Here's how to enjoy your leftover sweet potato casserole even more the second time around.
For countless families, it's simply not Thanksgiving (or Christmas, or any big gathering) without sweet potato casserole. And then the main event is over, and three days later, you have a giant casserole still 3/4 full that's hogging valuable space in your fridge.
Think of those sweet potatoes as an asset, a building block for soups, breads, smoothies, and more. You can resurrect that casserole phoenix-like in the recipes we share below. You'll quite possibly like the clever sweet potato reincarnation even better than the original.
If it's whole, uncooked sweet potatoes you're swimming in, check out our long list of lovely sweet potato recipes.
1. Mashed Sweet Potatoes
Get Recipe: Spiced Mashed Sweet Potatoes
This is probably the most obvious transformation, but if you're looking for minimal effort and maximum versatility, here you go. Scrape off and discard any marshmallow or brown sugar topping, then heat up in the microwave and mash up or purée everything that's left, adding more milk or melted butter as needed. You're left with a colorful side to serve with salmon, pork chops, or ham. If your sweet potatoes are already spiced, the flavor will only complement these rich mains.
2. Make Pancakes
Simply Recipes / Nick Evans
Get Recipe: Mashed Potato Pancakes
Contributor Nick Evans says, "While you are shaping the pancakes into patties, it’s easiest to use your hands to shape them into small disks. If the potato mixture is sticking, wet your hands slightly then form the patties."
3. Enrich Your Smoothies
Elana Lepkowski
Get Recipe: Carrot Cake Smoothie
Mash up and freeze your leftover sweet potato casserole (with or without topping) ice cube trays to add to smoothies. The sweet potato cubes work especially well in this healthy carrot cake smoothie recipe, which is like having a rich dessert shake for breakfast.
4. Add to a Snack Cake
Get Recipe: Applesauce Spice Cake
You can swap out sweet potato purée for applesauce in nearly any baking recipe. Do so in this spiced snack cake recipe and you'll have a moist, delightful cake with minimal effort.
5. Homemade Bread
Get Recipe: Homemade Potato Bread
A reader gave us the smart tip to swap leftover cooked sweet potatoes for the mashed potato in this timelessly popular recipe. It'll give it a pretty orange tint, too. If the freshly baked loaf isn't enough, you'll flip even more for the toast the next day.
6. Make Waffles
Get Recipe: Sweet Potato Waffles with Fried Egg, Bacon, and Scallions
You can serve these sweet potato waffles for breakfast, brunch, or dinner. You'll need 3/4 cup of mashed sweet potatoes for this recipe.
7. Best-Ever Holiday Gingerbread
Get Recipe: Pumpkin Gingerbread
After multiple reader comments simply raving about this gingerbread recipe, I suggested to my mom that she make it. "It's the best ever!" she told me. Swap out the pumpkin purée for sweet potato mash and you'll have a holiday delight that you can bake in mini-loaves and freeze for gifts.
8. Sweet Noodle Kugel
Coco Morante / Simply Recipes
Get Recipe: Noodle Kugel
Add up to 2 cups of sweet potato purée to this noodle kugel (you can reduce the sour cream or cottage cheese if you like) and serve it as a savory-sweet side with brisket or roasted chicken.
9. Meatloaf Upgrade
Get Recipe: Turkey Meatloaf
Turkey meatloaf has a rep for being dry. Add cooked sweet potatoes to keep it juicy and help bind it together. Use 1 to 1 1/2 cups of mashed sweet potato instead of the 2 cups pf grated zucchini that this recipe calls for. To really use up your leftovers, glaze it with cranberry sauce instead of ketchup.
10. Sweet Potatoes Croquettes
Simply Recipes / Frank Tiu
Get Recipe: Potato Croquettes
Piping hot and crispy, croquettes are impossible to resist. Use about 2 cups of mashed sweet potatoes instead of the potatoes in this recipe and add in about 2 tablespoons of flour to help bind it all together (sweet potatoes don't have as much starch as regular potatoes). Dip in sour cream or aioli.
11. Creamy Sweet Potato Soup
Get Recipe: Creamy Sweet Potato Soup
Instead of starting with raw sweet potatoes as the recipe does, omit them and instead add about 3 cups of mashed sweet potatoes at the beginning of Step 3. If your sweet potato casserole was spiced, omit the cinnamon and nutmeg in the recipe.
12. Sweet Potato Gnocchi
Get Recipe: Pumpkin Ricotta Gnocchi
Sub 1 cup of mashed sweet potatoes for the pumpkin purée in these delicate little dumplings. Serve them in a brown butter sauce. Pair them with a pork loin for an elegant dinner.
