Healthy Sweet Potato Casserole

This Thanksgiving side is sure to please! Healthy Sweet Potato Casserole is made with no added sugar, is Whole30-friendly and topped with toasted pecans and crisp bacon.

This recipe was created in partnership with our friends at Organic Valley.

Take your Thanksgiving (or any dinner) menu to the next level with this Healthy Sweet Potato Casserole.

You’re probably familiar with the traditional sweet potato side dish that’s covered in a thick layer of marshmallows and all the brown sugar. And while that’s totally tasty, if you’re looking to lighten up your menu and offer low-sugar options without sacrificing taste, you’ve come to the right place. This Healthy Sweet Potato Casserole is one of my favorite side dish recipes. It’s creamy, naturally sweet and the topping made of toasted pecans, spices and crisp bacon, adds the perfect crunch and savoriness to this recipe. It’s definitely a crowd-pleaser that you’ll want to make again and again, Thanksgiving or not.

Made with Organic Valley Ghee and Organic Valley Eggs.

Healthy Sweet Potato Casserole is made with Organic Valley Ghee and Organic Valley Eggs. The ghee adds a rich, buttery flavor to the dish and it’s Whole30-friendly. Now if you’re not in need of a Whole30-friendly recipe, you can certainly use butter in place of the ghee to get the same, scrumptious results.

What is ghee?

Ghee is clarified butter with hints of nutty, caramel flavors. Ghee has been a staple of many culinary traditions around the world for centuries, and today it’s prized for its rich buttery taste, enticing aroma, and its high smoke point, which makes it ideal for high-heat cooking.

Organic Valley slowly simmers their clarified Ghee to coax the excess water out while preserving the nutritional benefits of pasture-raised organic butter. In the process, some of the ghee’s milk solids will caramelize, leaving behind hints of sweetness and roasted nuts. Ghee is a lactose-free, casein-free, and shelf-stable product. To learn step-by-step how ghee is made, check out this post.

Now, onto the eggs. The two eggs that this recipe calls for results in a creamy, smooth, soufflé-like texture. It really makes for something delicious especially when combined with the crunch from the toasted pecan and savory crisp bacon topping.

To learn all about the importance of choosing quality eggs, read this post.

Have an egg allergy or sensitivity? Feel free to omit the eggs.

Look at that topping!

Going beyond your Thanksgiving menu. Healthy Sweet Potato Casserole is meal-prep friendly, to0!

While this Healthy Sweet Potato Casserole makes for a delicious addition to a Thanksgiving menu, it also makes for an easy side dish to add to any meal. In fact, I love prepping it on the weekend along with some roasted Brussels and some sort of protein and portioning it out in these 3 compartment, glass meal prep containers. It makes for the most delicious reheat-and-eat kind of meal to enjoy throughout the week! In addition, this recipe is also freezer-friendly so if you’re cooking for one or two, you can always freeze half of the recipe to enjoy down the road.

For a touch of extra sweetness, add a few dates!

While garnet and jewel (orange-colored) sweet potatoes are generally sweet enough (the sweetest of all sweet potato varieties), if you’d like to add a little extra sweetness yet keep it Whole30-friendly, you can certainly add a couple of naturally sweet dates. Simply allow the dates to soak in hot water for 5-10 minutes to soften before adding them to the food processor with the rest of the filling ingredients. However, if you’re not in need of a Whole30-friendly recipe, you could drizzle the top with a little maple syrup. You really can’t go wrong with how you choose to sweeten or not sweeten this recipe.

I can’t wait for you to give this a try! If you do, we’d love to hear what you think in the comments below!

Happy Thanksgiving! 

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Let's Get Cookin'

Healthy Sweet Potato Casserole

• Author: Stacie Hassing
• Prep Time: 1 hour
• Cook Time: 45 minutes
• Total Time: 1 hour 45 minutes
• Yield: 9 servings 1x
• Category: Side-Dish, Whole30

Print Recipe

Ingredients

For the Sweet Potato filling:

• 2½–2¾ lbs. sweet potatoes (about 4 garnet or jewel medium sweet potatoes)*
• 3 dates, soaked in hot water for 5 minutes to soften (optional – feel free to omit) 
• ⅓ cup milk of choice (unsweetened almond milk for Whole30)
• 1½ Tbsp. Organic Valley Ghee
• 1 tsp. sea salt
• ½ tsp. cinnamon
• ¼ tsp. nutmeg
• ¼ tsp. chili powder 
• 2 Organic Valley Whole Eggs

For the Topping:

• 1 cup pecans (½ cup chopped + ½ cup whole) 
• 3 strips no-sugar bacon, cooked and chopped (turkey bacon works, too)
• 1 Tbsp. Organic Valley Ghee, melted
• ½ tsp. cinnamon 
• Pinch of nutmeg
• Pinch of salt

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375ºF. Grease a 9-10 inch (square, round or oval) or 1.5 quart baking dish and set aside. 
2. Bake sweet potatoes in the oven for 40-50 minutes or until soft and cooked through. Baking time will depend on the size of sweet potatoes. *Note: feel free to bake/cook the sweet potatoes however you wish. This can be done a day or two ahead of time.
3. While sweet potatoes are baking, in a small bowl add the topping ingredients and mix to combine. Set aside. 
4. When sweet potatoes are done, remove from oven and let set for 5 minutes. 
5. After the 5 minutes, remove the peels of the sweet potatoes and add the peeled sweet potatoes to a food processor (one that holds at least 8 cups). You may also use a hand mixer or stand up mixer for this step. 
6. Add the rest of the filling ingredients, except for the eggs, and process until smooth. May need to scrape sides once or twice. Next, add the eggs and process again just until smooth. 
7. Transfer the sweet potato filling to the prepared baking dish and spread out evenly. Top with the pecan and bacon mixture. 
8. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake for an additional 10-15 minutes. If pecans begin to get too brown, cover again with foil.
9. Serve warm.

Nutrition

• Serving Size: 1/9 of recipe (without dates)
• Calories: 245 calories
• Sugar: 6 g
• Sodium: 285 mg
• Fat: 13 g
• Carbohydrates: 28 g
• Fiber: 5 g
• Protein: 6 g

Pin now to make later! 

Photo Credit: The photos in this blog post were taken by Jess of Plays Well with Butter. 

This post was made possible by our friends at Organic Valley. Although we received compensation for this post, the opinions expressed here are – as always – 100% our own. Thank you for supporting the great companies we work with thereby allowing us to continue creating great recipes and content for you.

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