Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Apples and Cranberries

This easy oven baked Roasted Sweet Potatoes, Apples, and Cranberries casserole recipe is one of those go-to dishes that you will be making over and over. This is a simple, tasty, and healthy side dish, and these potatoes are sweet and savory and full of delicious fall flavors everyone loves.

What I love about this simple side dish beside the maple and cinnamon flavor is it is light and not super sweet like most sweet potato dishes.  This recipe uses olive oil instead of butter and maple syrup instead of sugar.

The Goodness of Sweet Potatoes

Sweet potatoes are so versatile and can be used in stews and soups, they can be baked whole, mashed into casseroles, and fried. But my friends, roasting a sweet potato brings out some tasty flavors, you can’t get otherwise. Roasting sweet potatoes carmelizes the edges and keeps the center nice and creamy with all its sweet, earthy flavor. Pure sweet potato goodness.

Sweet potatoes adapt well to flavoring and adding cinnamon, maple syrup and sage adds a sweet and savory flavor to baked sweet potatoes.

These potatoes are perfect any time of the year and can be served with a big turkey or ham for the holidays, it pairs well with pork chops and sausages and, one of my favorite meals is a big salad and a plate of roasted sweet potato-apple casserole.

Ingredients

Sweet Potatoes – I use garnet sweet potatoes

Apples – I use Granny Smith

Cinnamon

Maple Syrup

Olive Oil

Sage  – I use rubbed sage

Salt

How to roast sweet potatoes

Remember I said this recipe is easy to make, all you need is one bowl and one baking dish, and for that matter, you can just mix everything in the baking dish if you prefer.  I just like to dirty more dishes.

Step 1. With a vegetable peeler, peel and then cut the sweet potatoes in half then slice into half-moon shapes. If you don’t peel the potatoes for this recipe the peel will just fall off and not look too pretty.

Step 2. No need to peel the apples, just wash them, and then cut them into quarters and slice.

Step 3. Add the sweet potatoes, apples, cranberries, maple syrup, cinnamon, sage, olive oil, and salt to a bowl, and mix to incorporate all the ingredients. When adding the sage, you need to break it up but rubbing between your fingers to make smaller pieces.

Step 4. Pour all the ingredients into a baking pan and bake for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.  This is seriously one colorful casserole.

If you like, you can prepare the potatoes with all the ingredients and put them in the baking pan and cover with plastic, and place in the refrigerator until ready to bake.  This is especially helpful for getting some of your dishes ready for the holidays early.

Is it a Sweet Potato or a Yam and why is it confusing?

First of all Sweet Potatoes are a root vegetable and native to the Americas and Yams are a tuber and native to Africa and Asia.

Garnet Sweet Potatoes – have rosy skin and orange flesh that is moist when cooked or baked. Their shape can be big and oval to cylindrical.

Jewel Sweet Potatoes – have light brown to golden skins with a creamy yellow flesh that is firm. They have a cylindrical shape with tapered ends

Real yams – are mostly grown in Africa and Asia and hard to find in the U.S.  Yams are larger in shape and starchier than sweet potatoes and have a skin that almost resembles a tree trunk.

Here in the U.S. mostly what is available to buy in stores are really Sweet Potatoes but in many places, they are called yams.  I have actually never had a real yam. My local store calls the garnets yams and the jewels, sweet potatoes, apparently because of USDA labeling requirements.

The real reason for the name variations goes back to the African slaves that were brought to the US and sweet potatoes reminded them of their homeland yams and the name started to be used interchangeably.

Fall flavored recipes from One Hot Oven

Easy Sweet Potato Recipes from sweet to savory and breakfast to dinner, here are 12 delicious recipes.

Cider Baked Apples are sweet and tender with a tangy apple cider glaze.

Easy Pumpkin Spice Sheet Cake is a simple cake to make that delivers on a great pumpkin flavor.

Cranberry Orange Bread is full of tart cranberries and sweet orange with all the great fall warming spices to add flavor.

Walnut Muffins with Maple Syrup are sweetened with just the maple syrup for a lightly sweet walnut muffin.

Maple Flavored Sugar Cookies cutout in leaf shapes and colored perfectly for autumn.

Oatmeal Bread with Apple Cider is a hearty quickbread full of oatmeal and fall spices.

Make sure to have these ingredients on hand

Maple syrup is what sweetens this dish so make sure to use one with good flavor.  Cinnamon and sage are the two herbs used that add very distinct flavors.  Just a note on sage use the rubbed sage or fresh sage, and just use a small amount as it can be overpowering.

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Easy Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Apples and Cranberries

This Easy Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Apples and Cranberries are flavored with maple syrup, cinnamon, and sage. These sweet potatoes pair well with pork chops and sausages and are the perfect side dish for the holidays.

Course Side Dish

Cuisine American

Keyword Roasted Sweet Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 45 minutes

Total Time 1 hour

Servings 6

Calories 193kcal

Author Jere' Cassidy

Equipment

• Baking pan 8" x 8"
• Vegetable peeler

Ingredients

• 2 medium-sized garnet sweet potatoes about 1 lb sweet potatoes
• 1 granny smith apple
• 1 cup cranberries
• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• 1/3 cup maple syrup
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. dried sage leaves 2 - fresh sage leaves can be used
• 1/2 tsp. salt

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350° F. You will need a medium-size baking pan.
• Peel the sweet potatoes then cut in half and slice into 1/4" half-moon shapes. Add to a large bowl or you can add directly to the baking pan
• Cut the apples in half, then into quarters. Remove the core and seeds. No need to peel. Add to the sweet potatoes
• Mix in the cranberries, olive oil, maple syrup, cinnamon, sage, and salt.
• Place the mixture into a baking pan large enough to hold the mixture. It is best to not overcrowd the potatoes so they roast better.
• Roast the sweet potatoes for 45 minutes or until the potatoes and apples are nice and tender. Stir the casserole several times during baking.

Notes

You can add other herbs to your liking. Use 2 fresh sages leaves if you have them.

You can add pecan halves to the casserole 

Swap out cranberries for raisins

 

One Hot Oven provides approximate nutritional information as a courtesy and cannot guarantee the accuracy for any recipe on this blog.

Nutrition

Serving: 1single serving | Calories: 193kcal | Carbohydrates: 36.7g | Fat: 4.9g | Sodium: 202mg

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About Jere’

From learning to cook on a farm in Indiana to culinary school in California,  my passion for food is never-ending.  Turning on my oven to bake something for friends and family is my happy place, and I am glad to be here at One Hot Oven sharing both sweet and savory recipes with all my baking friends.