Sweet Potato Casserole With Crispy Pecan Topping

This sweet potato casserole with crispy pecan topping is easy to make and so incredibly delicious. It combines yummy ingredients, such as sweet potatoes, warming spices, maple syrup, butter, garlic and pecans. Perfect for the holidays or a special occasion meal.

I love a good vegetable side dish. Every time I eat, I go for the sides on my plate before anything else. You too?

This sweet potato casserole with crispy pecan topping is one of those recipes where there is not much effort required, but the end result is so very tasty.

Lots of times you’ll see sweet potato casserole with marshmallows. However, there’s no marshmallows in this recipe (it’s not something I grew up with or even tried). I’m sure the marshmallow topping is delicious, but so is this bread crumb and pecan version. The crispy pecans and buttery bread crumbs add such a lovely texture to the dish. Once baked, you have such a perfect combination of creamy and crunchy.

This sweet potato casserole pairs well with so many things, but my absolute favourite is serving it with roast turkey or roast chicken. So good!

Fan of sweet potato side dish recipes? Check out this recipe for whipped sweet potatoes!

Ingredients

• Sweet potatoes: The star ingredient! They have such a fantastic natural sweetness to them.
• Butter: Use unsalted butter so you can better control the salt content.
• Maple syrup: A touch of maple syrup really adds something special. You can substitute with honey if you prefer.
• Garlic: Adds a lovely savoury hum of flavour, which compliments the sweet components nicely.
• Seasoning: Includes salt and lots of warming spices, such as cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves.
• Topping: The sweet potato casserole topping is quite simple and includes pecans, butter, bread crumbs, salt and black pepper.

How To Make Sweet Potato Casserole

Here is an overview of how to make this sweet potato casserole (full details are in the recipe card below):

Make the topping

Prepare the super easy crispy pecan topping by combining bread crumbs, pecans, melted butter and a pinch each of salt and black pepper in a bowl. Set that aside while you prepare the base of the sweet potato casserole.

Make the mashed sweet potato base

1. After your sweet potatoes have been peeled and cut into chunks, boil them in a large pot of water until they’re tender.
2. Drain the sweet potatoes.
3. Mash the cooked sweet potato. (To make cleanup easier, use the same pot that you used to cook the potatoes in.)
4. Add butter, maple syrup, garlic, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg and cloves. Then, give everything a good mash to ensure all the ingredients are evenly distributed.

Assemble and bake

1. Spread the mashed sweet potatoes out into a greased baking dish, then top with the prepared bread crumb and pecan topping.
2. Cover the baking dish with aluminum foil, then bake.
3. Partway through baking, carefully remove the aluminum foil.
4. Continue to bake the sweet potato casserole until it’s hot throughout and the topping is nicely golden brown and crispy.

Prepare Ahead of Time

If you want to prepare this sweet potato casserole one day ahead of time, that’s perfectly fine. To do so, make the mashed sweet potato base. Allow it to cool, cover tightly and properly store it in the refrigerator overnight. The next day, remove the casserole from the refrigerator, uncover, and make the topping. Then, top the sweet potato with the bread crumb and pecan mixture and bake according to the recipe. By prepping some of the recipe ahead of time, it certainly makes busy dinners that much easier.

Tips and Variations

• This recipe uses 3 pounds of sweet potatoes. That is the weight before peeling. A kitchen scale is a great tool to use to weigh your sweet potatoes. If you don’t have one, no worries! Take advantage of the scale in your grocery store. After peeling, I had about 2.5 pounds of potatoes.
• This recipe calls for 1 to 2 cloves of garlic, depending on how much garlic flavour you want. I like to use the full two cloves of garlic. If you are unsure, you could always start with one clove, give the potatoes a taste and see if you want to add the second clove.
• As mentioned above, you can use honey instead of maple syrup if you’d rather.
• As a change, you can try using walnuts instead of pecans in the topping.
• Want to add another pop of flavour and crispiness? Garnish the sweet potato casserole with crispy bacon.

More Easy Side Dish Recipes

• Mashed Parsnips
• Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes
• Brown Butter Mashed Turnip with Roasted Garlic
• Roasted Beets and Sweet Potatoes

If you make this sweet potato casserole recipe, be sure to leave a comment below!