Mashed Sweet Potatoes with Goat Cheese and Honey Walnuts | Side Dish Recipe

A recipe for mashed sweet potatoes, featuring easy, roasted sweet potatoes, goat cheese, chopped sage and honey walnuts.

If you are looking for a fun, new fall side dish to feed a crowd, surely these mashed sweet potatoes are speaking your love language right now. I was hosting a pre-Thanksgiving party, and I was in need of a side dish to go alongside my roasted turkey that didn’t require too much hands-on time, yet still prove worthy of an addition to a Thanksgiving spread.

Now, I know traditionally we would be rocking a sweet potato casserole next to the turkey, and if you’re in the market for one of those, I’ve got a stellar recipe for you right here.

ROAST THE SWEET POTATOES

But, for this meal, in particular, I was in need of a side dish a little less hands-on, and this recipe is exactly that. It begins with whole, roasted sweet potatoes. Roasting whole sweet potatoes could literally not get any easier: Scrub ’em down,  put them on a sheet pan, drizzle with a little canola oil and the preparation takes a whopping 5 minutes out of your day. Doesn’t get much easier than that friends. Throw them in the oven at 400° and let them go for about an hour.

While those potatoes are roasting and you’ve got all this free time on your hands, let’s talk about all the ah-mazing and scrumptious flavor components that go into this recipe, and pair perfectly with our sweet potatoes. We will begin with goat cheese.

GOAT CHEESE MAKES EVERYTHING BETTER

Sweet potatoes are pretty one-dimensional in flavor. They’re sweet. End of story. That story was so boring, right? Add a little goat cheese to the party, and boredom is officially a non-issue. Goat cheese is loud, tangy, and vibrant. Just what those potatoes needed — a little wakeup call.

The goat cheese is whipped together with heavy whipping cream, and one by one, the sweet potatoes go in to join in on all fun. The butteriness from the cream alongside the sharp notes of the goat cheese in combination with those roasted sweet potatoes — goodness gracious, y’all — I can already tell this is going to be one heck of a party.

WARM AND COZY FALL SPICES

On to the spices. To make these mashed sweet potatoes sing fall, we add in a few beloved spices that give us alllll those warm and cozy feels we love so much. Cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg go in. And, keeping in line of spices, let’s talk fresh herbs.

ADD SOME FRESH SAGE

The next ingredient added to our mashed sweet potatoes is freshly chopped sage. I love sage. It’s so pretty with its velvety feel and beautiful greenish-grey color. Fresh sage is extremely fragrant, loud in flavor and you’ll find just a little bit can go quite a long way.

ORANGE ZEST? OPTIONAL.

Another ingredient that goes a long, long way is orange zest. Okay, so here’s the deal with orange zest in this recipe — depending on how adventurous your pallet and the taste buds of your guests are, it could possibly throw you for a bit of a loop. My guests were divided on the orange zest. I threw two Thanksgivings featuring these potatoes. One crowd (a foodie-driven, younger crowd) absolutely adored the orange addition. The second crowd enjoyed the potatoes, but because the orange adds such a vast distinction between these and a traditional sweet potato casserole, they were thrown for a bit of a loop.

So! While the orange truly does compliment all the other ingredients of this recipe and adds an intricate and exciting flavor profile to the mashed sweet potatoes, know your crowd, and use it at your discretion.

THOSE HONEY WALNUTS, THO.

Next, the honey walnuts. Everybody loves the honey walnuts. This one is a no-brainer.Now, I’m going to make mine from scratch, cause it takes like 10 minutes and I can control the salt this way. I like salty things, don’t you? However, if you don’t have it in you to sugar up some nuts on any given day, feel free to pick up a bag of candied walnuts from the grocery store, and if you can’t find walnuts, pecans will sub in just fine.

In the end, this recipe for mashed sweet potatoes with goat cheese, sage, and honey walnuts was everything I needed it to be and more. Simple to assemble, only a small amount of hands-on time required, beautifully flavored and the perfectly suitable substitute for sweet potato casserole on Thanksgiving day.

Whether you are hosting a fall dinner party, creating a Thanksgiving menu of your own, or just looking for an exciting change of pace in the side dish department, this recipe is guaranteed to be a sweet potato crowd-pleaser. Please, enjoy.

5 from 3 votes

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Honey Walnuts

Cook Time

8 mins

Total Time

8 mins

 

A quick and easy recipe for stovetop honey walnuts.

Course: Snack

Cuisine: American

Servings: 12 (For Topping Potatoes)

Calories: 82 kcal

Author: Kelly Anthony

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 cup walnut pieces
• Heavy pinch Kosher salt

Instructions

1. Have ready a silicone baking mat or a sheet of parchment paper.

2. Add butter to a sauté pan over medium heat and allow to melt. As soon as the butter has melted, whisk in the honey. 

3. Add the walnuts, and increase the heat to medium-high. Stir often until the honey coating thickens and darkens in color slightly, about 2-3 minutes. Sprinkle with a generous pinch of Kosher salt.

4. Transfer the nuts to the silicone mat and allow to cool completely, about 10 minutes.

Nutrition Facts

Honey Walnuts

Amount Per Serving

Calories 82 Calories from Fat 63

% Daily Value*

Total Fat 7g 11%

Saturated Fat 1g 5%

Cholesterol 2mg 1%

Potassium 42mg 1%

Total Carbohydrates 4g 1%

Sugars 3g

Protein 1g 2%

Vitamin A 0.6%

Vitamin C 0.2%

Calcium 1%

Iron 1.6%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

5 from 1 vote

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Mashed Sweet Potatoes with Goat Cheese, Sage and Honey Walnuts

Prep Time

20 mins

Cook Time

1 hr

Total Time

1 hr 20 mins

 

A recipe for mashed sweet potatoes, featuring easy, roasted sweet potatoes, goat cheese, chopped sage and honey walnuts.

Course: Side Dish

Cuisine: American

Servings: 12

Calories: 164 kcal

Author: Kelly Anthony

Ingredients

• 8 medium-sized sweet potatoes scrubbed clean and patted dry
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 6 ounces goat cheese room temperature
• 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream room temperature
• 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon orange zest optional
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 cup honey walnuts chopped
• 1 1/2 tablespoons fresh minced sage separated
• 2 ounces cold goat cheese crumbled

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 400° and have ready a large rimmed sheet pan lined with aluminum foil.

2. Place the scrubbed sweet potatoes on the sheet pan and drizzle with canola oil. Bake for 1 hour. Remove from the oven and set aside until cool enough to handle. 

3. In the meantime, in a large mixing bowl, add 6 ounces room temperature goat cheese, and the cream. Using a handheld mixer, beat on medium-high until well-blended. 

4. Peel the potatoes out of the skins and add each potato one at a time to the goat cheese mixture, mixing on medium-low speed.

5. Once the potatoes have been incorporated, add the salt, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, nutmeg, zest (if using), cayenne, 1 tablespoon of sage, and mix once more until incorporated. Stir in about 2/3 of the honey walnuts.

6. Transfer to a serving dish and garnish with the remaining walnuts, crumbled goat cheese and remaining sage. Serve and enjoy.

Nutrition Facts

Mashed Sweet Potatoes with Goat Cheese, Sage and Honey Walnuts

Amount Per Serving

Calories 164 Calories from Fat 126

% Daily Value*

Total Fat 14g 22%

Saturated Fat 5g 25%

Cholesterol 25mg 8%

Sodium 213mg 9%

Potassium 12mg 0%

Total Carbohydrates 4g 1%

Sugars 3g

Protein 4g 8%

Vitamin A 10.1%

Vitamin C 0.3%

Calcium 4.4%

Iron 3.4%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.