Mashed Purple Sweet Potatoes and Banana

These Mashed Purple Sweet Potatoes make an easy two-step, three-ingredient recipe to accompany a simple roast or an unusual Thanksgiving side dish. If you love mashed sweet potatoes and banana, this is the recipe for you!

You’ll love that the richness in these vegan mashed sweet potatoes comes only from the sweet potatoes and the banana. But are you left with bland and boring flavor from these mashed sweet potatoes without milk, butter, or cream? No, you won’t miss them at all.

a bowl of purple mashed sweet potatoes garnished with banana next to a potato masher and cut purple sweet potato.
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Ingredients

a cutting board with a cut purple sweet potato, a whole potato, and a knife.

 

Purple sweet potatoes

Be sure to buy purple-fleshed sweet potatoes like Stokes purple sweet potatoes and not a Japanese purple sweet potato with white flesh. Estimate a half sweet potato per person, depending on the size of your sweet potato, the size of your person, and whether this is a Thanksgiving potluck or what else is being served.

Want more purple sweet potato recipes? Try baked purple sweet potato loaded with white beans, my purple sweet potato sourdough, or purple sweet potato pancakes.

What’s the difference between purple sweet potato and purple yams?

Tip from the wise quacker: people commonly confuse sweet potatoes and yams. You can find a rainbow of colors in white, orange, yellow, and purple. But most everything we get in the U.S. is a sweet potato, not a yam.

Well, that used be true. Because ube, a purple yam, is starting to appear more commonly here in ube crinkle cookies and other ube baked goods, we are starting to see true yams in the U.S.

Please see the recipe card below for complete information on ingredients and quantities.

Variations and substitutions

  • Use a sweet potato of a different color. Purple sweet potatoes are a bit drier than other sweet potatoes, but they won’t taste any different.
  • Add a parsnip or a bit of cinnamon and nutmeg for a touch of spice.
  • Add some brown sugar and cover in marshmallows for a non-traditional Thanksgiving mashed sweet potato casserole!

Recipe tips and tricks

How to bake purple sweet potatoes

Step 1: Roast the sweet potatoes in your oven at 425 degrees or so. Poke a few holes in the skin and then wrap them in foil.

three roasted purple sweet potatoes on foil.

They’re done when you can easily pierce the skin and flesh with a fork or knife. Let the baked purple sweet potatoes cool just a bit until you can handle them.

You don’t even have to peel your mashed potatoes if you don’t mind the skin. In fact, sweet potato skins provide a lot of nutrition!

Mashing the purple sweet potatoes

Step 2: Put the baked purple sweet potatoes in a bowl with the banana and salt. Mash with a potato masher and serve immediately.

a bowl of baked sweet potato, banana, and potato masher.

What to serve with mashed sweet potatoes

pan roasted chicken breast on top of purple mashed sweet potato.

Recipe FAQs

Can I use a vegan butter in these purple mashed sweet potatoes?

Absolutely. The sweet potatoes and banana make these so rich and creamy, even when dairy-free. You could add a vegan butter or any non-dairy milk of your choice to make them creamier. Or you could leave both out.

Why do purple vegetables usually change color when you cook them?

If you’re like me and have a thing for lavender cookies, and Empress gin cocktails, and purple sweet potatoes, you’ve probably noticed that purple vegetables usually change color when you cook them. That’s due to the breakdown of the anthocyanins. After a few disappointing adventures in color with somewhat purple latkes and my reddish velvet beet waffles, I was so ecstatic to see the color of this sweet potato and banana mash!

Can I freeze mashed sweet potatoes?

Yes. Sweet potatoes can be frozen either after cooking or after mashing and stored for months. The texture won’t be the same, but they’ll still taste good.

Love this recipe? Please leave a 5-heart 💜💜💜💜💜 rating in the recipe card below. Let me know how much you loved it, or any problems you had, in the comments section further down.

Recipe

Mashed Purple Sweet Potatoes and Banana

5 from 1 vote
Category: Side Dish
Cuisine: Unspecified
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour
5 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
Servings: 2
Calories: 247kcal
These mashed purple sweet potatoes make an easy side dish. If you like both mashed sweet potatoes and banana, this is the recipe for you.
Print Recipe

Ingredients

  • 2 small purple sweet potatoes one per person
  • 1 small to medium banana one half per person
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon butter, optional
  • 1 tablespoon cream or milk (dairy or non-dairy), optional

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 450°F.
  • Scrub the sweet potatoes. Use a fork to puncture the skin in several paces, and then wrap them in aluminum foil.
    2 small purple sweet potatoes
  • Bake for 45 to 60 minutes until the skin and flesh is easily pierced with a fork.
  • Let the potatoes cool enough so that you can handle them. If you want to peel them, use a knife to cut a thin slit in the skin and peel.
  • Combine the peeled sweet potatoes and banana in a small to medium sized bowl and mash them with a potato masher or fork until well-combined. Add salt and butter, milk, or cream, if you are using them, adding a little bit at a time and adjusting for taste and texture as desired. Serve warm.
    1 small to medium banana, ½ teaspoon salt, 1 tablespoon butter, optional, 1 tablespoon cream or milk (dairy or non-dairy), optional

Notes

Nutritional calculations shown are for these mashed sweet potatoes without milk, butter, or cream.
To scale up this purple mashed sweet potato recipe, estimate one small or half a large sweet potato per person and one half of a small banana per person.

Nutrition

Calories: 247kcal | Carbohydrates: 59g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 1g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 706mg | Potassium: 973mg | Fiber: 8g | Sugar: 17g | Vitamin A: 32100IU | Vitamin C: 11mg | Calcium: 71mg | Iron: 2mg
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