Mashed Sweet Potatoes
Abuja, Nigeria · View all recipes
Overview
Sweet potatoes cooked until tender and mashed with butter and milk, seasoned sweet or savoury depending on preference. No country is claimed. **This page had no recipe card in the source.** The ingredients and method below are reconstructed from its article, and that is flagged. Sweet potato behaves differently from potato in one important way, and it changes the technique. It contains far less starch and much more sugar and moisture, which means it cannot go gluey the way ordinary potato does, you can beat it with a mixer or work it in a food processor without ruining it, which is exactly what you must not do with a floury potato. The source recommends both, and for once that advice is sound. The other consequence is that it needs less dairy. Sweet potato is already moist, so the same quantity of milk that a floury potato absorbs will leave sweet potato loose. The seasoning question is genuinely open. Brown sugar, maple syrup and cinnamon push it towards dessert, which is the American Thanksgiving direction; garlic, herbs and cheese push it savoury and make it work alongside meat. Both are common. Sweet potato is not a potato. It is unrelated botanically, and West and Central Africa grow and eat enormous quantities of it.
Ingredients
Dietary tags are provided by contributors as a guide, not verified by AFN, and they depend on the products you buy. If you have a serious allergy, check every ingredient yourself. Cooking, allergies and your own judgement
Directions
- 1
Peel the sweet potatoes and cut them into even chunks.
- 2
Cook them in salted water until tender, about 20 minutes, then drain thoroughly and return them to the pot.
- 3
Let them steam dry for a minute over the residual heat.
- 4
Work in the butter and the milk, adding the milk gradually, sweet potato is already moist and needs less liquid than ordinary potato.
- 5
Mash to the consistency you want. Unlike floury potato, sweet potato will not turn gluey, so a food processor or mixer is safe here if you want it very smooth.
- 6
Season with salt and pepper, then take it in whichever direction you prefer: brown sugar, maple syrup and cinnamon for a sweet version, or garlic, herbs and cheese for a savoury one.
Africook’s Notes
Personal notes from Deborah Olayiwola- Add the milk gradually. Sweet potato holds far more moisture than floury potato and it is easy to end up with a purée rather than a mash.
- A mixer or processor is safe here, unlike with ordinary potato. Sweet potato has too little starch to go gluey.
- Decide sweet or savoury before you season. Trying to have both gives you something that reads as neither.
- Let the drained chunks steam dry before mashing, to drive off surface water.
- It can be made a day ahead and refrigerated, and reheats better than ordinary mash does.
- Roasting the sweet potatoes instead of boiling them concentrates the flavour considerably, if you have the time.
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