Tags: Holiday Sweet Tooth Thanksgiving Weekday Meals
Honesty Zone: I’ve always HATED sweet potatoes! I just don’t see the appeal. Why would you eat a potato that’s sweet alongside a savory meal? Why not just eat regular potatoes with your meal and save the sweet calories for dessert—cake, pie, cookies, even a sweet potato pie makes more sense to me.
Then there are sweet potato fries. My sister and Grandma LOVE sweet potato fries, but I don’t understand. Why would you pass on creamy golden potato French fries in favor of sweet potato fries!? And what do you dip them in anyway? I mean, is there a more perfect combination than golden French fries with ketchup? Sweet potatoes and ketchup!? It baffles me.
Before I go on, let me first say to all you sweet potato lovers out there. Please don’t take my hatred of the vegetable as a snub. I am, after all, the crazy lady who posted the very weird/gross Salami Roll Up recipe earlier this week. By NO MEANS am I making fun of you or your love of the sweet potato—however you prepare and eat the spud.
Now, if the sweet potato wasn’t already confusing to me, somewhere along the line—years and years ago—someone like me must have been equally confused with what to do with it. I’m thinking Thanksgiving was fast approaching, and the creator of this recipe, had a surplus of these potatoes he didn’t know what to do with, so he made them a part of Thanksgiving menu, but he had no idea which direction to go—sweet or savory? He decided SWEET! He took the sweet potato, mashed it (seems like the logical choice, since that’s what we do with plain potatoes), then topped this already sweet vegetable with marshmallows. While I applaud such a bold decision, I just don’t subscribe to the recipe. I’m NOT a fan of the traditional sweet potato casserole.
**The above scenario has no factual foundation. I think the sweet potato/marshmallow combination was created by the marshmallow inventor. Huh, now I’m interested…I might look that up later. Anyway…
Fast forward a hundred-some-odd years to 2010. I’ve been invited to a Friendsgiving party and the host enlists me to make a sweet potato casserole. Me…of all people…in charge of making the sweet potato casserole. Awesome!
I hit the books HARD trying to find an alternative to the sweet potato/marshmallow casserole. I found tons of recipes for herbed or garlic mashed sweet potatoes but knowing that the menu already included mashed plain potatoes, I knew I had to stick with the sweet casserole option. Suddenly I came across a recipe for the sweet potato casserole served at Ruth’s Chris steak house. Being a lover of Ruth’s Chris myself, I figured this was the best I could do.
I didn’t bother doing a trial run since my opinion’s already skewed. I prepared it per instruction, showed up to the party with said casserole in hand, placed it on the buffet table and crossed my fingers it’d be good. To my surprise everyone LOVED IT!! People were literally raving about my casserole, so much so that I had to try it. I put a small scoop on my plate, put a very small spoonful in my mouth and WOW…it was DELICIOUS!! I had successfully pulled off the sweet potato casserole…sans marshmallows.
I’ve made this casserole every year since and I always add a scoop to my Thanksgiving dinner plate. That’s right, the sweet potato hater eats a scoop of this sweet potato casserole every year (and sometimes for Christmas and Easter too). And while it sits there looking beautiful right next to my turkey, salad and stuffing, it’s the last thing I eat. To me, it still seems weird to eat it with savory things. I think of it more as a pre-dessert treat. A very yummy pre-dessert treat.
Try it this year…tell me what you think.
Sweet Potato with Pecan Crumble
For the potatoes:
2 lbs. sweet potatoes, clean and peeled
3 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp cream
Salt to taste
For the crumble:
½ cup brown sugar
¼ cup flour
1 cup pecans, chopped
⅓ cup butter
Directions:
Cube your washed and peeled sweet potatoes and put them (carefully) in a large pot of boiling water. Cook them until soft (about 40 minutes). Drain and return to the pot. Add the butter and cream and mash. Everyone has an opinion on how best to “mash” potatoes. I prefer using my stand mixer and mixing until completely smooth but use whichever method you prefer. Once mashed, add salt to taste.
To make the crumble:
In a medium sauce pan, over medium heat, melt the butter. Make sure to just melt the butter and not brown it. Once melted, remove from heat and add the remaining crumble ingredients. Stir to combine.
To prepare the casserole:
Place prepared sweet potatoes into a 9×9 baking dish. Fork crumble on top in an even layer. Bake at 350° for about 20 minutes (until potatoes are hot and crumble is bubbling slightly)
*This dish is one of those wonderful “make ahead” dishes. The day before: prepare the potatoes and crumble, assemble in baking dish, cover with foil and keep in the refrigerator until just before serving. Bake at 350°
**Baking time for “make-ahead” version will differ since the casserole will be cold going into the oven. Test your potatoes at the center of the baking dish at the 30 minute mark and then every 10 minutes after that until they are hot at the center.
