Sweet potatoes are a fun (and yummy) change from white potatoes. Try these Slow Cooker Mashed Sweet Potatoes the next time you need an easy side dish that goes with everything.
Slow Cooker Mashed Sweet Potatoes
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I love a good baked sweet potato. Put a bunch of butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon on it, and it tastes like it isn’t good for you! (Top it off with a few marshmallows, and it probably isn’t good for you anymore…)
Last year was the first year we grew sweet potatoes in our garden, and we did really well! So we tried it again this year. It did not go so well this time. We grew a 50-foot long row of sweet potatoes, and got plenty of potatoes from each plant. But something had been living in our garden and feasting on our sweet potatoes underground! There are moles, or voles, or something else in the garden, and they have been having serious sweet potato parties.
Almost every single sweet potato we grew was damaged. They are still good to eat, once you cut off the damaged parts. (Sweet potatoes are firm enough that the damage didn’t extend into the potato more than where the critters had been eating.) But there are almost none that I can use to make a baked sweet potato. Now I have to figure out some more things to do with them!
And Slow Cooker Mashed Sweet Potatoes were born!
I spent a good amount of time washing, peeling, and cutting out the bad parts of 4 pounds of sweet potatoes. (I like to use a serrated vegetable peeler for potatoes.) I was left with plenty of potato to use, but it was kind of sad to see how much damage those rodents had done.
Can you imagine if I had a whole field of sweet potatoes, needed to sell them to feed my family, and couldn’t sell them because of the rodent damage? This is the kind of risk farmers deal with every year!
Anyway, these Slow Cooker Mashed Sweet Potatoes. So easy. And so tasty. Boil the potatoes. Get them as lumpy or as smooth as you want in your electric mixer. Let them hang out in a 6-quart slow cooker until you’re ready for them. I topped mine with a little extra brown sugar and some chopped pecans, but you could even add a few mini marshmallows and pretend it’s a sweet potato casserole.
Don’t save this for a special dinner – they are so easy to make, you’ll want to make Slow Cooker Mashed Sweet Potatoes all the time!
Enjoy!
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- 4 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and cut in large chunks
- 1 Tablespoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon nutmeg
- ¾ cup brown sugar
- 1 cup vegetable broth
- 1 cup butter
- 1 cup whole milk
- Optional: additional brown sugar, pecans, or mini marshmallows for garnish
- Place cut sweet potatoes in a large stockpot. (This one makes it easy to drain them later.) Cover with water, bring to a boil, and boil until potatoes are soft (20-40 minutes).
- Drain potatoes and put in the bowl of an electric mixer.
- Add cinnamon, nutmeg, brown sugar, butter, and vegetable broth to potatoes
- Mix, on low speed, until potatoes are mashed and all ingredients are combined.
- Add milk while mixer is running until potatoes reach desired consistency. If lumpy mashed potatoes are desired, mix for less time. If smooth mashed potatoes are desired, mix longer.
- Transfer mashed sweet potatoes to a 6 quart slow cooker. Cover, and cook on low for 2-3 until potatoes thicken slightly and are hot throughout.
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