Mashed Cinnamon Sweet Potatoes
Mashed cinnamon sweet potatoes is a nutrient packed side dish. Healthy, no added sugar and kid friendly, this sweet potato recipe is a keeper.
Sweet potatoes are such an amazing food. They’re packed with nutrients, so versatile and absolutely delicious. I’m sure we’ve all had sweet potatoes covered in some cinnamon, sugar or marshmallow topping on holidays. To he honest, that’s never been my favorite.
While many people love sweet potatoes covered in sugar, I really don’t. Sweet potatoes are just that, sweet. All on their own. I love to have baked or mashed sweet potatoes with just butter and sometimes I add a little cinnamon, like in this recipe.
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A little story about cinnamon
When I made these to take photos for the blog, it wasn’t the first time we’d had them. I’ve made sweet potatoes like this and other ways plenty of times before.
When my 14 month old eats mashed sweet potatoes, he gets them all over himself, naturally. By the end of dinner, I was noticing his face turning quite red around his mouth. Red and a little puffy. Oh no. I’m not the type to freak out because I have a pretty good base in medical knowledge. But allergies are no joke. Particularly when reactions happen that quickly and even worse, around the mouth. So naturally, I was pretty concerned.
Since we are all dairy intolerant, I’m in a Facebook group called Deliciously Dairy Free. Lots of people in that group have kids with severe allergies so I figured it was the best place to go and ask what I should do. Yes, I know I could call the doctor or rush him to the emergency room, but he was perfectly happy and breathing normally so it didn’t feel like an emergency, yet.
Someone in the group asked if I used cinnamon. Yep! But he’s had cinnamon before so I didn’t think anything of it. Well, she made the point that cinnamon causes inflammatory reactions on a lot of kids when it gets on their skin. So that got me thinking, he’s had cinnamon lots of times but never in anything that he smeared all over his face.
This lovely woman told me that if it’s just contact dermatitis from cinnamon, it should fade in a few minutes. It did! I was so relieved. Especially, because it was bedtime and I didn’t want to put him straight to bed if he was going to start having a worse reaction. By the time I got him ready for bed, his face was totally normal. Whew!
Ingredients
Sweet Potatoes
You can use any size sweet potatoes, but don’t get the red ones. Sometimes I see them in the store and they’re either labeled red sweet potatoes or they just look dark and reddish. Don’t use those. Just look for plain old brown-on-the-outside, orange-on-the-inside sweet potatoes.
Butter
This is an easy one. If you’re not dairy free, use regular ole butter. Grass fed is healthier. If you’re dairy free like my boys and me, Earth Balance makes a great substitute. It tastes so close to the real thing that I honestly don’t feel like I’m missing anything. Just use what you have!
Cinnamon
This is an easy one. If you cook or bake much (or plan to start), just buy the biggest jar of ground cinnamon you can find. Organic or not, whichever you prefer. You just need to have lots of cinnamon on hand.
Making the Sweet Potatoes
Peel and dice the sweet potatoes. I cut mine into little cubes, a little less than an inch in size. If you cut them bigger, they’ll just have to boil longer.
They take roughly 12-15 minutes to cook, once the water comes to a boil. Use a fork to spear some of the largest pieces. Once they’re nice and soft, drain the potatoes and then add them to a bowl.
I use my KitchenAid mixer for this part. You can always mash them by hand, but that’s a lot of work. My sister enjoys mashing potatoes by hand. I do not. I’d much rather move on to something else.
I like to run the mixer on low to break them up a bit. Then I stop it and add the butter and cinnamon. Restart the mixer, but start slowly so you don’t floof dry cinnamon up into your face. Once the cinnamon is incorporated a bit, speed up the mixer and whip them on medium-high speed for about 3 minutes.
They’ll still look a teeny bit lumpy but I’m okay with that. If you want to switch to a whisk attachment, you could probably get them smoother.
Mashed Cinnamon Sweet Potatoes
Equipment
- Electric mixer or whisk
Ingredients
- 4 cups sweet potatoes - peeled and cut in slightly smaller than 1 inch cubes
- ¼ cup vegan butter
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 2 tbsp slivered almonds - optional for garnish
Instructions
- Peel and cut sweet potatoes into slightly smaller than 1 inch pieces.
- Add the potatoes to a pot and cover with plenty of water.
- Bring pot to a rolling boil and cook for about 12 minutes, or until biggest pieces are fork tender.
- Drain the water and add the potatoes to mixing bowl.
- Mix on medium speed for a few seconds.
- Stop the mixer and add cinnamon and vegan butter.
- Continue mixing slowly at first and then on high for about 3 minutes. Potatoes will have a slightly lumpy appearance.
- Serve in a bowl, topped with slivered almonds. Cover leftovers and refrigerate.
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