This luscious sweet potato puree recipe is silky smooth! Serve it as a side dish, or use it as a component of other recipes.

Sweet potato puree

Here’s a creamy side dish that’s perfect on any plate: Sweet Potato Puree! This lusciously creamy puree is light and sweet: ideal for serving with a savory protein like roast chicken or seared fish. It tastes restaurant style: especially when you serve the protein perched on top! Serve it at fall meals and it will be the talk of the table: we promise! It’s great for impressing guests at a dinner party, Thanksgiving, or even made ahead for a weeknight meal.

How to make sweet potato puree

Sweet potato puree is similar to mashed, but it’s whizzed in a food processor until it’s light and fluffy. This gives it a luscious texture that makes it taste more elevated than a simple mash. We tasted them back to back, and it was no contest: sweet potato puree was the hands-down winner! Here’s the basic method (or jump right to the recipe):

  • Steam the sweet potatoes. The quickest way to cook sweet potatoes for this puree? Steaming them! If you’ve got a large steamer basket, it takes just 30 minutes. Go to Steamed Sweet Potatoes.
  • Or, roast the sweet potatoes. You can also roast the potatoes. Using our Quick Baked Sweet Potatoes method makes it fast and easy: much faster than the traditional whole baked method.
  • Scoop out the flesh. Use a spoon or fork to scoop out the sweet potato flesh.
  • Puree! Place it in a food processor and puree for 30 seconds to 1 minute with butter, salt and additional seasonings (see below!).
Sweet potato puree recipe

Seasonings as a side dish

Sweet potato puree tastes absolutely incredible as is! In fact, you can make this sweet potato puree as baby food and make it without any seasonings, except salt. But to season it for a special dinner, here are the flavors we suggest adding:

  • Parmesan cheese: Add ¼ cup shredded Parmesan cheese for the best savory flavor
  • Garlic powder and cumin: Just a hint of each (⅛ teaspoon) really amps the flavors
  • Dried sage: ⅛ to ¼ teaspoon dried sage brings a rich, autumnal flavor
  • Dried thyme: Thyme also adds rich flavor; add about ¼ teaspoon dried or 1 teaspoon minced fresh
Sweet potato puree

Vegan variation

Want to make a dairy free or vegan sweet potato puree? Don’t worry: it doesn’t require Parmesan or butter. Here’s what to do:

  • Substitute vegan butter or refined coconut oil for the butter
  • Omit the Parmesan cheese
  • Add a bit more salt to taste, or even a few teaspoons nutritional yeast for added savory flavor

Ideas for serving sweet potato puree

Once you’ve got that light and fluffy sweet potato puree, you can serve it in all sorts of different ways. Our favorite? Topped with a savory protein. The way the light, sweet puree enhances each bite of savory protein is unreal! It tastes restaurant style, but as you can see it’s an incredibly simple concept. Here are some of our favorite ways to serve it:

Sweet potato puree

Recipes that use sweet potato puree

Another thing you can do with sweet potato puree? Use it in baking recipes! Now, you technically can just use mashed sweet potato in sweet potato recipes. But if you have leftover unseasoned puree, it works in other baked recipes like:

More sweet potato recipes

The sweet potato is one of our top vegetables to add to meals! Here are a few more sweet potato recipes to try:

This recipe is…

Vegetarian and gluten-free. For vegan, plant-based, and dairy-free, see the notes in the Vegan section above.

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Sweet Potato Puree


  • Author: Sonja Overhiser
  • Prep Time: 15 minutes
  • Cook Time: 30 minutes
  • Total Time: 45 minutes
  • Yield: 3 cups puree (4 servings) 1x

Description

This luscious sweet potato puree recipe is silky smooth! Serve it as a side dish, or use it as a component of other recipes.


Ingredients

Scale
  • 3 large sweet potatoes (about 2 1/2 pounds)
  • 3 tablespoons butter
  • ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
  • Optional: ⅛ teaspoon each garlic powder and cumin, or ⅛ teaspoon dried sage

Instructions

  1. Steam the sweet potatoes (30 minutes) or roast the sweet potatoes (40 minutes).
  2. Taking care because they’re hot, slice the sweet potatoes in half. Scoop out the sweet potato flesh with a spoon or fork and place it in the bowl of a food processor.
  3. Add the butter and salt (and additional seasonings, if desired; if making baby food puree, you can skip this step). Puree for 30 seconds to 1 minute until light and creamy. Eat immediately, refrigerate for 5 days or freeze for up to 3 months.
  • Category: Side dish
  • Method: Puree
  • Cuisine: American
  • Diet: Vegetarian

Keywords: Sweet potato puree, sweet potato puree recipe

About the authors

Sonja & Alex

Meet Sonja and Alex Overhiser: Husband and wife. Expert home cooks. Authors of recipes you'll want to make again and again.

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