Paleo Sweet Potato Casserole

When I first started eating paleo, I ate a ton of sweet potatoes. Before this I never ate sweet potatoes other than Thanksgiving. I am not sure why, but I always associated them as being sickly sweet. This probably stems from marshmallow covered sweet potato casserole. Now I cook sweet potatoes any variety of ways: baked, roasted, chips, mashed. 

For the holidays though I wanted to create a slightly sweet but not overwhelming sweet potato casserole. I was so excited about the results and even my family ate it without complaint sans marshmallow. I actually attempted to make paleo marshmallows, but they were a huge fail. I’m not sure why but they never fluffed up. Everyone makes it look so easy! I’m determined to try again, but this dish definitely didn’t need any extra sweetness. 

Ingredients

4 large sweet potatoes

1/2 cup full-fat coconut milk

1 tbls coconut oil

2 tbls maple syrup

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp sea salt

Topping

3/4 cup pecans, chopped

1/2 cup coconut sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tbls coconut flour

1 tbls coconut oil

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. I cooked my sweet potatoes in a special potato bag in the microwave for 20 minutes. You can recreate this by piecing each potato a couple times with a knife, place on a large plate, cover with a damp paper towel and pop in the microwave for 10 minutes. Flip and redampen paper towel if needed and cook for another 10 minutes. If you don’t want to use a microwave, you can bake your sweet potatoes in the oven at 400 for 50 minutes to an hour. Carefully cut the potatoes in half and let cool.

While the potatoes are cooking, mix together topping ingredients. 

In a large bowl, scoop in sweet potato flesh and all other ingredients. Use an immersion blender or hand mixer to combine thoroughly. Place contents in a approximately 5x7 casserole dish and sprinkle with topping. Bake for 25 minutes. Remove and let sit for 20 minutes before serving. 

Enjoy!

vanessa