Mashed Sweet Potatoes with Fresh Ginger

Mashed Sweet Potatoes are super delicious and so easy to make that you'll want to serve them all through the holidays. A perfect side dish for fall and lovely for Thanksgiving, they're creamy, rich and packed with warm flavors.

I love more traditional mashed potatoes, and I really love mashed sweet potatoes with ginger. You will too!

This sweet potato dish is sweet, savory and super creamy. And a subtly fiery taste from fresh ginger adds a comforting kick.

Mashed sweet potatoes are delicious beneath meat or vegetarian stews, alongside steak or chicken, even with a salad, and best of all, right next to the turkey and cranberries on your Thanksgiving table.

The Ingredients

• sweet potatoes - Choose sweet potatoes that are firm, smooth and free of sprouts. I like using orange sweet potatoes (also called Garnet Yams) in this recipe. I find that they have the creamiest texture, though yellow and puprle (Okinawin Japanese) sweet potatoes will work, too.
• fresh ginger root - Fresh ginger roots should be firm and feel heavy for their size.
• unsalted butter - I cook (and bake) with unsalted butter so I can better control how much salt goes in a recipe.
• heavy cream
• ground cinnamon - This adds a warm, slightly earthy flavor.
• brown sugar - Just a bit.
• salt

(See recipe card below for quantities.)

Substitutions

• Fresh ginger root. While this recipe is best with fresh ginger, you can use dry ground ginger. Use 2 teaspoons.
• Unsalted butter. Salted butter is okay, as long as you don't add salt to the recipe.
• Ground cinnamon. If you don't have cinnamon, use cloves.
• Heavy cream. If you want to lighten up the recipe, you can use half and half, whole or low-fat milk to substitute the cream.
• Brown sugar. Feel free to skip this all together if your mashed sweet potatoes are as sweet as you'd like. You can also use honey, or molasses for a deeper flavor.

Recipe Tips

• The best way to grate the ginger into pulp is with a microplane zester. It will be much less fibrous this way. If you don't have one, chop it as finely as possible, until it's juicy.
• You can make the sweet potatoes as smooth or chunky as you'd like. For the smoothest texture possible, "mash" the sweet potatoes in a food processor fitted with the blade attachment. For a chunkier version, use a potato masher.
• The potatoes must be mashed and mixed with the other ingredients while they're still hot so that the butter melts in evenly.

How to Make Them

- Grate the ginger into a pulp.

- Peel the sweet potatoes, and then cut them into bite-sized pieces, about 2-inch cubes.

- Put a large steamer into a large pot with the water level just below it. Over high heat, bring the water to a boil and then add sweet potatoes to the rack.

- Turn the heat to low, cover, and steam until the sweet potatoes are very tender, about 25 minutes. (Stick a fork into one of the potato pieces to see how tender it is -- it should easily slide right out when they're done.) Remove them from the pot and then pour out the water.

- Return the sweet potatoes to the pot and mash them with a potato masher.

- Then add the butter, cream, ginger, brown sugar, and cinnamon and mix well. Season to taste with salt.

Can you boil instead of seam the potatoes?

I typically prefer to steam rather than boil the sweet potatoes because it's possible to lose some nutrients in the cooking water, and it's a faster method. The results however, will be just as delicious if you boil the. Here's how.

Serving Suggestions

• As I mentioned above, ginger mashed sweet potatoes are a fantastic addition to a Thanksgiving feast. They even look the part!
• They're fantastic with pork chops, grilled steak and chicken dishes.
• And you'll love them with all sorts of stews. The sweet potatoes will soak up any leftover sauce in your plate and the flavor is a knockout with almost any stew -- especially Beef Curry Stew.

Other Amazing Sweet Potato Sides

• Basil Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Bacon
• Baked Sweet Potato Slices
• Skillet Sweet Potato Chicken
• Curry Udon with Sweet Potato

Can you make it ahead?

• Absolutely! Mashed sweet potatoes can be made a couple of days ahead of time. If you're serving them in an oven-proof dish, you can even store them in it, so all you have to do is heat them and put the dish on the table when you're ready to eat.
• About an hour or so before you're going to heat them, take them out of the refrigerator and set the dish on the counter to take the chill out. You can either warm them in a microwave or oven.
• To reheat them in the oven: Place the mashed sweet potatoes, covered with foil, in a 300℉ oven just until they're heated through, about 20 minutes.
• To reheat them in a microwave: In a microwave safe dish, cover with a lid (not foil!) and heat on high for a minute, stir and repeat in 30 second increments until it's hot.

I hope you love this recipe, whether it's a side on Thanksgiving or any time!

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