These healthy Crockpot Mashed Sweet Potatoes are a delicious side dish to add to just about any dinner or Thanksgiving holiday gathering. With just a few ingredients and your trusty slow cooker, mashed sweet potatoes are easy to make and taste wonderful!
Table Of Contents
This recipe for making crockpot mashed sweet potatoes is an easy way to make this healthy side dish for dinner and a great way to make a large batch of sweet potatoes for the holidays. Once you've slow cooked whole sweet potatoes, simply peel off the skins and mix the creamy cooked potatoes with butter, salt, pepper and milk - the same as you would when making traditional mashed white potatoes or mashed cauliflower.
I especially love making mashed sweet potatoes in a crockpot for Thanksgiving because I use the keep warm setting to have them ready to serve without needing to reheat. Cooking them in your Instant Pot works great for this too.
You need just a few hours of time, a good potato masher or immersion blender and a few pantry and fridge staple ingredients to create these tasty crockpot mashed sweet potatoes. Once you've perfected the basic recipe to your taste preferences, add in flavor enhancing ingredients like cinnamon, brown sugar or honey (see the full list of suggestions below).
Ingredients
- Whole sweet potatoes
- Unsalted butter
- Milk: heavy cream works too.
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Place the sweet potatoes into the slow cooker, stacking them if necessary. Cover and set to low for 6 hours or high for 3 hours.
- When finished, poke the thickest sweet potato with a fork to check if it's tender. If not, continue cooking in 30 minute increments until potatoes are all fork tender. Carefully remove the sweet potatoes using tongs. Peel off the skins and discard. Place the sweet potatoes back into the slow cooker or put in a large mixing bowl.
- Mash using a potato masher or immersion blender. Add butter, milk, salt and black pepper. Using the immersion blender or masher, blend until smooth and creamy. Taste and season with additional salt and pepper if desired.
Serve warm with additional toppings or add-ins if desired (see below for suggestions).
Chef's Tips
- If possible, use small fatter potatoes rather than long skinny ones. Small plump sweet potatoes tend to be less stringy than long narrow ones.
- Using an immersion blender rather than a hand masher helps to make them smooth and velvety. However, if you like a chunkier texture to your mashed potatoes, a hand masher will do the trick.
Optional Add Ins
For a variation to these simple mashed sweet potatoes, add one or more of the ingredients below to create even sweeter potatoes or a more savory version:
- Brown sugar
- Cinnamon
- Maple syrup
- Honey
- Greek yogurt (plain)
Topping Options
Top your crockpot mashed sweet potatoes with some of these delicious combinations:
- Brown sugar and cinnamon
- Maple syrup and toasted pecans
- Blue cheese, walnuts and honey
- Mini marshmallows and brown sugar
- Cinnamon sugar and crushed walnuts or almonds
- Beef chili or pumpkin chili
- Green herbs, such as fresh chives or parsley
What To Serve With Mashed Sweet Potatoes
Slow cooker mashed sweet potatoes are a traditional accompiant to Thanksgiving dinner, in addition to a healthy and filling side dish for a variety of main dishes such as:
How To Store
Store mashed sweet potatoes in the fridge for up to 7 days in an airtight container. They can be frozen for up to 6 months, then thawed and reheated in the microwave or oven. After defrosting, you likely will need to thicken them with a little cornstarch or flour to remove some of the moisture.
Recipe FAQs
Save yourself the trouble and time and skip peeling the sweet potatoes before slow cooking them. The potato skins will easily peel off once they are cooked and the potatoes will slide right out of them.
Mashed sweet potatoes can become a little watery once they sit a while. Simply stir the potatoes to mix in any extra moisture and if they are still too thin or runny, mix in a thickening agent like cornstarch, flour, or powdered milk in small increments.
Yes! Keeping mashed sweet potatoes on the "keep warm" setting is an easy way to serve them during holiday gatherings. There's no need to worry about warming them up and having them go cold before dinner, plus you'll keep other appliances available for all that bulk cooking!
To make crockpot mashed potatoes vegan, use oat milk or unsweetened almond milk instead of the dairy milk and vegan butter instead of traditional butter.
Recipe
Crockpot Mashed Sweet Potatoes
Equipment
- slow cooker
- immersion blender or potato masher
Ingredients
- 2 lbs sweet potatoes approximately 4-6 large sweet potatoes
- 5 tablespoon butter or 1 tablespoon butter per potato
- ¼ cup milk
- 1 teaspoon salt
- black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Place the sweet potatoes into the slow cooker, stacking them if necessary. Cover and set to low for 6 hours or high for 3 hours.
- When finished, poke the thickest sweet potato with a fork to check if it's tender. If not, continue cooking in 30 minute increments until potatoes are all fork tender. *see notes for cooking times.
- Carefully remove the sweet potatoes using tongs. Peel off the skins and discard. Place the sweet potatoes back into the slow cooker or in a large bowl.
- Mash using a potato masher or immersion blender. Add butter, milk, salt and pepper. Using the immersion blender or masher, blend until smooth and creamy. Taste and season with additional salt and pepper if desired.
- Serve warm with additional toppings if desired (see notes for suggestions).
Enriqueta E Lemoine
I made this with two sweet potatoes I had in my basket. I wanted to give this a try. Now, I know this is going to e one of my Thanksgiving side dishes. Thanks for the recipe and the inspiration.
Tristin
Mmmm, I’m going to be making these all throughout the fall. Love that I can pop them in the slow cooker and they are ready in the evening.
Amanda
I made these last night and loved how they turned out! They were super creamy, and the slow cooker made the process super convenient. It's a great way to keep them warm. Perfect recipe!
Carrie Robinson
This is one of my favorite side dishes to serve for holiday dinners. 🙂 I love that you made this using the slow cooker. Great idea for freeing up oven/stove space.
Megane
Hey, these Crockpot Mashed Sweet Potatoes are a total game-changer! Super simple to make, and they turned out incredibly creamy. I served them as a pot roast on the weekend and they stole the show. Thanks a million for the recipe! 🍠🥣🍂🙌😋
Bernice
I can only imagine the amazing aroma in the air as these sweet potatoes cook all day in the slow cooker. Definitely worth the wait!
Lauren Michael Harris
Well how easy is this?!? I don't think I'll make mashed potatoes of any kind (though sweets are my favorite) any other way now!
Gloria
Sweet potatoes are such a great ingredient. So healthy and easy to prepare. Great side dish for any day of the week.