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Sweet Savory Mashed Potatoes Recipe
Call me a true North American, but I really don’t believe that a special meal is complete without some mashed potatoes.
If you’ve seen a couple of my potato recipes, you know that Yukon yellow gold are my favorites. However, I’m trying to expand my horizons a bit and incorporate some more sweet potatoes into my cooking. Every time I give them a fair chance, I really am pleased with the results, and I find myself asking “Why don’t I use sweet potatoes more often?” Are you a “classic” mashed potato lover but you’ve always wanted to change things up with a sweet potato mash? Check that off your bucket list with this Savory Sweet Mashed Potatoes recipe as part of your one-month Live to Cook challenge! You can get started for free by signing up to my free newsletter, plus all of my latest recipes will be delivered right to your inbox!
For a visual representation and to follow along with the process of making the best Savory Sweet Mashed Potatoes to impress your guests, then be sure to watch the video! I would really appreciate it if you would please subscribe to my YouTube channel, and don’t forget to hit the bell button to be notified when all of my new video recipes go live along with the written ones! Let’s get cooking!
Why You Need to Make These Savory Mashed Sweet Potatoes!
- Easy: The process is quite simple, actually! Just boil, mash, and serve!
- Creamy: Mashed potatoes MUST be creamy! If you’re into creamy mashed potatoes, you’ve come to the right place! We’ve got heavy cream, milk, and butter to give such light and fluffy sweet potatoes.
- Minimal ingredients: This mashed sweet potato recipe uses common household staples. You may not even have to run to the store to get everything!
- Sweet and savory: We get our savory flavors from the fresh herbs, butter, salt and pepper, but we’ve also got a good balance of sweetness from the sweet potatoes themselves and a touch of maple syrup.
- Super tasty: This is self-explanatory! I couldn’t stop licking the spoon or even licking some with my finger (don’t do that if serving for a crowd!), they were easily the best sweet potatoes I’ve ever had in my life - this coming from someone who very seldom eats sweet potatoes!
Are Sweet Potatoes Healthy?▼
They sure are! Here’s a list of just a couple of the health benefits of sweet potatoes:
- High in fiber to keep you full and assist with digestion
- Loaded with Vitamin A to help vision and immunity
- Loaded with other vitamins including Vitamin C and Vitamin B6
- Antioxidants to promote digestion and gut health
For more information about the health benefits of sweet potatoes, be sure to read this article.
Do You Peel Sweet Potatoes Before Boiling?▼
Yes, I’ll be peeling and chopping the sweet potatoes before boiling. You won’t get the nice creamy texture of mashed potatoes we’re looking for with the skin, so while it does contain a lot of the nutrition, unfortunately you’ll need to discard it for this recipe.
Why Boil The Sweet Potatoes in Milk?▼
This is because the sweet potatoes will cook along with the milk. The milk will help the sweet potatoes break down and become really soft, giving you the best texture for the final mashed sweet potato product!
Tools Needed to Make Mashed Sweet Potatoes
Ingredients for Savory Sweet Mashed Potatoes
To save the recipe for later and to see all ingredient quantities, be sure to scroll to the bottom of this post or press the “Jump to Recipe” button for FULL PRINTABLE RECIPE CARD. The recipe card will also allow you to scale the recipe based on how many people are attending your dinner party, so that you know how much of everything you need without calculating yourself!
- Sweet potatoes: Peeled and chopped into cubes.
- Unsalted butter: My preference is unsalted butter so that I can control the seasoning myself.
- Heavy cream: For my sweet potatoes, I actually typically use half and half cream. However, I didn’t have any on hand this day and I didn’t feel like going to the store to get a new carton of half and half cream, especially since I didn’t want my heavy cream to go to waste! As I mention in my free motivational guide to explore your potential in the kitchen Make Cooking Fun!, if you have an ingredient that will do the job, substitute! Since heavy cream is very rich, I just used a smaller amount than I would have used half and half cream.
- Milk: To boil the sweet potatoes. I’m using whole milk to have the thickest and creamiest sweet mashed potatoes.
- Maple syrup: While of course sweet potatoes are already sweet, as the name suggests, we’ve got a savory touch to the dish. You could also use brown sugar.
- Herbs: We’ll use fresh thyme and green onions here.
- Salt and pepper: Pretty much mandatory ingredients for any type of mashed potatoes! Add these to taste.
How to Make Savory Sweet Mashed Potatoes
Boiling the Potatoes
Wash the potatoes well and peel the skin. Cut them in a 1 inch sized dice.
Add the sweet potatoes to a large pot or saucepan. Add a generous pinch of salt.
Add milk and bring the milk up to a gentle simmer. Cover the pan and cook the potatoes in the milk 15-30 minutes, or until they are completely soft.
To Prepare the Mashed Potatoes
Reserve some of the moisture from the milk using a measuring cup and then add the rest of the contents of the pot/saucepan to a mixing bowl or to the bowl of a stand mixer. Using the whisk attachment, mix until the potatoes and milk combine well together - toggle from the lowest to the medium speed setting to achieve this texture. Alternatively, you can mix manually or using a hand mixer.
Stop the mixer and then add butter, scallions, maple syrup, leaves from the sprigs of thyme. Start mixing again as you pour in the heavy cream and season with salt and pepper. Continue to mix until it reaches a smooth and fluffy consistency and use the reserved milk mixture if need to thin out the mash.
Correct for seasoning and top with more scallions, pepper and serve warm.
Enjoy!
Other Garnish Ideas
- Chopped bacon: Pan-fry and chop some bacon bits to add on top.
- Sour cream: A nice dollop of sour cream will nicely complement the sweetness! You could also mix in sour cream in place or combined with the heavy cream.
- Cheese: Mix in some cheddar cheese - that sharpness will really add a punch!
- Spices: Love heat? Add some chopped green chilies or jalapenos in! You could also add some crushed red chili flakes.
- Roasted garlic: Saute garlic with butter and mix that in or add on top.
- A drizzle of maple syrup: For a bit more sweetness!
- Lumpy: I prefer my mashed potatoes completely smooth, but if you’re on team lumps, then simply don’t mash the potatoes all the way and leave them uneven.
Tips to Have the Perfect Savory Sweet Potato Mash
- Make sure to clean the potatoes well before you peel the skin to ensure that you don’t get any grit into the mashed potatoes.
- While cooking the potatoes in the milk, ensure that you stir the bottom of the pan every so often to make sure that the milk doesn’t get stuck or burnt onto the pan.
- I would recommend you use whole milk as opposed to something lighter like skim milk to result in the richest and creamiest mashed potatoes.
- Using the whisk attachment for your stand mixer helps to work out lumps, in addition to adding richness with butter, milk, and cream that helps to create a smooth and shiny texture.
How to Store Leftover Mashed Sweet Potatoes▼
Will you even have any? Just kidding! I understand that you may make too much or you just may want to make your Savory Sweet Mashed Potatoes early so that you can focus on other parts of your holiday meal! All you need to do is store your mashed sweet potatoes in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Due to the dairy in this recipe, I wouldn’t keep your sweet mashed potatoes in the fridge for longer than 3-4 days.
How to Reheat Savory Sweet Mashed Potatoes▼
Simply place in the microwave for 2-3 minutes, depending on the quantity of mashed sweet potatoes you’re reheating. Ensure to stir at 30-second intervals so that your potatoes are evenly warmed through.
Can I Freeze Sweet Potato Mash?▼
Pretty much every recipe I see says that you can, but I don’t know why anyone would say that! For me, it’s a huge NO! In my experience, freezing and defrosting fully cooked potatoes releases way too much water, and your mashed potatoes turn to mush. Please just make the right amount that you need - this isn’t a dish I would meal prep at all.
Other Amazing Potato Recipes
- The Ultimate Creamy Mashed Potatoes
- Garlic-Herb Mashed Potatoes
- Air Fryer Sweet Potato Fries
- Creamy Cheese Fries
- Punjabi Aloo Paratha
This Is Not a Sweet Potato Casserole
There are no marshmallows anywhere near this dish, and no cinnamon, nutmeg, brown sugar or pecans either. That is the whole point of it. A sweet potato casserole treats the potato as a dessert that happens to arrive with the turkey; this one treats it as a side dish. The only sweetness in the pot is 1 tablespoon of maple syrup, and it is there to round out the salt rather than to lead.
What does the savory work is 2 sprigs of fresh thyme leaves, stripped off the stem and stirred in at the end, and half a cup of chopped green onions. There is no fresh parsley in it; the green you can see on top is simply more of the same scallions, with a sprinkle of cracked pepper over the serving bowl. If you are looking for the Thanksgiving side that does not taste like pudding, this is the one.
Why the Sweet Potatoes Simmer in Milk Instead of Water
Peel the potatoes and cut them into 1-inch cubes, then put them straight into the pot with a generous pinch of salt and 2 cups of whole milk. There is no pot of boiling water here, which means there is nothing to drain and no colander to wash up. The milk goes to a gentle simmer, the lid goes on, and the potatoes cook for 15 to 30 minutes until they are completely soft.
Keep it at medium-low heat once it comes up to temperature. Milk catches on the bottom of a pan far more readily than water does, and a scorched layer will flavor the whole batch. The reward for the extra attention is that the cooking liquid becomes the mashing liquid, so all the starch and sweetness that would normally go down the sink stays in the dish. Reserve a cup of it before you mash, because that is what you will use to loosen the mash if it tightens.
Everything then goes into a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, toggling between the lowest and medium speeds. A potato masher works but leaves it rustic rather than fluffy, and a hand mixer is a fine middle ground. Avoid the food processor: the blade overworks the starch and takes the mash from smooth to gluey in seconds. Stop the mixer to add 3 tablespoons butter at room temperature, the scallions, the maple syrup and the thyme, then start it again as you pour in 3 tablespoons of heavy cream.
Dairy-Free Variations and What to Do with Leftovers
This is an easy mashed sweet potatoes recipe to make dairy-free, because every dairy element in it has a direct swap. Oat milk stands in for the whole milk in the pot, full-fat coconut cream replaces the heavy cream, and olive oil or a vegan butter covers the 3 tablespoons of butter. That last swap is the one you notice, since the buttery flavor is doing real work here, so go slightly heavier on the maple syrup and the salt to compensate. Make all three swaps and the full recipe is vegan.
Leftovers keep for 3 to 4 days covered in the fridge. Reheat them gently in a pan over low heat rather than blasting them in the microwave, and loosen with a splash of milk as you go, exactly the way you would have used the reserved cooking liquid on the day. The mash thickens noticeably once it is cold, so expect to need it.
Let me know what you think of this recipe in the comments! If you’ve tried this recipe, be sure to post it on social media and tag it with #cookingwithanadi and mention me @cooking.with.anadi. Thank you!
Recipe by Anadi Misra
Creamy, savory-sweet mashed potatoes made with simple ingredients for the perfect fall side dish. Your new go-to homemade recipe that delivers rich, velvety results every time.
Stovetop
5.0 · 3 ratings
5 min
Prep
25 min
Cook
30 min
Total
4
servings
easy
Level
Ingredients
Ingredients
Tap any quantity to scale
Instructions
To boil the sweet potatoes
- 1
Wash the potatoes well and peel the skin. Cut them in a 1 inch sized dice and add to a large pot or saucepan.
Wash the potatoes well and peel the skin. Cut them in a 1 inch sized dice and add to a large pot or saucepan.
- 2
Add the potatoes to a large pot or saucepan. Add a generous pinch of salt.
Add the potatoes to a large pot or saucepan. Add a generous pinch of salt.
- 3
Add milk and bring the milk up to a gentle simmer. Cover the pan and cook the potatoes in the milk for 15-30 minutes, or until they are completely soft.
Add milk and bring the milk up to a gentle simmer. Cover the pan and cook the potatoes in the milk for 15-30 minutes, or until they are completely soft.
To prepare the sweet mashed potatoes
- 1
Reserve some of the moisture from the milk using a measuring cup and then add the rest of the contents of the pot/saucepan to a mixing bowl or to the bowl of a stand mixer. Using the whisk attachment, mix until the potatoes and milk combine well together - toggle from the lowest to the medium speed setting to achieve this texture. Alternatively, you can mix manually or using a hand mixer.
Reserve some of the moisture from the milk using a measuring cup and then add the rest of the contents of the pot/saucepan to a mixing bowl or to the bowl of a stand mixer. Using the whisk attachment, mix until the potatoes and milk combine well together - toggle from the lowest to the medium speed setting to achieve this texture. Alternatively, you can mix manually or using a hand mixer.
- 2
Stop the mixer and then add butter, scallions, maple syrup, leaves from the sprigs of thyme. Start mixing again as you pour in the heavy cream and season with salt and pepper. Continue to mix until it reaches a smooth and fluffy consistency and use the reserved milk mixture if needed to thin out the mash.
Stop the mixer and then add butter, scallions, maple syrup, leaves from the sprigs of thyme. Start mixing again as you pour in the heavy cream and season with salt and pepper. Continue to mix until it reaches a smooth and fluffy consistency and use the reserved milk mixture if needed to thin out the mash.
- 3
Correct for seasoning and top with more scallions, pepper and serve warm.
Correct for seasoning and top with more scallions, pepper and serve warm.
Notes
- •While boiling potatoes on the stovetop, you run the risk of boiling it for too long. This will clog the potatoes with water, resulting in watery mashed potatoes. Check every 2-3 minutes after the 15 minute mark. If potatoes are 250 g in weight, increase cooking time by 2-3 minutes; if 300-350 g, increase cooking time by 4-6 minutes and so on. In case potatoes are raw in the centre, pricking potatoes with a fork can help with an even cook
Did you make this recipe? Tag @cooking.with.anadi on Instagram and hashtag it #cookingwithanadi
Tested & written in Anadi’s kitchen
Recipe history
- April 16, 2026 — Reworked and refreshed for the 2026 relaunch — new photography, restructured and standardized ingredients & instructions.
Filed under
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