Vegan Mashed Sweet Potatoes are the perfect side dish for your holiday table. A vibrant orange mash with the most delicious, creamy, sweet, and smooth texture that everyone loves! Bonus, this healthy mash sweet potato recipe is also gluten-free and dairy-free.
I love making healthy, delicious, and easy plant-based lunches and dinner, especially when the fall season starts, like I did with my Vegan Spaghetti Squash Alfredo, Lemon Broccoli Green Pasta, or Vegan Scalloped Potatoes.
Sweet potatoes are such a great ingredient to bring a ton of nutrients compared to many other starchy vegetables like potatoes. They are easy to find, cheap to buy, easy to cook, bake, or fry.
Ingredients and Substitutions
You only need a few ingredients and just 20 minutes to make this delicious vegan side dish for your holiday table.
- Orange Sweet Potatoes (about four large orange sweet potatoes), peeled, cut into 1-inch small cubes (2.5 cm).
- Garlic Cloves – For fall flavors.
- Vegan Butter – or margarine, both work fine.
- Unsweetened Almond Milk or any plant-based milk you have at home. I found almond milk the best or soy milk because they are bland and don’t interfere much with the sweet potato flavor. Some other milk, like oat milk or rice milk at a touch of sweetness that some people won’t appreciate. Pick what you love the most.
- Nutritional Yeast – this adds a light cheesy, savory flavor to the mash. It’s optional but so delicious.
- Salt and Ground Black Pepper – to taste.
For a sweeter fall note, you can add a pinch of cinnamon or nutmeg to the mashed sweet potatoes. Feel free to add this if you love these spices.
How To Make Vegan Mashed Sweet Potatoes
Let’s see how to make the best mashed sweet potato recipe this fall.
- First, peel the sweet potatoes and cut them into 1-inch thick slices.
- Then, lay the slices of sweet potatoes flat on the chopping board and cut them into 1-inch sticks.
- Finally, cut each stick into 1-inch cubes.
- Place the sweet potato cubes in a large saucepan and pour cold water. Then cover the saucepan cover with a lid.
- Next, bring the saucepan over medium-high heat until the water boils.
- When the water is boiling, cook the sweet potatoes for about 10-15 minutes or until fork-tender. How long you need to boil sweet potatoes depends on how evenly you cut the sweet potatoes. For 1-inch cubes, it takes about 15 minutes. The larger you cut the vegetable, the longer it takes to soften. It can take up to 25 minutes if your cubes are 2 inches large.
- Drain the cooked sweet potatoes in a colander above the sieve and wait 10 minutes to steam out.
- Then, return the cubes into the saucepan or into a large pot or any pan you love and mash with a potato masher, a fork, or an immersion blender. The more you mash the sweet potatoes, the smoother it will be. It’s up to you to mash the vegetables, more or less, depending on how you love your mash. Some people love it super smooth, with no bits, and even prefer to place the cooked cubes into a food processor to blend into a puree. I personally prefer to have some vegetable chunks, and this is the method we used.
- Stir in the remaining ingredients to create a smooth, flavorsome mash.
- Use a wooden spoon and stir the almond milk, vegan butter, garlic salt, and pepper until well combined. You can return the pan over medium-low heat to warm up the sweet potatoes and help the vegan butter melt.
- Feel free to add or skip some add-ons like fresh parsley, crushed fresh garlic, nutritional yeast, cinnamon. These are the key ingredients to make mashed sweet potato delicious and banging in flavor!
Making Ahead Tips
You can make ahead a sweet potato mash even up to 48 hours before! My recommendation for the best flavors is to only combine the remaining ingredients into the mash before serving. Boil and mash sweet potatoes, and store them in an airtight container in the fridge.
Just before serving, add the mashed sweet potatoes to a saucepan along with all the remaining ingredients. Bring over medium-high heat, stir and cook until warm and smooth.
Storage
You can freeze mashed sweet potatoes for up to 3 months in an airtight container. The day before serving, thaw it in the fridge and rewarm the mash in a saucepan over medium-high heat or in the microwave. This recipe lasts for up to 3 days in the fridge in a sealed container.
Frequently Asked Questions
If your mash is too thick to your liking, add more almond milk, adding 1/4 cup at a time.
The sweet potatoes mash calories for one 5-oz serving are 155 kcal—more nutrition information about fiber and protein is listed below in the recipe card.
You can make vegan sweet potato muffins using my vegan recipe, skip the sweetener and add the same amount of vegan cheese instead.
You can also make savory sweet potato pancakes or a vegan sweet potato casserole.
More Vegan Side Dish Recipes
Below I listed some more delicious vegan side dish recipes to bring to your Thanksgiving or Christmas table this year.
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Vegan Mashed Sweet Potatoes
Ingredients
- 3 pounds Sweet Potato - about 6 medium orange sweet potatoes, peeled, cut into small 1-inch cubes (2.5cm).
- 1 Garlic Clove - peeled, crushed
- ¼ cup Dairy-Free Butter (Unsalted)
- ¼ cup Unsweetened Almond Milk - or soy milk
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- ¼ teaspoon Ground Pepper
- 1 tablespoon Nutritional Yeast
Optional
- ¼ cup Chopped Parsley - or scallion
- 1 teaspoon Cinnamon
Instructions
- Peel the sweet potatoes and cut them into 1-inch cubes – see my pictures above for visual help on how to easily cut sweet potatoes into cubes.
- Place the cubes of sweet potatoes into a saucepan, cover with cold water, cover pan with a lid and bring to a boil.
- When the water boil, reduce to medium heat and boil the sweet potatoes for 15-20 minutes or until fork-tender.
- Drain and steam out for 10 minutes in a colander above the sink.
- Return the warm, cooked sweet potato cubes to the saucepan large pot.
- Use a potato masher, fork, or immersion blender to mash the sweet potatoes. The more you mash it, the fewer chunks of vegetables you get. Mash as long as you want to reach your favorite mash texture.
- Return the pot to low heat, and using a wooden spoon, stir the remaining ingredients into the mashed sweet potatoes: vegan butter, almond milk, crushed garlic, salt, pepper, nutritional yeast, and some optional ingredients like ground cinnamon if desired.
- Stir until the ingredients are well combined and the mash is smooth and warm. You can cook the mash for 2-5 minutes until warm enough to serve. If too thick, add more almond milk.
- Serve warm with a drizzle of olive oil, fresh chopped herbs, and extra vegan butter cubes.
Storage
- Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days, or freeze the container for up to 3 months. Thaw the day before in the fridge and rewarm in a saucepan over medium heat.
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