My Sweet Potato Casserole lightened up still has all the buttery, brown sugar flavor of a traditional casserole with half the calories!
Sweet Potato Casserole is my favorite Thanksgiving side dish. It wins by a mile. I will happily pile up my plate with gravy-free turkey, steamed green beans and a whole-wheat roll as long as I have my sweet potato casserole.
Who doesn’t love eating dessert WITH dinner before getting to the real dessert…pie?!
In high school and college, my best friend, Julia, regularly joined my family for Thanksgiving. She was in charge of bringing her sweet potato casserole…It was crazy good. Sweet, buttery filling topped with a toothachingly sweet brown sugar pecan topping. The good stuff.
Last year when I was planning on hosting Thanksgiving for the first time (You can read about my adventures with that here, here, and here!), I requested the recipe from Julia, and I almost fell out of my chair. There was more butter and sugar in the casserole than I even had in my cupboard!
So, with the help of my husband, I lightened it up.
This isn’t a healthy sweet potato casserole; so don’t even go there. It’s just not as indulgent as a traditional one!
Most of the calorie savings are from drastically reducing the butter and sugar in the filling. To me the topping is sacrosanct and shouldn’t be messed with, but you could always reduce the sugar and add more flour and oats as filler. But why? It’s Thanksgiving, the day of indulgence!
This casserole has brown sugar in every bite but it isn’t cloyingly sweet. Toasting the pecans is calorie free flavor boost! It has the added benefit of keeping them a touch crunchier even after refrigerating. Since I reduced the amount of butter and sugar in the filling, the actual sweet potato flavor is more pronounced and you are reminded why sweet potatoes are so awesome even by themselves!
My husband likes sliced sweet potatoes in this casserole but I got distracted (shock!) and cooked the thin slivers too long and they didn’t hold together in a beautiful layered form like last Thanksgiving. Immersion blender to the rescue!
Fortunately they are just as good when the filling is mashed. It just doesn’t look as classy.
Kitchen Tip: Boiling the sweet potatoes will preserve that beautiful, bright orange color. This will provide a gorgeous color contrast in the casserole but will also keep your sweet potato pies, cakes and cupcakes orange too!
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Sweet Potato Casserole Lightened Up
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 45 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes
- Yield: Serves 8 1x
Description
My lightened up Sweet Potato Casserole still has all the buttery, brown sugar flavor of a traditional casserole with half the calories!
Ingredients
For the Filling:
- 3 pounds (uncooked) sweet potatoes, sliced 1/8 inch thick (or cubed)
- 1 cup dark brown sugar, unpacked
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
- ½ cup low fat milk
- ½ cup melted butter
- pinch salt
For the Topping:
- ½ cup dark brown sugar, packed
- 1/3 cup flour
- 5 tablespoons melted butter
- 1 cup chopped pecans, toasted
- Dash cinnamon
- Pinch of kosher salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°
- In a large bowl combine brown sugar, eggs, vanilla, milk, butter and salt. Whisk to combine.
- Boil sweet potatoes in cold water, just covering, until fork tender. Drain well.
- Toss sweet potatoes in the butter mixture. If you are going to puree your potatoes, you can do it at this stage or you can press the potatoes through a ricer after draining.
- Pour into a 1 ½ – 2 quart casserole dish.
- Mix all the topping ingredients together in a medium bowl and sprinkle over the top.
- Bake 30-40 minutes until bubbling.
Notes
I did like this casserole better when it was prepared right before baking, but an overnight stay in the refrigerator wasn’t the end of the world. If you do want to prepare it ahead of time, make the filling and refrigerate or freeze that, then prepare the topping right before baking.
I halved this recipe for the dish that you see in the photos.
More Feast Favorites!
Brussels Sprouts & Leeks in Ginger Lime Butter
Salted Caramel Chocolate Pecan Pie
This recipe is linked to: Inspiration Monday, Merry Monday, Munching Monday, Monday Funday, Two Cup Tuesday, Tasty Tuesday, Party Time, Moonlight & Mason Jars, Gluten Free Wednesday, What’s Cookin’ Wednesday, Gluten Free Friday, Foodie Friday, Food on Friday, Flashback Friday, Saturday Night Fever, Sweet and Savoury Sundays
37 Comments
Annie+@+ciaochowbambina
November 8, 2014 at 1:14 pmI love sweet potato casserole with pecan topping! Quintessential Thanksgiving side dish! Beautiful!
Lindsey
November 8, 2014 at 9:40 pmThanks, Annie! It’s mandatory at my table 🙂
Kelly - Life Made Sweeter
November 9, 2014 at 8:11 amI would happily forego the turkey just to have more room for side dishes and dessert 🙂 Especially this sweet potato casserole, it looks incredible and I love that you lightened it up too! I would totally be piling a big serving or two of this on my plate 🙂 Pinned!
Lindsey
November 9, 2014 at 10:03 amLOL that makes 2 of us, Kelly! I only eat the turkey because I have to have something to put my cranberry chutney on!
Denise
November 9, 2014 at 9:19 amA wonderful collection of Thanksgiving staples – definitely will try the lightened up sweet potato casserole. Thank you
Lindsey
November 9, 2014 at 10:02 amThanks, Denise! I hope you do!
Kathleen @ Yummy Crumble
November 9, 2014 at 9:52 amThe color is amazing! Sweet potato casserole is my most favorite dish at Thanksgiving but I always feel guilty and not eat dessert. Now I can do both! Thanks for this 🙂
Lindsey
November 9, 2014 at 10:02 amOh wow, you have waaaaay more will power than I! I eat sweet potato casserole AND dessert. I figure it’s one day a year…
Manali @ CookWithManali
November 9, 2014 at 12:40 pmwow this looks delicious. I have never had one before 🙂 Thanks for this lighter version Lindsey, I will give it a try! Pinning.
Lindsey
November 10, 2014 at 8:05 amThanks, Manali! Never had a sweet potato casserole?! oh dear. Try it! Thanks for the pin!
Gayle @ Pumpkin 'N Spice
November 9, 2014 at 1:10 pmI’ve only recently started to like sweet potatoes, so I’m discovering my love how I like them prepared. This casserole looks delicious, Lindsey! I like how it’s on the lighter side, but still full of flavor. And that topping sounds amazing! Delish!
Lindsey
November 10, 2014 at 8:06 amOh I am a HUGE fan of sweet potatoes both for the sweet and savory.
Josephine
November 9, 2014 at 2:38 pmThanks for this healthier version. I will pass it along to my healthy cooking sister in law who has been assigned sweet potatoes.
Lindsey
November 10, 2014 at 8:07 amWelcome! There is still more lightening up that can be done but I didn’t have the heart to do it 🙂
Kristi @ Inspiration Kitchen
November 9, 2014 at 4:47 pmI am *so* glad you’re featuring some lightened up recipes to counteract my eatin’ pants posts! LOL. I personally love sweet potatoes, and I’m with you – the topping should not be messed with! Having dessert with dinner sounds like a perfectly acceptable and necessary idea to me! I am loving it! Pinned!
Lindsey
November 10, 2014 at 8:09 amlol! I’m trying to make sure that my eaten’ pants aren’t the only pants that fit in January! Thanks for the pin
Julianne @ Beyond Frosting
November 9, 2014 at 11:55 pmSweet Potato Casserole is one of my favorite! I’ve got one coming up tomorrow!
Lindsey
November 10, 2014 at 8:15 amMmmm can’t wait to see yours!
David @ Spiced
November 10, 2014 at 10:32 amHaha! I think we were separated at birth…as soon as I saw “gravy-free turkey,” I knew we must be related somehow. I can’t stand gravy on my turkey! Now to be fair, we might be like distant cousins or something because I just don’t love sweet potato casserole. Sweet potato pie? Now that’s a whole different story…but I have some weird issue with sweet and savory flavors combined in a savory style dish. With all of that said, your sweet potato casserole looks amazing…and I love the toasted pecans. Nice work!
Lindsey
November 10, 2014 at 12:03 pmMy money is on distant cousins. But let me make sweet potato casserole for you and we’ll see how you feel then, mmkay? Maybe it will help if you think about sweet potato casserole as a crustless, deep-dish pie with a crumble topping?
marcie
November 10, 2014 at 3:42 pmI make a casserole similar to this and have lightened it up significantly as well…still not healthy…but lighter. 🙂 It’s one of my favorite side dishes too, and I like the idea of using sliced sweet potatoes, too!
Lindsey
November 11, 2014 at 9:00 amYours is probably way healthier than this one..and that is why you are so thin! 🙂 The sliced sweet potatoes were so pretty…if only I hadn’t been distracted!
Erlene
November 16, 2014 at 12:03 pmThis is going to sound weird, but I’m not a fan of mash sweet potatoes, but I love eating it in chunks. Do you think this would work if I didn’t puree the potatoes and just left them in chunks?
Lindsey
November 16, 2014 at 1:26 pmWe all have our preferences! Absolutely you can leave them in chunks and it will taste just as good. I like to make this casserole with sliced sweet potatoes, which I planned to do here but I forgot about them on the stove and they cooked too long to stay whole, so I had no choice but to mash them!
Melinda @Home.Made.Interest
November 18, 2014 at 11:27 pmStopping by from Moonlight & Mason Jars link party. I will have to make this next week! Yum!
Lindsey
November 18, 2014 at 11:36 pmThanks for stopping by! I hope you do make it, Melinda!
Sweet Potato Casserole
November 21, 2014 at 8:41 am[…] saw this recipe over at American Heritage Cooking and it looked so amazing I knew I needed to adapt it to be gluten, dairy and egg-free. It worked […]
Jacqui Odell
November 21, 2014 at 11:01 amThis sounds amazing. Thank you for linking up to Party Time and we hope to see you again next week!
Lindsey
November 21, 2014 at 9:09 pmThanks, Jacqui! Absolutely!
Laura@Baking in Pyjamas
November 23, 2014 at 10:19 amLove how vibrant your dish is, it looks great. Thanks for linking up to Sweet and Savoury Sunday, stop by and link up again. Have a great day!!
Lindsey
November 24, 2014 at 10:40 pmThanks, Laura!
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March 28, 2018 at 10:31 amI have never eaten something delicious like this before. I loved your blog.
Lindsey
March 28, 2018 at 3:27 pmThanks!
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April 28, 2018 at 3:26 pmthanks for the recipe liked it varshaskitchen has recently posted
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Amanda Meier
November 26, 2019 at 4:54 pmI am planning on making this on Thanksgiving. I will be feeding 18 people.. so I plan on doubling the recipe. How long do you suggest to bake it?? And how big of a pan?
Crissy
February 3, 2020 at 12:25 amThis looks so good, and I love your plates!