Oat Pecan Crunchy Sweet Potato Casserole

The Thanksgiving season evokes warm memories of colorful foliage, early morning turkey trots, and my mom in the kitchen preparing dinner with sweet potatoes. Lots and lots of sweet potatoes! Sweet potatoes with brown sugar, sweet potatoes topped with marshmallows, sweet potatoes with candied pecans…..Sweet potatoes always felt like a treat, special for this time of year.  As I grew into an adult I took over the responsibility of making – or rather, REmaking these dishes, each year.I teamed up with FreshDirect to bring you this next sweet potato recipe! I love using FreshDirect because it takes the hassle of shopping completely out of the picture. Rushing to the store, having to park, or worse – taking the train home with 5 pounds of sweet potatoes – is never fun. FreshDirect delivers everything straight to your door so there is no excuse not to whip this up and impress your family or friends on Thanksgiving! This dish is warm, delicious and naturally sweet, with none of that overpowering syrup flavor! I can seriously eat the topping on its own – it’s that good.

I have served this for the past three years at Thanksgiving and with the help of FreshDirect I always have time to do my favorite turkey trot that same morning! Here is what you will need:

• sweet potatoes
• nut milk
• coconut oil
• oats
• dates
• raw nuts
• cinnamon
• nutmeg
• cloves
• vanilla extract

For me this recipe is great because it involves a lot of pantry staples that I always have on hand and use daily. There is nothing more annoying then getting an ingredient for a recipe, using it once and never using it again. Especially when you live in NYC and your kitchen is the size of most people’s closets. I always keep this in mind when I develop my recipes. As I always say, healthy eating and cooking should be fun, stress free and enjoyable! Whether you’re hosting a big family dinner, getting together with a few friends, or just getting into the holiday spirit in the kitchen, this recipe won’t disappoint. (I have literally been eating this for breakfast, lunch, and dinner since I tested it last week 🙂 )

Recipe:

Topping:

• 3 cups oats
• 1 cup date
• 1 cup raw mixed nuts or pecans
• 1/2 cup melted coconut oil
• dash cinnamon
• dash nutmeg
• dash cloves
• dash sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Topping Instructions:

1. In a food processor process oats until roughly chopped then place in a large mixing bowl
2. Process dates until well combined and a paste forms. Place in the mixing bowl with the oats
3. Process nuts until roughly chopped and add to the mixing bowl
4. In the large mixing bowl add the melted coconut oil and spices. Mix everything together with your hands until it is a crumbly mixture

Potatoes:

• 5 1/5 pounds of sweet potatoes (depending on the size, it is roughly 10 potatoes)
• 1/2 cup nut milk
• dash cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• salt to taste

1. Place a large pot with water on the fire and bring to a boil. While the water boils, peel and cube the sweet potatoes
2. Once the water is boiling place potatoes in the water, lower the fire and cover the potatoes for 30 minutes or until fork tender.
3. Drain the water (it’s okay if a little water gets in you’re mixing bowl) and add potatoes to a mixing bowl. Add add nut milk and spices. Using a hand blender blend potatoes. You can also do this in a food processor but you may need to do it in two batches.
4. Place potatoe mixture in a large pyrex  (I used a 9×13) and spread mixture evenly. Crumble your oat mixture on top.
5. Place in the oven at 350 for 30-40 minutes until golden brown, checking every so often.