Sweet potatoes take on a more savory flavor than usual in the recipe below. Mashed until they're nice and smooth and combined with a homemade garlic butter, they make a super delicious side to chicken, meat, or fish. Since they don't contain as much starch as regular potatoes, you can make your life easy by mashing them in the food processor or even with an immersion blender, or you can just mash them with a fork for more texture.
Consider making more garlic butter than you'll need – it makes making garlic bread a snap, and it's also delicious dolloped on baked potatoes or tossed with spaghetti. Roasting the garlic brings out all of the natural sweetness and cuts the bitterness of raw.
Garlic Butter Mashed Sweet Potatoes
8
15 minutes
1 hour
1 hour 15 minutes
4 sweet potatoes
1 head garlic
1 teaspoon olive oil
1/2 pound butter, softened
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1/2 teaspoon flaked sea salt
1/4 teaspoon chili flakes
1/4 cup milk
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prick the potatoes with a fork on all sides, then wrap in foil.
Slice off the top of the head of garlic to expose the tops of the cloves, then drizzle with olive oil and wrap in foil.
Place both the potatoes and the garlic in the oven. Roast for 30 minutes, then turn the potatoes and remove the garlic from the oven. Roast the potatoes for 30 minutes more, or until very tender. Place in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap: this will steam off the skins and make the potatoes easier to peel.
Squeeze the garlic out of the skins. Place in the food processor along with the butter, and process until smooth. Add the parsley, sea salt, and chili flakes, and process until just combined. Scoop out of the food processor and set aside.
Mash the potatoes using a masher, fork, food processor, or immersion blender, drizzling the milk in as you do. Add 2-3 tablespoons of the garlic butter and fold in. Serve.