8 (Not-Too-Sweet) Sweet Potato Recipes for Thanksgiving

[Photographs: J. Kenji López-Alt, Jennifer Olvera, Vicky Wasik, Joshua Bousel]

Sweet potatoes are already sweet—so much is obvious from the name—so why is it that so many Thanksgiving recipes for them are packed with sugar and covered with marshmallow toppings? Not that I complained about that as a kid: I lived for sweet potato casserole on Thanksgiving, from its vivid baby-carrot orangeness to its crunchy streusel topping to its marshmallow-pocked insides (that's just how my family casserole rolled). But as I've grown up, so have my taste buds, and I imagine many of you have undergone the same transformation.

The reality is, a well-thought-out dish featuring well-cooked sweet potatoes actually needs very little, if any, additional sugar to be satisfying. Some such dishes may end up tasting mildly sweet, some will be more assertively savory, but no one will mistake either for the dessert course. Here are eight of our favorite recipes for not-too-sweet sweet potatoes—mashed, roasted, grilled, and more.

The Best Mashed Sweet Potatoes

[Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt]

Rather than rely heavily on sweeteners for this mash, we slow-roast the potatoes to bring out their natural sugars, then add brown butter, a little maple syrup, and a few sprigs of thyme before beating the whole mixture together. The resulting mash effectively balances sweet and savory flavors, and actually tastes like potatoes to boot.

Get the recipe for The Best Mashed Sweet Potatoes »

Slow-Cooker Spiced Sweet Potato and Carrot Mash

[Photograph: Jennifer Olvera]

Plenty of cream and butter goes into this mash, but limiting the brown sugar to a quarter cup holds it back from the border of Dessert-town. The addition of carrots to the sweet potatoes gives this dish some vegetable complexity, and because it's all made in the slow cooker, you'll save valuable space in your oven and on your stovetop.

Get the recipe for the Slow-Cooker Spiced Sweet Potato and Carrot Mash »

The Best Roasted Sweet Potatoes

[Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt]

As with all great roasted potatoes, baking sweet potatoes at a high temperature gets them beautifully crisp and browned on the outside and super tender inside. It also intensifies their sweetness, especially if you convert some of their starch into maltose by par-cooking them before roasting, as we do here.

Get the recipe for The Best Roasted Sweet Potatoes »

Roasted Sweet Potato Salad With Chutney Vinaigrette

[Photograph: Jennifer Segal]

To add more savoriness to your potatoes, make an easy salad of them with dried cranberries, chopped scallions, and sliced almonds, dressed in a vinaigrette of mango chutney, mustard, honey, and garlic. The potatoes are first roasted with ginger and cumin, giving the salad warm spicy flavors along with the tartness of the berries and the pungency of scallions.

Get the recipe for the Roasted Sweet Potato Salad With Chutney Vinaigrette »

Roasted Sweet Potato Soup With Pistachio, Orange, and Mint Salsa

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

The soup itself—made with roasted sweet potatoes, onion, garlic, carrot, chicken or vegetable stock, and a splash of orange juice—is lovely, but extremely simple. It's the pistachio, mint, and orange salsa we make to spoon on top and swirl into the soup that makes it look, and taste, really fancy. Passing the soup through a fine-mesh strainer will leave the texture particularly smooth, but it's optional if you want to save time.

Get the recipe for Roasted Sweet Potato Soup With Pistachio, Orange, and Mint Salsa »

Mildly Sweet Sweet-Potato Biscuits

[Photograph: Marissa Sertich Velie]

Sweet potato biscuits came about as a cost-cutting measure—back when wheat flour was expensive, the potatoes provided a cheap way to stretch it out. But frugality aside, using sweet potatoes creates a moist, tender, flavorful biscuit that stops short of being cake-like. Mash your potatoes by hand to preserve a few chunks, which will add pockets of flavor to the finished biscuits.

Get the recipe for Mildly Sweet Sweet-Potato Biscuits »

Grilled Sweet Potato Wedges

[Photograph: Joshua Bousel]

This Thanksgiving, if you live in (or will be visiting) a warm spot where grilling season is still in effect, take advantage of your good fortune by whipping up these sweet potato wedges. By roasting the potatoes over indirect heat before moving them directly over the flame, you'll get a creamy interior and a deeply charred exterior. Sprinkling the wedges with a blend of paprika, cumin, chili powder, and cayenne adds some heat and plays up the smokiness from the grill. Frankly, even if winter has already hit where you are, these are good enough to brave the cold for.

Get the recipe for Grilled Sweet Potato Wedges »

Grilled Hasselback Sweet Potatoes With Rosemary and Garlic

[Photograph: Joshua Bousel]

The same technique that makes regular Hasselback potatoes so delectably crisp-edged and creamy works for sweet potatoes, too. To avoid cutting all the way through as you make the slits, try first cutting off some of each potato to make a level base, then using chopsticks on either side to act as a stop for your knife. Start the potatoes in the microwave to soften them up a little before putting them on the grill to brown and crisp.

Get the recipe for Grilled Hasselback Sweet Potatoes With Rosemary and Garlic »