Over 30 sweet and savoury sweet potato recipes

Sweet potato, or sometimes known as yams or kumara, depending where you are in the world, are one of those versatile vegetables that can be eaten in both sweet and savoury dishes. You can pick them up from the green grocers cheaply and they keep really well. Here are over 30 sweet and savoury sweet potato recipes for you to try.

Sweet Recipes

The natural, sweet flavour of sweet potato lends itself well to sweet, dessert treats. Use it as you would pumpkin puree and as a replacement for sugar in many of your recipes.

Healthy 3 Ingredient Sweet Potato Brownies

2 Ingredient Sweet Potato Pancakes

Sweet Potato Muffins

Cinnamon & Spice Sweet Potato Bread

Sweet Potato & Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies

Sweet Potato Pie with Coconut

No Bake Sweet Potato Breakfast Brownies

Sweet Potato Cream Cheese Bundt Cake

Sweet Potato Doughnuts with Spiced Sugar

Sweet Potato Crunch Bread

Sweet Potato Pie Bars

Sweet Potato, Custard & Sultana Cake

Classic Southern Sweet Potato Pie

Sweet Potato Chocolate Cake

Mexican Sweet Potato Chocolate Pudding

Sweet Potato Crumb Cake

Peanut Butter Sweet Potato Ice Cream

Savoury Recipes

Sweet potato can be used the same way as normal potato. It can be mashed, made into fries or baked. What I love about it is that it lends itself well to slow cooked dishes as it breaks down and forms part of the sauce. With it’s rich orange colour, it blends in well with the colour of the curry, adding a delicious sweetness.

Sweet Potato Fries

3 Ingredient Sweet Potato Cakes

Sweet Potato & Chickpea Curry

Sweet Potato & Feta Tart

8 Ways to Stuff a Sweet Potato

2 Ingredient Sweet Potato Gnocchi

Baked Sweet Potato Chips

Sweet Potato Quiche Crust

Sweet Potato Quinoa Salad

Sweet Potato & Feta “Sausage” Rolls

Sweet Potato Corn Cakes

Sweet Potato Noodles

Slow Cooker Beef & Sweet Potato Stew

Easy Chicken Noodle Soup

There are times when, as a last resort, we do buy takeaway. I refuse to spend in excess of $40 for hamburgers (you know the ones I mean) that taste and look terrible or a pizza that tastes like it could’ve been cooked on a cardboard base. My ‘go to’ takeaway meal is a roasted, rotisserie chicken from the supermarket because I know I can get at least 3 meals from it including this easy Chicken Noodle Soup.

Make your own stock

You may remember the homemade chicken stock I made recently? This the last meal I can get from my roast chicken. I can make a roast chicken dinner, chicken and salad, chicken pies, chicken sandwiches or rolls, a chicken pasta dish or many other things from the roast chicken. Once the meat has been used, I make a chicken stock from the carcass. The stock be either frozen and used in many other dishes or made into a homemade chicken soup.

Add a few vegetables like an onion, carrot and celery, a few fresh or dried herbs and water to the chicken carcass, that’s basically your soup made. It’s so full of flavour and tastes nothing like a ready made stock.

All you need to do is return the stock to the stove.  Add any leftover chicken meat, frozen or fresh chopped vegetables, any kind of pasta you like (I used spaghetti pasta). Heat until the pasta is cooked. That’s it! 

If you don’t have access to freshly made stock, you can always use chicken stock cubes or powder.  Ready made liquid chicken stock is also good but I don’t like paying for water. It pays to have these things in the pantry to curb last minute takeaway temptations. Served with bread, this meal will fill hungry tummies.

Pea & Ham Soup

I don't know why I haven't shared my Pea & Ham soup recipe before. I have it every winter and probably have had it every winter since I was born. It was a staple in our house growing up, in the days when ham hocks and bacon bones were usually thrown away and considered to be scraps. Now the supermarket is really cashing in on people wanting to make this very Australian winter staple.

This one is perfect for the slow cooker but this particular day, a very cold one, I wasn't organised enough to get it on in the morning so cooked it in my stock pot. Not even it was big enough for my ham bone I saved from Christmas. That's about the only way I can afford to make Pea & Ham soup these days. The price of ham hocks in winter is ridiculous. As with all my soups and stews, I start off with a traditional mirepoix (diced onions, carrots and celery) fried off until soft in a little olive oil.

Then I add a 500 gram packet of dried split green peas which have been rinsed off under running cold water. Add them to the pot with about 2 litres of vegetable or chicken stock.

As you can see, my ham bone was sticking out of the liquid but there was enough steam to loosen the meat on the bone and add plenty of flavour to the soup. As this soup cooks, the peas will produce 'scum' which needs to be scooped off the top of the soup as it cooks.

As the meat falls off the bone, I keep some to leave chunky in the soup and I blitz the rest of the meat along with the vegetables until it becomes a thick puree.

What I love about this soup is that it's very hearty. It's a meal in itself, there's always heaps of leftovers and it sticks to the ribs. My son loved the 'bacon soup' I made. I dare not say it was 'pea' and ham soup. You know what kids are like eating their peas.

Pea & Ham Soup

• 1 large ham bone or 2 ham hocks
• 500 gram green split peas
• 2 onions, diced
• 2 stalks celery, diced
• 3 carrots, diced
• olive oil for frying
• 2-3 bay leaves
• 2 litres vegetable or chicken stock

1. Fry off onion, carrots and celery in a little olive oil until soft.
2. Rinse dried split green peas under running cold water and add to the pot.
3. Add stock, bay leaves and ham bone or hocks.
4. Cook on the stove top until dried peas are soft (approximately 45 mins to 1 hour - alternatively can be cooked in a slow cooker).
5. During the cooking process, remove any scum that forms on the top of the soup.
6. Once peas are soft, remove ham bone and take off any meat and return it back to the soup. (Larger pieces of meat can be left aside to stir through the soup after blitzing to give it a more chunky texture.)
7. Blitz soup until smooth.
8. Serve with crusty bread.

Note:  Add pepper if desired but taste soup before adding any salt. The ham bone or hocks are very salty and the soup may not require any added salt.

Pea & Ham Soup

I don’t know why I haven’t shared my Pea & Ham soup recipe before. I have it every winter and probably have had it every winter since I was born. It was a staple in our house growing up, in the days when ham hocks and bacon bones were usually thrown away and considered to be scraps. Now the supermarket is really cashing in on people wanting to make this very Australian winter staple.

This one is perfect for the slow cooker but this particular day, a very cold one, I wasn’t organised enough to get it on in the morning so cooked it in my stock pot. Not even it was big enough for my ham bone I saved from Christmas. That’s about the only way I can afford to make Pea & Ham soup these days. The price of ham hocks in winter is ridiculous. As with all my soups and stews, I start off with a traditional mirepoix (diced onions, carrots and celery) fried off until soft in a little olive oil.

Then I add a 500 gram packet of dried split green peas which have been rinsed off under running cold water. Add them to the pot with about 2 litres of vegetable or chicken stock.

As you can see, my ham bone was sticking out of the liquid but there was enough steam to loosen the meat on the bone and add plenty of flavour to the soup. As this soup cooks, the peas will produce ‘scum’ which needs to be scooped off the top of the soup as it cooks.

As the meat falls off the bone, I keep some to leave chunky in the soup and I blitz the rest of the meat along with the vegetables until it becomes a thick puree.

What I love about this soup is that it’s very hearty. It’s a meal in itself, there’s always heaps of leftovers and it sticks to the ribs. My son loved the ‘bacon soup’ I made. I dare not say it was ‘pea’ and ham soup. You know what kids are like eating their peas.

Pea & Ham Soup

• 1 large ham bone or 2 ham hocks
• 500 gram green split peas
• 2 onions, diced
• 2 stalks celery, diced
• 3 carrots, diced
• olive oil for frying
• 2-3 bay leaves
• 2 litres vegetable or chicken stock

1. Fry off onion, carrots and celery in a little olive oil until soft.
2. Rinse dried split green peas under running cold water and add to the pot.
3. Add stock, bay leaves and ham bone or hocks.
4. Cook on the stove top until dried peas are soft (approximately 45 mins to 1 hour – alternatively can be cooked in a slow cooker).
5. During the cooking process, remove any scum that forms on the top of the soup.
6. Once peas are soft, remove ham bone and take off any meat and return it back to the soup. (Larger pieces of meat can be left aside to stir through the soup after blitzing to give it a more chunky texture.)
7. Blitz soup until smooth.
8. Serve with crusty bread.

Note:  Add pepper if desired but taste soup before adding any salt. The ham bone or hocks are very salty and the soup may not require any added salt.

Top 17 winter warmer recipes

I live in a pretty fantastic climate here in Brisbane. The summers are hot and the winter is mild. I really thought we might’ve missed out on winter this year with the weather still pretty warm half way through June but its arrived, with a vengeance, so the slow cooker has been pulled out of hiding and it’s been getting a good workout. Time to share my top 10 winter warmer recipes which are also easy, frugal and use seasonal ingredients. It may not be cold in your part of the world but some of these are still good to put on for summer so you don’t heat the kitchen up and you can serve with some crusty bread and a side salad.

Beef & Lentil Pasta Bake

Chicken & Vegetable Risoni

Fish Biryani with Cashews

Pasta & Meatballs

Red Bean Soup

4 Ingredient Apricot Chicken

Beef & Lentil Hot Pot

Boullinade (Fish & Potato Stew)

Lamb & Chorizo Chilli

Mexican Style Lamb Shanks

Moroccan Chicken & Chickpea Stew

Moroccan Pumpkin & Chickpeas with Couscous

Osso Buco with Tomatoes & Gremolata

Quick & Easy Butter Chicken

Spanish Pork, Potatoes & Chorizo

Thai Red Curry Beef & Cauliflower

Vegetarian Chilli Con Carne

Remember to look for cheaper cuts of meat, for example instead of buying over-priced lamb shanks, look for a boneless lamb shoulder or lamb chops. Same with ham hocks for pea and ham soup. They are so over-priced during the cooler months. A much cheaper option is to flavour a Pea and Ham Soup with bacon bones and add some chopped, cooked bacon for more flavour and texture. Use seasonal vegetables and adapt the above recipes to suit what you have on hand.

Check out the “Recipes” tab above for more winter warmer soup recipes and plenty of winter pudding recipes which will complete your family meal.