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 easy side dish beside the maple and cinnamon flavors is it is light and not super sweet like most sweet potato dishes by using olive oil instead of butter and maple syrup instead of sugar. Plus the tart apple and cranberries pair well with the sweetness of the potatoes. This healthy dish is simple and yummy.
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🍠 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.
Th 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 for a family dinner and, one of my favorite meals is a big salad and a plate of baked apple and sweet potato casserole.
There are so many ways to make and serve sweet potatoes and here are the 12 Best Sweet Potato recipes that are mashed, souffled, or made into tasty soups and salads.
🧾 Ingredients
- Sweet Potatoes - I use garnet sweet potatoes
- Apples - Use your favorite apple, for this recipe, is used Granny Smith apples because I like tart apples and they pair well with the potatoes
- Cranberries - you can use fresh or frozen
- Cinnamon -there are many types of ground cinnamon, pick your favorite, but make sure it is fresh and flavorful
- Maple Syrup -sweetens this dish so make sure to use pure maple syrup with good flavor.
- Olive Oil - always use a good flavorful oil, or you can substitute coconut oil, or butter.
- Sage - Just a note on sage, use rubbed sage or fresh sage, and just use a small amount as it can be overpowering
- Salt - adding salt always brings out delicious flavors.
How to roast sweet potatoes
Remember I said this fall favorite recipe is easy to make, you just need one bowl or one casserole 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 them into half-moon shape pieces. If you don't peel the potatoes for this recipe the peel will just fall off and not look too pretty, so I do suggest peeling the potatoes.
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 large mixing bowl, and stir to incorporate all the ingredients. When adding the sage, you need to break it up by rubbing the sage between your fingers to make smaller pieces.
Step 4. Pour all the ingredients into a greased medium-sized baking dish or casserole dish and bake at 350 degrees F. for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Make ahead
If you like, you can prepare the potatoes with all the ingredients and put them in the baking pan then cover the pan with plastic wrap, and place it in the refrigerator until ready to bake. This is especially helpful for getting some of your dishes ready for the holidays early, or even having this casserole ready to bake for dinner.
A delicious fall menu
Try this side-dish with these easy recipes, like Turkey and Stuffing Rolls, Oat Tea Biscuits, and a delicious Pumpkin Spice Cake for dessert. This is a perfect meal to serve for a fall Sunday dinner with ham or pork chops or even for Thanksgiving dinner.
Variations to try
- Replace the fresh cranberries with dried cranberries
- Change out the olive oil for butter
- Add sliced carrots for some extra veggies
- Honey can replace the maple syrup
- Feeling nutty, adds pecans or walnuts to this recipe
🍠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 are 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
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 cut out in leaf shapes and colored perfectly for autumn.
Oatmeal Bread with Apple Cider is a hearty quickbread full of oatmeal and fall spices.
FAQ's
Definitely, just mix all the ingredients as directed in the recipe and pour them into a baking dish, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate. Bring to room temperature before baking as directed.
You can reheat any leftover potatoes in the microwave.
If you aren't into slicing that's ok, just cut the apple and sweet potatoes into the same size cubes and bake.
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Recipe
Easy Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Apples and Cranberries
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- 2 medium-sized garnet sweet potatoes about 1 lb sweet potatoes
- 1 granny smith apple
- 1 cup cranberries
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- ⅓ cup maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon dried sage leaves 2 - fresh sage leaves can be used
- ½ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350° F. You will need a medium-size baking pan or casserole dish such as an 8 x 8-inch dish that is lightly greased.
- Peel the sweet potatoes then place on a cutting board and cut them in half then place the flat half on the cutting board and slice the potatoes into ¼" half-moon shapes using a large chef knife. Add the potatoes 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. On a cutting board, slice the apple quarters into ¼" slices. No need to peel. Add the apples to the sweet potatoes
- To the potato and apples add the cranberries, olive oil, maple syrup, cinnamon, sage, and salt and mix to combine.
- Place the mixture into the prepared 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.
- Remove the casserole from the oven and serve while hot.
- Cover any leftovers and store them in the refrigerator for several days. To reheat, simply pop the casserole in the microwave to warm up.
Notes
- Add pecans or walnuts
- Dried cranberries can be used instead of fresh cranberries
- Swap out the cranberries for raisins
- You can use coconut oil or butter instead of olive oil
- Add a ¼ cup of brown sugar for more sweetness
- Honey can be used instead of maple syrup
- Add carrots to the casserole
Nutrition
First published: Nov 14, 2019, Last updated: Sept. 13, 2021 for better readability.
Thank you for stopping by the One Hot Oven blog. Please leave a comment to say Hello or just let me know what you are baking these days, I always love hearing from fellow bakers. Have any questions or just want to chat about the recipe? My contact information is on my about page, and I’ll be happy to help.
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.
Linda
Love the combination flavors of these roasted sweet potatoes! And I'm excited about Fall now.
Jere Cassidy
It's funny I bake sweet potatoes all year long, but I wait for fall to make this recipe.
Adriana
Aboslutely love the combination of flavors. Sweepotatoe, apples, and cranberry go very nicely together. I cannot wait for Thanksgiving to eat this dish. I bet my family will love it!
Jean
Adding this to our side dish, love the flavor of cinnamon that is added in the recipe
Jere Cassidy
Yes, just adding that little bit of cinnamon adds a great flavor to this dish.
Freya
What a delicious alternative to roast potatoes, and such a delicious pairing with pork based meals
Andrea White
Love this combo so much! Can't wait to try it out!
Ramona
This is such a great idea - it looks soo good and this would make a perfect dessert for me - such a great combo - will make it as soon as tonight - delicious! Thanks for sharing!