Healthy sweet potato casserole

Sweet potato casserole calories: the classic and this one

A classic sweet potato casserole is closer to a dessert than a vegetable. A typical recipe puts a cup of sugar and a stick of butter into 3 pounds of sweet potatoes, then covers it with a streusel of a cup of brown sugar, a cup of pecans and more butter. Cut into eight, that comes to about 640 kcal a serving, with around 50 g of added sugar. The marshmallow version usually has the same sugary filling under a 10-oz bag of mini marshmallows, which is about 470 kcal a serving.

This one is about 305 kcal, with roughly 11 g of added sugar. The difference is not a trick. Roasted sweet potatoes are already very sweet, so they need a quarter cup of maple syrup, not a cup of sugar. Two tablespoons of butter in the filling are enough for richness, and the topping uses half a cup of pecans with oats to stretch them. It still has a crunchy pecan top, a soft and custardy middle, and it still tastes like Thanksgiving. It is a smaller dessert, not a sad vegetable.

Roast the sweet potatoes, do not boil them

Most recipes boil peeled chunks. Boiled sweet potatoes absorb water and taste flat, so the recipe has to make up for it with sugar. Roasted whole, they lose water instead, and an enzyme in the potato turns some of the starch into sugar while they bake. The flesh comes out dense, syrupy and much sweeter. That is what lets this recipe cut the sugar so far. Our baked sweet potato covers the timing in more detail. You can roast them up to 3 days ahead.

If you are short on time, peel and cube them and boil for 15 minutes until soft, then drain very well and let them steam dry in the colander for 5 minutes. Add an extra tablespoon of maple syrup.

Sweet potatoes with marshmallows

For the marshmallow version, leave off the pecan topping. Bake the casserole for 25 minutes, then cover the top with 2 cups of mini marshmallows and bake 8 to 10 minutes more, until they are puffed and golden. For darker tops, run it under the broiler for 30 to 60 seconds at the end, and do not walk away: marshmallows go from golden to burnt in seconds.

Two cups of mini marshmallows on this lighter filling makes it about 250 kcal a serving, which is less than the pecan version, because marshmallows are mostly air. But it has less protein and fiber, and about 13 g of added sugar. If the table is split, top half the dish with marshmallows and half with pecans. Put the pecan half in first and add the marshmallows to the other half for the last 10 minutes.

Sweet potato souffle

In the South, the same dish is often called sweet potato souffle. It is a casserole with eggs beaten into the filling, so it bakes up light and puffy, though it does not rise like a French souffle. This recipe is already most of the way there. For a souffle texture, beat the filling with a hand mixer for a full 2 minutes, until it is pale and fluffy, and add a third egg. A potato masher gives a denser, more rustic casserole. Both are right.

Making it ahead for Thanksgiving

Oven space is the real problem on Thanksgiving, so do as much as you can before the day.

• Up to 2 days ahead: make the filling, spread it in the baking dish, cover and refrigerate. Mix the topping and keep it in a separate container at room temperature.
• On the day: let the dish stand out for 30 minutes, scatter the topping over it, and bake at 350°F for 40 to 45 minutes, since it starts cold.
• Sharing the oven: it bakes fine at 325°F or 375°F next to the turkey or other sides. Give it about 10 minutes more at 325°F and check it 5 minutes early at 375°F. It is done when the edges are set and the center no longer looks wet.

Baked leftovers keep 4 days in the fridge. Reheat covered at 350°F for 20 minutes, uncovered for the last 5 so the topping crisps again. The filling freezes well for up to 3 months, without the topping.

Variations

• Dairy-free: use olive oil or a plant butter in the filling and topping, and unsweetened oat or almond milk.
• Gluten-free: it already has no flour. Use oats labeled gluten-free.
• Less sweet: leave the maple syrup out of the filling and add a pinch of cayenne and a little orange zest. It works as a savory side next to ham.
• More protein: replace the milk with 1/2 cup of plain Greek yogurt. It adds about 1 g of protein a serving and a slight tang.

The oat and pecan topping is the same idea as the one on our apple crisp, which makes a lighter Thanksgiving dessert as well. For another orange side that needs no sugar at all, try roasted butternut squash.

What it is worth nutritionally

A serving, an eighth of the dish, has about 305 kcal, with 6 g of protein, 11 g of fat and 47 g of carbohydrate, including about 5 g of fiber. Roughly 11 g of that carbohydrate is added sugar from the maple syrup and brown sugar. The rest comes from the sweet potatoes themselves, along with a very large amount of beta-carotene: a serving gives well over a full day's vitamin A. Nearly half the fat is from the pecans and is mostly unsaturated; most of the rest is butter. Compared with the classic pecan version, this saves about 335 kcal and around 40 g of added sugar a serving, which matters on a day when most plates hold five or six other dishes. It is vegetarian and gluten-free if the oats are.