I recently watched Trisha Yearwood make this Sweet Potato Souffle recipe on her show as I was working on another recipe. It looked so good that I could not help but turn the oven on to bake the sweet potatoes that I bought for a soup recipe that I wanted to try this week. Oh well, I guess I will make the soup some other time…
It ended up being so good that I had to share. This Southern-style sweet potato souffle (or some also call “sweet potato casserole”) is the perfect side dish for your holiday table. Made with heavy pecan topping it is truly delicious. It is surely one of my favorite Thanksgiving side dishes.
The best part is that with a little bit of advance prep, it can be put together in just about 10 minutes to bake right before serving. Intrigued? Let’s break it down.
Sweet Potato Souffle Ingredients:
This recipe has two sets of ingredients. The first set is the pecan topping and the second one is the sweet potato casserole part aka the souffle.
Pecan Topping:
To make the pecan topping, you will need:
- Pecans
- Brown sugar (or coconut sugar)
- All-purpose flour
- Unsalted butter (or coconut oil) at room temperature
Sweet Potatoes:
To make the fluffy sweet potato souffle you will need:
- Unsalted butter (at room temperature)
- Sweet potatoes
- Large eggs
- Sugar
- Vanilla extract
- Whole milk
- A pinch of salt.
How To Cook Sweet Potatoes for this recipe
I followed in Trisha’s footsteps to roast the sweet potatoes. To roast sweet potatoes:
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cover a sheet pan with aluminum foil and set aside.
- Poke sweet potatoes with a fork in several places and place on the sheet pan.
- Roast for about an hour and 15 minutes or until a knife inserted into a sweet potato comes in and out easily. I usually turn them halfway through to make sure they are roasted evenly.
- Let them cool 10-15 minutes and remove the flesh using a spoon. Place it in a large mixing bowl.
How to Make Sweet Potato Souffle?
Once the sweet potatoes are cooked, the process of making this sweet potato souffle recipe is quite easy and quick with three steps:
- Prepare the sweet potatoes filling /mixture (aka the bottom layer): Mix together the sweet potato flesh with eggs, sugar, vanilla extract, milk and a pinch of salt. You can use a stand mixer or a hand mixer to do this. Transfer the mixture into an 8X11 or 9X13 oven proof casserole dish (or large soufflé dish) that is greased with butter.
- Make The Pecan Topping: Mix together roughly chopped pecans, all purpose flour, butter, and brown sugar. It should look like streusel topping.
- Assemble & Bake: Distribute the sweet potato souffle topping evenly over the sweet potato mixture. Bake in a preheated 350 F degree oven for 40 minutes.
Pecans coated with brown sugar and butter give the sweet potatoes a surprising “streusel” like crunch. With every bite, you will want to eat more. Guaranteed.
Make ahead & Storage Instruction
To Make Ahead
You can prepare every component of this baked sweet potato soufflé recipe a day in advance and bake it right before serving. To do so:
- Roast the sweet potatoes, let it cool for 20 minutes, and prepare the sweet potato casserole layer (the bottom layer). Place it in an airtight container and keep it in the fridge.
- Make the pecan topping and place it in a seperate airtight container and keep it in the fridge.
- Assemble right before serving: Spread the sweet potato mixture in an oven-proof casserole dish. Top it off with the pecan crumble topping.
- Bake in a 350 F degree oven for 40 minutes or until bubbling.
Storage: What to do with the leftovers?
I doubt that you’ll have any leftovers but if you do, place them in an airtight container and keep it in the fridge for up to 3 days.
FAQ:
For questions like this, I usually go to big recipe sites like Food Network and All Recipes. When you look at their sweet potato souffle and sweet potato casserole recipes, you’ll see that they are pretty much the same thing. From what I understand, most people use the terms sweet potato souffle and sweet potato casserole interchangeably.
However, I have seen some other recipe sites differentiate their sweet potato casserole recipe by adding all-purpose flour into the sweet potato mixture to make it fluffier.
To be honest, I do not see the need to add in any flour and I think this Southern-style sweet potato souffle recipe is perfectly fluffy without it.
I usually serve this as a side dish to serve with Turkey for Thanksgiving. However, it is perfectly sweet enough to serve as a dessert.
You sure can. I think it tastes very good when it is chilled or when it is served at room temperature.
Recipes Tips & Tricks:
- Ingredient substitutions: You can substitute coconut sugar for brown sugar for the topping. However, I do not recommend doing so for the sweet potato layer.
- Let baked sweet potatoes cool down before making the mixture: It is imperative that you let the sweet potato flesh cool down before mixing it with eggs. If it is too hot, the residual heat might turn your eggs into scrambled eggs.
- Use different nuts: I think we can all agree, a true Southern style sweet potato souffle is made with pecans, you can also use walnuts in this recipe.
In the midst of prepping for Thanksgiving day, if you need an easy-to-make but delicious side dish /dessert with amazing flavors you have got to try this Trisha Yearwood Sweet Potato Casserole recipe.
I promise it will not disappoint.
Other Sweet Potato Recipes you might also like
- Easy Mashed Sweet Potatoes
- Vegan Sweet Potato Carrot Ginger Soup
- Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Brussels Sprouts
- Sweet Potato Biscuits
Other Thanksgiving side dishes you might like
- Delicata Squash Recipe
- Apple Salad Recipe
- Roasted Carrots – with the volume turned up!
- Wild Rice Salad Recipe
- Vegan Butternut Squash Soup
- Stuffed Acorn Squash
Sweet Potato Souffle Recipe
Ingredients
For the Souffle:
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature (4 oz. or 1 stick) plus 1 tablespoon (to grease the casserole dish)
- 5 medium sweet potatoes you need 5-6 cups flesh
- 2 large eggs at room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar (Or cane sugar)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup whole milk (or almond milk)
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
For the toppings:
- 1 cup pecans coarsely chopped
- 1 cup brown sugar (or coconut sugar)
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened (2oz. or 1/2 stick)
Instructions
To Bake The Sweet Potatoes:
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Using a fork, poke the sweet potatoes and place them on a foil covered sheet pan. Bake for an hour and 15 minutes. (The original recipe states to bake it for an hour but it took me 15 more minutes. Keep an eye on it after an hour.)
- Take it out of the oven and let it cool for 20 minutes. Do not turn the oven off.
To Make the Sweet Potato Souffle (aka the bottom layer)
- Using the 1 tablespoon of butter, generously grease an oven-proof casserole dish (I used an 8X11 pyrex but 9X13 would also work). Set aside.
- Peel the sweet potatoes and place the flesh into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (you can also use a hand mixer).
- Add the rest of the butter, eggs, sugar, vanilla extract, milk, and salt in the bowl. Mix until they are all combined.
- Place the mixture into the buttered baking dish.
To Make the pecan topping:
- Mix together pecans, brown sugar, flour, and 1/2 stick butter in a small bowl.
To assemble & bake:
- Spoon the pecan topping over the sweet potato mixture evenly making sure to cover the top fully.
- Bake it in the oven for 40 minutes. Let it cool down for 10 minutes before serving.
Video
Notes
- Roast the sweet potatoes, let it cool for 20 minutes, and prepare the sweet potato casserole layer (the bottom layer). Place it in an airtight container and keep it in the fridge.
- Make the pecan topping and place it in a separate airtight container and keep it in the fridge.
- Assemble right before serving: Spread the sweet potato mixture in an oven-proof casserole dish. Top it off with the pecan crumble topping.
- Bake in a 350 F degree oven for 40 minutes or until bubbling.
Nutrition
Adapted from this recipe.
Meena Arun
Hi!
Instead of baking sweet potatoes for 1 hour, can I pressure cook them to reduce time?
Also can I substitute sweet potatoes for butternut squash in this recipe?
In india, it’s slightly tough to get sweet potatoes which are yellow in colour, they are usually white and locally farm grown.
Aysegul Sanford
Hello Meena,
Yes, you can. It would be much quicker too!
I have never tried this recipe with butternut squash but I don’t see it being an issue as the flavor profiles are very similar. It would be slightly different in taste but I think it would still work.
Please let me know if you end up making this sweet potato souffle recipe with butternut squash.
Cheers!
Lori
This is my go-to sweet potato casserole recipe for Thanksgiving. I make it every year. Though I have to say, until this year I always used brown sugar for the topping. But this year, I bought some coconut sugar and used that instead. No one could tell the difference.
Thanks for such a great recipe.
Aysegul Sanford
This makes me so happy Lori. I make it every year too. Thanks for coming by and taking the time to leave a review.
Cheers!