I first made these Healthier Sweet Potatoes with Marshmallows for Thanksgiving 2018, and I've made it ever since. With just two ingredients and less sugar than a traditional casserole, it's a perfect dish for a Thanksgiving dinner!
Thanksgiving has a lot of food, and there's no need for all of it to be so rich. So I deeply roast sweet potatoes to concentrate the sugars to make them taste sweeter. And the only other ingredient I add is marshmallows, which are the traditional topping.
Consider this to be a healthier sweet potato casserole with marshmallows. Traditional sweet potato casserole is made with those cans of sweet potatoes that are drowning in syrup. Although my husband would generally prefer "candied yams" drenched in syrup, I feel that very sweet food should be saved for dessert. (I'd rather eat pie!)
I love that I'm starting with whole sweet potatoes instead. This dish is easy enough that I could make it on Thanksgiving, but I usually make it in advance!
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Why This Recipe Works
- 🍠Roasting sweet potatoes in their skins concentrates the sugars, deepens the flavor, and makes them taste sweeter.
- 🍬The only added sugar is in the marshmallows on top, where you'll taste them front and center.
- ⏲️It's easy to make in advance!
The Origin of Sweet Potatoes and Marshmallows as a Dish
Sweet potato casserole as we know it was invented in 1917 as a way to sell marshmallows, as food historian Sarah Lohman notes. This doesn't surprise me, since there's all kinds of recipes concocted by manufacturers to sell food products, like green bean casserole with condensed soup, or Chex mix.
We know marshmallows as a commonplace sweet - cheap to buy in grocery stores, and found in so many things, like breakfast cereal! 100 years ago, though, marshmallows were usually high-end confections before manufacturers figured out how to mass produce them.
Making marshmallows isn't necessarily difficult; in fact, I make several batches of Homemade Marshmallows every year. It is, however, time-consuming and is not something an early 20th century housewife would do when she's busy. Plus, adding marshmallows to a side dish at the dinner table would have been a novelty.
I'm not sure why it's a Thanksgiving staple. Quartz explores this. Perhaps it's because sweet potatoes are native to the Americas, or the so-sweet casserole contrasts so much to the turkey. Maybe it's because you combine canned sweet potatoes with prepackaged food - what's more American than that?
Ingredients
Lots of sweet potato casserole recipes add a lot of fat, but I maintain that isn't necessary. I enjoy Thanksgiving sweet potatoes with just 2 ingredients:
- Sweet Potatoes
- Marshmallows
I use fresh, raw sweet potatoes. These are the ones with orange flesh, and their skin may be reddish. These are the majority of the sweet potatoes you see at the grocery store, and may be labeled as yams. Choose ones that are all around the same size, so that they will be done at the same time. Avoid too many blemishes. I've found that larger sweet potatoes cook better for this recipe than do smaller ones.
While you can use white sweet potatoes for this recipe, I don't recommend them if you have a choice. The orange sweet potatoes are softer once they're cooked, giving you the texture you want.
Marshmallows is the other ingredient. Brand doesn't matter; I usually use generic or store-brand. I prefer miniature marshmallows as I prefer the way I can spread them out over the sweet potatoes. I use around half of a standard sized bag.
You can include cinnamon, cloves, or other warm fall spices if you'd like.
Instructions
Give your sweet potatoes a scrub. Scrape or slice off any offensive blemishes or bad spots; this is most important if you're not going to peel the sweet potatoes later.
- Place the sweet potatoes on a baking sheet, preferably lined with parchment or a silicone mat for easy cleanup. You roast these long enough that they will ooze syrup, which will caramelize on the pan. Poke each potato several times with a fork to allow steam to vent.
- Bake at 425F for about an hour. Baking time will depend on how big your potatoes are. (These are 6 ounce sweet potatoes, and likely needed to bake a little less than 60 minutes, when I checked them.)
Pull your sweet potatoes out of the oven and test them for doneness with a fork. They should be very tender, and you should encounter almost no resistance. They're very, very done, which gets you a softer texture that will more closely imitate casserole texture.
Use tongs to transfer each baked sweet potato to a cutting board. Use the tongs to hold the potato still and slice it in half lengthwise. Then cut each half into as many sections as you want. Transfer them to a greased baking dish. Lightly mash if you'd like. You can sprinkle them with cinnamon or other warm spices at this time. I'd try 1 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice or ground cinnamon, to start.
- Top the sweet potatoes with plenty of marshmallows, spreading them around.
- Reduce the oven temperature to 350F and bake for another 8-10 minutes, until marshmallows are melty and beginning to brown.
If you're using a metal pan, you can stick it under the broiler to toast the marshmallows if you'd prefer.
Hint: You can remove the skins or not. Sometimes I leave them if they're not very thick; other times, like in these photos, I remove the skins.
Serving and Storage
Serve the sweet potatoes warm. Eat as many of them as you'd like. After all, it's just sweet potatoes underneath those marshmallows.
Leftovers are good too. Just heat them gently, covered, to make sure the marshmallows don't dry out. Marshmallows will slide off when the potatoes are warmed up, so you may want to nestle them into the center before you heat them.
Make Ahead
Everyone wants make-ahead dishes for Thanksgiving. What I do:
I roast the sweet potatoes 3 days in advance, until they're done. I skin them, cut them up, and put them in a storage container.
On Thanksgiving, I transfer the sweet potatoes to a greased baking dish. I reheat for 10-15 minutes, until the sweet potatoes are warm. Then I top them with marshmallows and bake as usual to make the marshmallows melty.
I do not recommend topping the sweet potatoes with marshmallows, baking, and then refrigerating for a later date. You will still need to reheat the dish 20-25 minutes when you plan to serve it, and the marshmallows will likely melt entirely or scorch.
Recipe FAQ
I think I am the only person, in the entire world, who is bothered when people call sweet potatoes "yams."
Sweet potatoes are indigenous to Central and South America, while true yams are native to Asia and Africa. True yams are a different vegetable, more akin to yucca, and are starchy and not sweet, per Bon Appetit.
Grocery stores may label orange sweet potatoes as yams, but that's really just marketing to differentiate the softer sweet potatoes from the firmer variety, per the Kitchn. In any case, you'll want orange sweet potatoes with reddish skin for this recipe, as they provide the softer texture you want.
You'll want sweet potatoes with orange flesh; these may have reddish skin. They may be called yams instead of sweet potatoes in the grocery store. Avoid white sweet potatoes, which are firmer and don't provide the soft texture you'll want.
Roasting/baking whole sweet potatoes is very easy. It concentrates the sugars in the sweet potatoes, making them taste sweeter. Sweet potatoes that are well-roasted in their skins also become very soft. It's also very easy to peel well-roasted sweet potatoes; the skins practically slip off.
Boiling sweet potatoes, in contrast, involves cutting and peeling them; monitoring them as they boil; and hoping they don't fall apart when you remove them from the water. You'll also lose some nutrients to the cooking water.
Do not peel sweet potatoes before roasting them whole. You can cut off blemishes if necessary, although those open spots will weep sugar, which may brown. I don't consider this a problem.
Peeling the sweet potatoes after they're roasted but before you top them with marshmallows is a personal preference. If I've trimmed off blemishes, I will likely include the skins as I don't mind them. However, skins can be tough to eat, and you may not want to include them in the dish on a holiday.
I roast my sweet potatoes at 425F. Exactly how long depends on size. When I used 6 ounce sweet potatoes, they may have been done at 50 minutes. My 9 ounce and 12 ounce sweet potatoes, which I used when I first wrote this recipe, needed at least 60 minutes; the 12 ounce ones may have needed longer.
Always test the sweet potatoes with a fork. If there's no resistance when you pierce it, they're done. The sweet potatoes in these pictures were very well-roasted; the fork didn't pierce the skin, but squished the skin down into the soft potato. It's not a problem if this happens to you.
Sweet potatoes are done when you can pierce them easily with a fork. The flesh will be soft, and you should feel no resistance. If you've roasted your sweet potatoes for an extra long time, there's a chance that the fork will just push the skin down into the soft sweet potato. In that case, they're definitely done; just use the tip of a steak knife to pierce the skin before cutting.
More Sweet Potatoes
I love sweet potatoes in other recipes, too!
Other Great Thanksgiving Dishes
Here's some of my other favorite Thanksgiving-related recipes!
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📖 Recipe
Healthier Sweet Potatoes with Marshmallows
Equipment
- baking sheet
- roasting pan
Ingredients
- 3 pounds orange sweet potatoes (whole; be sure they're all about the same size)
- 4 ounces miniature marshmallows (about half a bag)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425F. Scrub your sweet potatoes and trim any bad spots or blemishes from them. Place them on a baking sheet (lined is best for easier clean-up) and poke them along the top and sides a few times with a fork.
- Bake for about an hour, until your sweet potatoes are done. You should be incredibly tender, and you should able to pierce them easily with a fork. Once they're done, remove them from the oven.
- Use tongs to move a hot sweet potato to a cutting board. Hold the sweet potato with your tongs, and with your other hand, use a sharp knife to cut the pointy, inedible ends off. Slice the sweet potato down the middle lengthwise, then cut each half into half or as many segments as you'd like. Use tongs to remove pieces to a large and greased baking dish.
- Repeat process with remaining sweet potatoes.
- Top sweet potatoes carefully with miniature marshmallows. (Use more if you'd like.) Bake at 350F for 8-10 minutes, until marshmallows are melty. Bake longer if you want them to brown, or put them under the broiler if you're using a metal pan. Serve warm.
Notes
Nutrition
[Originally written November 12, 2019. Restructured and revised slightly September 14, 2025.]
Leona Konkel says
I love sweet potatoes, and I really enjoy this recipe. I hope you also like it. If you try it, let me know how it turns out!