Best Mashed Sweet Potatoes Recipe - The Anthony Kitchen (2024)

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Rich, decadent, and not cloyingly sweet, these Mashed Sweet Potatoes are delicious enough to serve as a side dish show stopper, yet easy enough for a quick weeknight dinner. You are about to be shook, and I mean shook, at what mascarpone cheese can do to your sweet potatoes.

This is going to be, hands down, the best sweet potato recipe you've ever had. You will receive zero complaints at dinnertime and probably even a few requests for seconds! These Mashed Sweet Potatoes are great for family dinners or holiday potlucks and are so much more exciting than traditional mashed potatoes.

Most Mashed Sweet Potato recipes are loaded down with extra sugar and come across as way too sweet. This is not that kind of recipe. Forget browning butter and an excessive onslaught of ingredients. For the perfect forkful of Mashed Sweet Potatoes, all you need is three ingredients and this recipe.

With the holidays upon us, we all know how it is. Gone are the days of only cooking on the actual holiday. There are school parties, neighborhood gatherings, church potlucks, family get-togethers, and the list goes on! Aaand you need to bring a dish to each of them. From my heart to yours, I hope our Sweet Potato Souffle and Air Fryer Sweet Potato Fries can help to keep the season fun, tasty, and stress-free.

ABOUT THE INGREDIENTS

OK, first things first, let's discuss the difference between a sweet potato and a yam.

A yam has an almost tree bark-looking, dark exterior, while a sweet potato has a smooth exterior with a brighter, reddish tinge. On the inside, you'll find the flesh of a yam is somewhat dry and starchy (similar to a regular potato) while sweet potatoes have a softer interior and are sweet in flavor.

Moral of the story: don't mistake a yam for a sweet potato. For this Mashed Sweet Potatoes recipe, you will most definitely want sweet potatoes. And while we are on the subject, have you tried our sweet potato cake yet?

It doesn't get much simpler than this recipe. As mentioned above, you want to have your potatoes on hand, and you'll also want to have mascarpone cheese ready and waiting.

Mascarpone is an Italian cream cheese often used in the popular Italian dish, Tiramisu. It is somewhat sweet and rather buttery in flavor, has a rich, silky texture, and spreads soft and smooth.

Mascarpone cheese will thicken up the texture of your Mashed Sweet Potatoes and make them richer, plus, it perfectly complements the sweetness. No need for any butter at all, this Italian cream cheese does the trick just fine.

Note, Mascarpone and American cream cheese are very different, and the two should not be swapped for one another in this recipe. American cream cheese is firmer and has quite a bit of tang.

HOW TO MAKE MASHED SWEET POTATOES

To kick off this Mashed Sweet Potatoes recipe, we will be roasting rather than boiling the sweet potatoes. By roasting them, we can enhance their natural sweetness and intensify flavor without adding extra sweeteners like brown sugar or maple syrup to the recipe.

Plus, by roasting the potatoes over boiling the potatoes, you get to skip both the peeling and the standing over the stove top portion of the recipe. And, you avoid the risk altogether of serving up a watery, mushy side dish. Roasting is most definitely the way to go.

To prepare your sweet potatoes for roasting, place them on a rimmed baking sheet lined with aluminum foil. Drizzle with oil, and transfer to a preheated 425°F oven for about 40 minutes or until fork tender.

Set the potatoes aside to cool for about 10 minutes or until they are cool enough for you to handle. Use a knife to cut a slit lengthwise down the center of the sweet potato, and peel the skins away.