Honey Butter Mashed Sweet Potatoes are an easy and delicious recipe for Thanksgiving, Christmas – or for any time during fall you’re craving comfort food.
They are made with all natural, wholesome ingredients for a healthy side dish option!
Ah, mashed sweet potatoes. How I love thee!
The truth is, when I wanted to make this recipe for the blog to be photographed…
My Honey Butter Mashed Potatoes totally failed.
No, no. Not because the recipe is terrible. But because my sweet potatoes started smelling like gross chemical perfume when I was cooking them!
I did some research, and some suggested it was the pesticides and toxins potatoes are strayed with (apparently it’s a LOT!), but I always buy organic so I knew that couldn’t be it.
Next I found some interesting information… About black rot. I checked my potatoes. And sure enough, there was a dark spot.
So, apparently black rot (which looks like dark spots on the outside) make sweet potatoes taste bitter-perfumey, ugh!
I sent my husband to the market to get me more sweet potatoes, with the very explicit command to only buy absolutely spot-free ones. He did well, so here you have the recipe now ??
Honey Butter Mashed Sweet Potatoes:
This is so simple, it’s barely a recipe. But I love it!
- a holiday season side dish made with super healthy ingredients that actually tastes amazing, yay!
- prep is about 5 minutes, and active time in the end is about 3 minutes, that’s pretty awesome to me
- my kids love mashing the potatoes, which makes them love eating them even more, mom win!
Of course you can do all sorts of crazy things to your mashed sweet potatoes, but this is a basic, all-around pleasant version even your great uncle Ted will like.
My tips for the best mashed sweet potatoes:
Cook the potatoes until very soft
This is not the time to pull out your Italian heritage to cook something al dente. To make soft and silky mashed sweet potatoes, cook them until they are very tender.
Make sure you don’t cook them for so long that they turn into a watery mush though – been there, done that.
Steam off any excess water
I prefer to peel and then cook the sweet potatoes in water vs baking them whole in their skin when I mash them.
OK, there might be a small flavor advantage when you roast them first. BUT. It just takes SO much longer.
Plus you have to deal with scratching hot potato out of hot, delicate skin. I have two little kids. I only have one oven. My sweet potatoes boil in water.
But because I do boil them in water, I need to steam off any excess liquid once I have drained them (it’s easy – just put them back into the pan and put them over the lowest heat, gently stirring, until they’re pretty dry). Otherwise the mash doesn’t turn out quite as rich and delicious.
Mash while hot
I have found I get the best and creamiest result if I mash my sweet potatoes right as they’re done cooking.
That way they get buttery and amazing without really having to add a ton of butter (even though I really love butter, ha!).
These really are the perfect easy side dish. We love them with anything from Mediterranean Turkey Meatloaf to saucy meatballs or even a simple lentil stew.
Just make sure you don’t have any black rotting sweet potatoes… Otherwise it’s like that time you drank your mom’s perfume when you were 3. Not that I know anything about that ?
Grab the printable recipe here:
Honey Butter Mashed Sweet Potatoes
Ingredients
- 1.5 pounds sweet potatoes peeled and cubed
- 1 sprig rosemary
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1-2 tablespoons honey
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- Black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Cook the sweet potatoes: Place the potatoes in a large saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil and cook until very soft, about 12-15 minutes. Add rosemary sprig for the last 5 minutes of cooking.
- Drain: Drain the sweet potatoes and put them back in the pan. Put them over the lowest heat you can and gently stir to steam off excess water. Remove from heat.
- Mash: Add all remaining ingredients and mash using a potato masher until creamy.
Yohmara Diaz says
I am not a fan of sweet entrees but this was great
Deni says
Excellent and delicious.