20 Healthy Sweet Potato Recipes That Transform This Ordinary Tuber Into Something Great

Sweet Potato Casserole Bites

When a family occasion calls for sweet potato casserole with marshmallows, it’s hard to disappoint all those relatives because of your diet plan.

This unique sweet potato appetizer will make everyone happy with small portions that pack in all the same flavor. And there’s no shortage of marshmallows. You could even serve it as a fun sweet potato dessert.

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Sweet Potato & Apple Hashbrown Cake with Baked Eggs

Part hashbrown, part latke – no matter what you want to call it, this is an awesome brunch.

The sweet potato hash goes in the oven in a skillet, and when it’s almost done, whole eggs are cracked right on top to bake along with it. There are already shredded apples inside the cake, so you don’t have to break out the applesauce.

Serve with sour cream, or if you’re in the mood for something spicy, Sriracha hot sauce.

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BBQ Pulled Pork Sweet Potato Bites

Pulled pork, like bacon, belongs on everything. It’s juicy and succulent, savory but naturally sweet. But since it’s so messy, pulled pork is usually relegated to sandwiches. That’s why this recipe is innovative, yet the concept itself is so simple.

Slice the sweet potatoes into rounds, and roast them in the oven. Top with barbecue pork, cheese, and green onions, and this sweet potato appetizer is ready to serve.

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Honey Citrus Sweet Potato Scones

Scones are often overlooked for breakfast because they’re packed with butter. But with sweet potato, you can make a lighter pastry with less butter than other scones.

It’s not unusual to use applesauce or mashed bananas as a way to lower fats in baked goods, and in the same way, sweet potato enables this recipe to have about half the fat. The result is healthier homemade scones that are great for brunch or a holiday breakfast.

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Sweet Potato Fudge Cake

This is a sugar-free chocolate cake with no oil. But it’s fluffy, fudgy, and moist.

Although it doesn’t need frosting, this chocolate sweet potato cake could be dressed up for a special occasion. Or, slather it with protein frosting for a healthy dessert. Mix chocolate protein powder with Greek yogurt or cream cheese.

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Sweet Potato Protein Pie

Can you believe a sweet potato pie can have protein powder in the filling and the crust?

This healthy pie has such great macros, it can be a breakfast, snack, or dessert. You can probably even down two slices of sweet potato pie with a generous topping of coconut whipped cream without feeling a single shred of guilt. This has zero sweeteners, but you can add 1/4 cup of sugar if you prefer.

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Easy Sweet Potato Protein Pancakes

Protein pancakes are the go-to healthy breakfasts because they only require three or four ingredients – none of those being flour or pancake mix.

Instead, any kind of protein powder can be mixed with an egg, plus mashed fruit. But now you can take a break from bananas with this recipe, which uses sweet potatoes instead. For another fall flavor, try pumpkin, or just replace the cinnamon with pumpkin pie spice.

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Ginger Lime Sweet Potato Mash

When you decide to sweeten up your mashed potatoes, that doesn’t mean you have to go with cinnamon and butter.

This is a savory sweet potato mash because of the tangy lime juicy and fresh cilantro. And rather than baking these sweet potatoes, they’re boiled whole in chicken broth. They’ll take half the time to cook that way and are infused with flavor.

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Smoked Gouda & Sweet Potato Casserole

This might look like the usual sweet potato casserole, but it’s not far from.

There’s almost as much cauliflower hidden in the mash as sweet potatoes, and it’s spiced with not just cinnamon but a dash of cayenne. But that’s not the biggest and best difference.

Did I mention there’s gooey smoked gouda? With all the surprises, you’d better warn guests that this one is savory instead of sweet.

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Harissa Sweet Potato Hash with Poached Eggs & Merguez Sausage

Make the harissa ahead of time, and this is a gourmet yet easy breakfast hash.

As the sweet potatoes roast in the oven, you can sit and sip coffee. Once you really wake up, brown the sausage in a skillet, and add the sweet potato. Create spaces to poach the eggs, and once they’re done, it’s time to devour this breakfast.

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Herbed Sweet Potato Quinoa Muffins

These savory muffins make a great breakfast with simple eggs, an afternoon snack, or a side dish that goes with practically any entrée.

Just think about how well they’ll sop up the sauce of a Sunday pot roast. Regardless of what you pair with these – or if you eat them plain – when you bake a batch of sweet potato muffins, they’ll get gobbled up while they’re still plenty fresh.

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Baked Sweet Potatoes with Sausage & Broccoli

Baked sweet potatoes don’t have to be relegated to a side dish. Turn them into an entrée by piling the protein right on top.

These are twice-baked potatoes, first getting cut in half and baked with olive oil. As they cook, the sausage is browned, and the veggies are softened. The insides of the sweet potatoes get stuffed, and then they’re baked again until the cheese gets perfectly melty.

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Chipotle Citrus Sweet Potato Soup

When you have a ripe avocado and don’t know how to use it, here’s a creative suggestion: it can be diced for an amazing soup topping.

The sweet potato soup is extremely creamy but light. Then the avocado chunks add an element that’s creamy and rich. And if you have leftover mashed sweet potatoes to start with (or use the microwave), then this dinner-for-one comes together in less than 10 minutes.

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Baked Turnip & Sweet Potato Fries

Upgrade your French fries with more natural flavor and nutrients. Turnips have a lot of vitamin C and fiber, yet a serving contains only one-third the calories of white potatoes.

And since these oven-baked fries freeze well, you can keep them at the ready whenever you get fast food cravings. Reheat them in the oven, not the microwave, for optimal crispness.

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Quinoa Bean Salad with Roasted Kale & Sweet Potato

Roasted sweet potato is delicious fresh out of the oven, but those flavors are even more nuanced in a cold salad.

It tastes amazing with quinoa, which is also on the nutty side, and with roasted kale. In fact the ingredients in this salad are all so good, the only things required for the dressing are olive oil and vinegar.

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Healthy Sweet Potato Salad with Collard Greens

Although this is potato salad inspired, the picnic dish been upgraded in so many ways that you’ll hardly recognize it.

Not only does this version have way more flavor with sweet potatoes, tahini, and cayenne, but it delivers big on nutrients. A serving of this sweet potato salad has over a day’s worth of vitamin A – something you won’t find in white potatoes. And if you turn it into a collard green wrap, there’s a little vitamin C, calcium, and potassium too.

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Sweet Potato Soufflé

For a healthy alternative to the classic sweet potato casserole that’s heavy on the butter, cream, and marshmallows, try this soufflé.

It not only has protein from the eggs, but it uses Greek yogurt instead of milk. And there’s only a touch of brown sugar, so almost all the calories in this soufflé come from the sweet potatoes themselves.

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Beet & Sweet Potato Chips

There are a lot of reasons to switch out regular potato chips for alternatives.

When you eat beets and sweet potatoes in one handful, you’re getting a powerful mix of vitamins and minerals like manganese, potassium, and copper. These are healthier, of course, but they’re actually more flavorful than potato chips too, not needing any seasoning aside from salt.

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Sweet Potato Cheesecake Bites

As long as you have a muffin tin, you can put together these unbelievable mini cheesecakes.

The secret is to make a sweet potato crust by pressing tater tots into the pan. As the crust sets in the oven, a cheesecake batter comes together quickly with ricotta, Neufchatel, and Greek yogurt. What you end up with is the perfect small bite of healthy dessert for those who love savory more than sweet.

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Sweet Potato Chickpea Burgers with Apricot Mustard

These are a totally different take on veggie burgers. By making a patty with a mix of sweet potato and chickpeas, think of it like a falafel burger but with French fries inside.

Apricot mustard brings this one home, but another dressing like turmeric-tahini or cilantro-lime would work as well.

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