Hasselback Sweet Potato Casserole

This Hasselback Sweet Potato Casserole is a fun twist on the traditional sweet potato casserole. It has all the flavors without all the work! The sweet potatoes are sliced thin and then baked under a generous covering of delicious brown sugar pecan topping for an easy, playful side dish.

Sweet Potato Casserole is my favorite Thanksgiving side dish. In its purest form it feels like sneaking dessert on your plate disguised as a vegetable. I even made a lightened up sweet potato casserole that doesn’t feel as indulgent but still tastes sinfully delicious. This Hasselback Sweet Potato Casserole requires no mashing and no mixing. It will be one of the easy side dish recipes that steals the show.

I created this recipe for my family’s easy Thanksgiving dinner menu a few years ago. I was in charge of making all the side dishes per usual. My husband’s favorite scalloped potatoes had already taken all my patience since I had to slice the potatoes by hand, but I really, really wanted sweet potato casserole. These easy hasselback sweet potatoes were born! All the sweet, brown sugar pecan topping that I craved with a fraction of the work!

How to prepare hasselback sweet potatoes?

1. Wash and peel sweet potatoes.
2. Using a sharp knife, slice sweet potatoes almost all the way through. Slice as you would to make circles. Each cut is about 1/8^th inch apart.
3. Nestle snuggly in a baking dish and pour butter over the top.
4. Cover and bake at 400°F until tender.
5. While the potatoes are baking, mix together all ingredients for the topping.
6. Remove the covering from the potatoes and crumble the topping over the top.
7. Continue baking until the topping is browned, about 10 minutes more.

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Ingredients

• Pecans: I chopped and toasted my pecans for even more flavor and crunch in this Hasselback Sweet Potato Casserole!
• All-purpose flour: All-purpose flour has just the right amount of gluten to make a tender crumble topping.
• Dark Brown Sugar: Using dark brown sugar adds sweetness along with a nice, rich molasses flavor.
• Cinnamon: I use Saigon cinnamon but any cinnamon will do.
• Ground Ginger: Ground Ginger has a subtler flavor than freshly grated ginger root. It has less bite and is more warming.
• Kosher Salt: Kosher salt brings out all the other flavors and pulls everything together. Adjust to your preference but I wouldn’t suggest omitting.
• Butter: I use unsalted butter for baking, because you want to control the amount of salt you are adding. The butter is integral to creating a cohesive crumble topping. Too much butter will cause the topping to spread and too little with be dry and taste like flour.
• Sweet Potatoes: Choose sweet potatoes with smooth, tight skins that do not look shriveled. As sweet potatoes age, they lose moisture. They will not roast as sweet for side dishes, puree or baked goods. For hasselback sweet potatoes, look for long, thinner sweet potatoes. These will bake more evenly and faster! {Keep the others for a round of traditional sweet potato casserole with pecans!}

Substitutions for Hasselback Sweet Potatoes

• Gluten Free: To make these hasselback sweet potatoes gluten free, simply substitute Gluten Free all-purpose flour for the regular all-purpose flour in the recipe as written.
• Light Brown Sugar: If you don’t have dark brown sugar on hand, you can absolutely substitute light brown sugar in equal amounts. The flavor will be a bit less robust but you will still get all the benefits of the added moisture and caramel notes. You could also use coconut sugar.
• Vegan: The recipe as written is vegetarian. To make it vegan use shortening or a vegan butter for the topping. Use ¼ cup vegetable stock to cook the sweet potatoes rather than the melted butter. You could, of course, also add a bit of vegan butter here as well.

Frequently Asked Questions

What to serve with Hasselback Sweet Potato Casserole?

I make this recipe as an alternative to sweet potato casserole with pecans on Thanksgiving, but it is also delicious alongside potatoes au gratin, mushroom cornbread stuffing and roasted turkey or roasted chicken.

I also love to serve sweet potatoes with pork (like these baked mushroom pork chops) because the sweetness plays beautifully with the notes of pork.