My youngest daughter does NOT like sweet potatoes. No way, no how. But, for the past year, she has been begging me to make her the “orange dish” that I made last Thanksgiving—because that is her very favorite food. She mentions it every couple of weeks. It took me a while to figure out what she was asking for, but when I finally did, I didn’t have the heart to tell her that it’s actually my Vegan Sweet Potato Casserole. Sssshhh…I won’t tell if you don’t!
I love sweet potatoes. What other vegetable can you add cinnamon and sugar to and have no one bat an eyelash? But let’s face it—most of the traditional sweet potato casseroles aren’t exactly healthy. They’re laden with refined sugar, heavy cream and lots and lots of butter. No wonder they’re delicious! But it’s also no wonder the kids are all jacked up on sugar after eating it and I am sitting there in a carb coma clutching at my stomach. So last year I experimented a bit and came up with a healthier version of this tasty holiday side dish! And, because it cooks in my Instant Pot, it’s fast and super easy to make.
Vegan Sweet Potato Casserole
Equipment
- Instant Pot or Electric Pressure Cooker
- Food Processor or High Speed Blender
- Immersion Blender or Hand Mixer
- Oven
Ingredients
- 5 large sweet potatoes
- 1 13.5 oz can coconut milk
- ¼ cup real maple syrup
- 1 tsp real vanilla extract
- 1 pinch salt
- 2 cups raw pecans
- ½ cup coconut sugar
- 1½ tsp cinnamon
Instructions
- Wash, peel and dice the sweet potatoes.
- Dump the sweet potatoes, coconut milk and maple syrup into the Instant Pot.
- Seal Instant Pot and set to 10 minutes on high pressure. Let cook.
- Preheat oven to 350°F
- While the sweet potatoes are cooking in the Instant Pot, dump pecans, coconut sugar and cinnamon into either a Food Processor or a Hight Speed Blender.
- Process the pecans, coconut sugar and cinnamon until it forms crumbles. This will be the topping for the casserole.
- After the sweet potatoes have finished cooking in the Instant Pot, allow them to depressurize naturally for 10 minutes, then manually depressurize.
- Open the Instant Pot (making sure not to get burned by the steam), and add the vanilla and salt.
- Use an immersion blender (or hand mixer) to cream the sweet potatoes.
- Transfer the sweet potatoes to an oven safe baking dish and sprinkle the pecan topping all over the top. (If you have extra topping, save it in a jar—it's awesome on top of oatmeal.)
- Bake for 10 minutes at 350°F
As I’m looking at the list of equipment used for this recipe, I will be the first to admit that I am thoroughly spoiled. I have waaaay more kitchen equipment than my mom ever had when I was growing up. Most of these items have been Christmas gifts over the years from my husband or parents, and I am incredibly thankful for them. They make my time in the kitchen so much easier and more enjoyable! Below is a list of the equipment I used to make this recipe.
Resources:
- Carrot Peeler—Ok, I loathe peeling sweet potatoes. In the past, I’ve gotten lazy and tried this recipe without peeling them, but it just wasn’t the same. This time I used my carrot peeler to peel them and voila! the job got done in record time. So, I highly recommend using a carrot peeler to make this process easier! (FYI, these make great stocking stuffers!)
- Instant Pot—Honestly, this thing changed my life. I was terrified of it at first, I didn’t even pull it out of the box until I had owned it for 6 months. But when I finally got over my initial fear, the Instant Pot totally transformed how I cooked. It made everything so much simpler, faster and fool-proof. I own two of them and have bought 6 more as gifts!
- High Speed Blender or Food Processor—I love my Vitamix. In the event of a fire, it’s the first non-living item I’m grabbing. (My laptop might be a close second…) It has a permanent home on my countertop, and since it’s convenient and I’m usually in a hurry when I’m making meals, I tend to use this more often than my food processor. But both work great for this recipe.
- Immersion Blender or Hand Mixer—Hubby got me an Cuisinart Hand Blender a few years ago for Christmas and I use it all the time for soups and recipes like this. It’s dishwasher safe and super easy to use. It works great for these sweet potatoes, and makes clean-up a snap because you can cook everything and then mix everything in just one pot. Just, whatever you do, do NOT use it for regular potatoes. I did that last year and it over-beat them, making a gluey horrible mess. I didn’t have time to remake the mashed potatoes, so I attempted to salvage them by turning them into Potatoes Au Gratin. No one complained, but no one asked for seconds, either.
Happy cooking, and have a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving!