Savory Sweet Potato Casserole is full of onion, rosemary, and thyme and topped with crispy bacon and crunchy pecans. It also is flavored with gruyere cheese and cayenne pepper. If you find traditional sweet potato casserole to be too sweet, give this savory version a try. I think you’ll like it!
Savory Sweet Potato Casserole Recipe
Sweet potatoes are truly one of my favorite foods and I generally prefer them prepared in a savory way. The typical sweet potato casserole,the one laden with brown sugar and topped with marshmallows that’s so popular for Thanksgiving, doesn’t really appeal to me. But I love for sweet potatoes to be a part of our Thanksgiving meal. So instead I thought I’d try a savory sweet potato casserole. Fresh herbs, bacon, and onions give this casserole lots of wonderful flavor. It’s a wonderful addition to a holiday table.
If you are looking for a sweet Sweet Potato Casserole, try this Sweet Potato Casserole with Marshmallows or Southern Candied Sweet Potatoes. They are both amazing.
How To Make
First I baked 4 large sweet potatoes in the oven until very soft, let them cool slightly, peeled off the skin, and mashed the pulp with a fork. I measured out 4 packed cups into my mixing bowl along with 2 tablespoons butter, 1/3 cup heavy cream, an egg, about 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, and some salt and black pepper. I beat everything just long enough to get it all smooth.
While the sweet potatoes were baking, I cooked some bacon, crumbled it, and set it aside. I used the bacon grease to cook a chopped onion. Is there anything better than the smell of onion cooking in bacon grease? Just before removing the onion from the heat, I added some fresh thyme and rosemary and immediately my kitchen smelled heavenly.
I stirred the onion into the sweet potato mixture along with half the bacon and 1/2 cup shredded gruyere cheese. Into a casserole dish it went. I then added a little more shredded Gruyere on top along with some Panko crumbs and chopped pecans mixed with melted butter.
Thirty minutes in the oven and a quick broil to brown the Panko crumbs and it was ready to be served. I sprinkled the remaining bacon on just before serving. You can never have enough bacon. 🙂
Wonderfully smooth, creamy, savory and just a little spicy, serve Savory Sweet Potato Casserole for Thanksgiving side dish and save your sweet tooth for dessert!
More Thanksgiving Sides
- Cheesy Green Bean Casserole
- Southern Cornbread Dressing
- Mashed Potato Green Bean Casserole
- Super Creamy Mac and Cheese
- The BEST Yeast Rolls
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Savory Sweet Potato Casserole
Ingredients
- 5 medium sweet potatoes, or 4 large
- 5 slices bacon
- 1 medium sweet or yellow onion, chopped
- 1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
- 1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1/3 cup heavy cream
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1 cup shredded Gruyere cheese, divided
- 2 tablespoons melted butter
- 1/4 cup Panko crumbs
- 1/4 cup chopped pecans
Instructions
- Bake sweet potatoes until very soft. Let cool slightly and remove and discard skin. Mash pulp with a fork and measure out 5 cups. Place in a mixing bowl.
- While sweet potatoes are baking, cook bacon in a nonstick skillet. Remove bacon, crumble, and set aside.
- Pour off all but 1 1/2 tablespoons bacon grease.
- Cook onion in bacon grease until soft, about 10 minutes. Just before removing from heat, add rosemary and thyme.
- To mixing bowl with sweet potatoes add 2 tablespoons butter, cream, egg, salt, pepper, and cayenne. Beat until smooth.
- Stir in onion mixture, 3/4 cup shredded Gruyere cheese, and half the crumbled bacon.
- Transfer mixture to a lightly greased casserole dish.
- Toss together melted butter, Panko crumbs and pecans.
- Top casserole with remaining gruyere and Panko crumb mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Broil just long enough to brown the Panko crumbs.
- Before serving top with remaining bacon.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Originally posted November 3, 2015. Updated with new content.
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.
Sounds great, I will give it a try. Only my wife and I at Thanksgiving, and she hates sweet potatoes. More for me.
My family hates sweet potatoes because all they have ever tasted is the nasty, overly sweet, gooey casserole served at holiday meals. I tried this for my husband and he raved. My daughter tried leftovers and now wants it for Thanksgiving. It’s easy and delicious, dosen’t get much better than that!
I made it for Thanksgiving. It was very tasty and had people ask for recipe. I”m going to make with Christmas dinner. Wondering if I can make it the day before and then do the finish work with the panko etc. on Christmas Day?
Yes! You can get it all assembled and ready to go and refrigerate it. Add the panko just before baking.
Can you make this ahead and freeze?
Do you think I could make this in the crock pot? We do a large thanksgiving that we bring our cooked dish to. I’m thinking the potatos will work, but the bread crumbs won’t brown. Any thoughts?
I think you could cook it in the crockpot. Sometimes when I want crispy breadcrumbs on a crock pot dish, I brown them in a skillet with butter and then sprinkle them on top of the casserole just before serving.
The recipe contains 2 different measurements for the sweet potatoes. In the description, it says that you used 4 cups. But, in the instruction section, it says 5 cups. Which is the correct amount?
The description says 4 large potatoes and the instruction say 5 cups.
I thought the same thing at first.
You want to use 5 cups of mashed sweet potato. $ large sweet potatoes should be plenty to get 5 cups of mashed. If you have extra you can freeze for another use (soup, pasta sauce, etc).
I am definitely making these for Thanksgiving !! one of the guests has celiac, I found out you can substitute crushed Rice Chex for the panko crumbs !! who doesn’t love dishes flavored with bacon 🙂
Think I’ll try caramelizing the bacon with just a bit of brown sugar before chopping it up and sprinkling it over the sweet potatoes
That sounds wonderful Mina!
I also grew up with brown sugar and marshmallow sweet potatoes and always wondered why are we adding more sugar to something already sweet?!?! I love that you made them savory! You had me at bacon, gruyere and onions! My husband might even like sweet potatoes this way! This Thanksgiving, I will be signing up for bringing sweet potatoes =)
I still haven’t found a way that my husband will like sweet potatoes!
Christin , I know the feeling!!! I have not tied these…maybe they will work…sure sounds great to me!
I make a sweet potato casserole with pecan streusel every year, and every year I think we don’t need anything else sweet on the dinner table! I love the sound of this with the herbs and gruyere — I think I might just like this more! Definitely trying this one. 🙂