The way we treat sweet potatoes in this country is a travesty. A travesty! They’re sweet and delicious on their own, but for some reason we feel the need to add heaps sugar and boatloads of mini-marshmallows to them. It’s just not necessary!
My husband had his heart set on sweet potato casserole for Thanksgiving, but I wanted to make something a little more virtuous. Rather than steaming or boiling the potatoes, as you do with many sweet potato casseroles, I baked them in the oven. Does this take more time? Yes! Is it worth it? Absolutely! By baking the potatoes, they caramelize and get even sweeter, so you don’t need to add tons of sugar to them–just a touch will do. Rather than going the traditional cinnamon route, I added chai spices and vanilla coconut milk. These chai-spiced sweet potatoes are sweet and perfectly spiced without overdoing it–I promise, you won’t miss the marshmallows.
Mashed sweet potatoes perfectly spiced with the flavors of chai and a touch of brown sugar.
Ingredients
- 2 lbs. sweet potatoes, pierced with fork
- 1/4 c. vanilla non-dairy milk (I used Silk coconut milk)
- 1 tbsp. brown sugar
- 1/4 tsp. cinnamon
- 1/8 tsp. ground ginger
- 1/8 tsp. ground cardamom
- 1/8 tsp. ground cloves
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place sweet potatoes on a baking sheet and bake in oven for about an hour, until tender. Allow to cool slightly.
- Remove skin from potatoes. Mash in a large bowl with a potato masher or ricer. Stir in vanilla milk, brown sugar and spices.
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Wow, this is a really nice twist to use Chai spices – a virtuous recipe indeed! I cannot agree with you more that people now a days eat way too much sugar. They pile it on without giving the natural fresh food a chance to shine through! In my Cantonese culture, food is all about enhancing the food’s *natural* flavor. So I can really this recipe! I love it!
Yes, it seems like a lot of people will only eat vegetables if their natural flavor is completely masked–they cover them in cheese, add lots of butter or sugar. You don’t need to do that! Especially with sweet potatoes, which are sweet to begin with.
Oh My Yum! I stumble discovered this post, because it looks AMAZING!
Thank you!
Sounds awesome!!!
Oh, yum! This makes me think of pumpkin lattes…. I love the warm and spicy tastes of fall.
Me too! Chai is definitely a fall-ish drink.
Now that really does look delicious! Absolutely my kind of dish. Thank you for the recipe!
Your version look delicious! And healthier than mine. Though I would still have to pile the marshmallows on top!
Okay, it’s not the marshmallows so much as the combination of marshmallows AND lots of sugar. I love me some sweets, but that’s a little OTT for me even!
man, those look amazing!
I love anythingCahi so these sound so delicious! I get tired of everyone putting so much sugar int he sweet potatoes too. I just want to taste their flavor, not the usual overbearing sweetness! Can’t wait to try these!
I hope you like them! I never understood all the added sugar in sweet potatoes either. They start to seem more like a dessert than a side!
Yum I need to make these! Definitely a great idea for the holidays!
They’re especially great for the holidays because you can bake the potatoes ahead of time and then throw everything together at the last minute. It’s nice to free up that space in the oven.
Thank you for getting creative with chai! We have tweeted this recipe and also added it to our FaceBook page.
For the record, you could replace the chai spices with our Drink Me Chai powder.
Although it is primarily a hot drink, you can use it very successfully in baking! Breads, muffins, cakes, cupcakes etc are all very yummy using Drink Me Chai.
These sound so yummy! I will definitely have to try them especially with the sweet potato kick my husband has been on
I hope you like them! I’ve been on a sweet potato kick lately too–they are so good for you!
Yummy. I will have to try these out!
Thinking about making these into twice baked sweet potatoes and freezing for easy dinner option.
Ooh, that is a really good idea! You could even do some kind of crumbly topping on them too…
Great idea! I wonder if steeping the spices in the milk while the potatoes are roasting would bring out the chai flavours a bit more? I’ll have to give it a try!
Since I used ground spices, I didn’t think to do that, but I bet you could use whole cloves, cardamom, and cinnamon sticks and do it that way!
looks awesome!! love the use of chai spices – so creative
Thank you!
love this recipe
I know this is an old post, but I’ve had my eye on this recipe for awhile! I was just wondering if I could use an unsweetened soymilk instead of vanilla flavored. We typically don’t buy the sweetened kind so I never have it at home. Would adding a bit of vanilla extract work instead? I definitely want to try this soon!
You can definitely use plain soymilk and add a little vanilla extract instead. I think a teaspoon would be good…