How Many Calories are in Sweet Potato Casserole?

Sweet potato casserole, or candied yams as your family might call them, are another one of those holiday staple foods. Maybe you just had some at Thanksgiving; maybe you'll have some more at Christmas. This dish is another one of those foods that confuse people when it comes to being healthy. Yams = healthy, right? But that word "candied" usually makes dieters cringe.

Like any homemade food, there are tons of different family recipes, all with different nutritional information. I searched for a sweet potato casserole recipe that seemed to include a happy medium of average ingredients (but did include a marshmallow topping, which is a must in my family!) Keep in mind that we're talking about a serving size of approximately 1/8 of a 9 x 12 inch casserole dish.

How many calories are in a serving of sweet potato casserole?

200 calories
300 calories
400 calories
500 calories

The correct answer is 300 calories. Use this number as a rough guideline, since individual recipes vary so widely. The good news about this holiday favorite is that sweet potatoes are a great source of potassium, fiber, vitamins C and B6, and also manganese.

Easy Sweet Potato Cranberry Casserole Recipe

Rich and Colorful Holiday Side Dish with Cranberries and Yams

Enjoy a rich, tasty Southern casserole with canned sweet potatoes and fresh cranberries.

Sweet potatoes and cranberries are popular at holiday meals. Both provide a sweet contrast to dishes such as turkey, stuffing, and homemade yeast bread. While some Southern families simply bake sweet potatoes or yams, many make up special casseroles combining various vegetables and fruits like sweet potatoes and cranberries.

Do note that the words sweet potato and yam may be used, but what you get in the United States would be sweet potatoes. They are the bright orange variety most often though can be in the yellow color range. Yams, on the other hand, are more often purple or white and have a barky looking jacket and can grow up to seven feet long. Yams are not grown in the United States, but they can be found at some specialty food shops. Sweet potatoes and yams are not related. In other words, they are totally different vegetables. However, sweet potatoes and yams cook up much the same with yams being a little sweeter and the taste a bit different depending on the recipe.

Sweet potatoes (and yams) are hard, root vegetables, so they do take quite a while to cook. To save time, this easy casserole recipe includes canned yams or sweet potatoes. Home baked or boiled sweet potatoes can be prepared and used in place of the canned sweet potatoes, but then the recipe takes longer with the extra step.

Easy Sweet Potato Cranberry Casserole Recipe

Ingredients:

1 can cooked yams or sweet potatoes in chunks and not mashed (40 ounce size can or equal)
3 cups fresh whole cranberries
1 ½ cups sugar
1 small orange (peeled and sliced thin)
½ cup pecans (chopped or whole)
¼ cup orange juice
¾ tsp cinnamon (sprinkle type – not the sticks)
¼ tsp nutmeg
¼ tsp mace (optional)

Directions:

Grease a 2 quart casserole dish.
Add cranberries, sugar, orange slices, pecans, orange juice, cinnamon, nutmeg and mace and stir in mixing bowl. Then, pour mixture into prepared casserole dish.
Bake uncovered in a preheated oven at 375 degrees F for 30 minutes.
Remove from oven and stir in canned sweet potatoes that have been drained of the extra liquid in the can.
Return casserole to the oven and heat until yams or sweet potatoes are heated. This takes around 15 minutes, since the canned sweet potatoes are pre-cooked.

Note – Mace is a seasoning with a taste similar to nutmeg but stronger (made from the outside of the nutmeg plant). For families who do not have mace in the pantry but want more flavor, just go a bit heavier on the nutmeg.