Thanksgiving table. For some, it's the green bean casserole. For others, it's the cranberry sauce. For me, it's the wine. For many, many reasons, wine is an absolute necessity on Thanksgiving. Whether your intentions are pure and you're looking for the perfect pairing that complements and highlights each and every rich and savory note and flavor in your Thanksgiving dishes, or you just need a few glasses to get you through dinner with your in-laws — whatever the reason, wine is important.
Selecting the perfect varietal for such a high-pressure dinner such as Thanksgiving, though, can be quite intimidating. Red or white? Light or robust? Fruity or earthy? Wine is a complicated language, and the pressure to understand it when you're already stressed about cooking and hosting is not an easy task to take on. That's why we're here with a few simple guidelines to help you select the perfect bottles to impress and please everyone around your holiday table.

Always have bubbles
Even people who don't drink wine like a little sparkle on a holiday. Bubbles feel celebratory and festive and are perfect for a big holiday like Thanksgiving. There are so many delicious bubbles to choose from, from champagne to cava to prosecco to Lambrusco, and the possibilities are immense. And contrary to popular opinion, sparkling wines needn't be expensive to be good. There are plenty of absolutely delicious sparkling wines for less than $30.

Read more