We have made the impossible happen with the Healthy Sweet Potato Casserole Thanksgiving side dish! You won’t believe what we used to create not only the perfect color, but also consistency and taste. We also top it off with a perfectly balanced pecan, cinnamon syrup so you won’t feel like you’re missing out on anything this year! Watch me make it below and share this incredible side dish with your family.
Our Favorite Thanksgiving Recipes
This has by far become my favorite Thanksgiving recipe. We use cauliflower and pumpkin puree to replicate the taste and color of a sweet potato casserole, and boy do we hit it spot on. I’m more of a crumble topping woman, but Matt suggested a syrup and I’m so glad he did! You can use the syrup just like gravy so you can use a little or a lot. Some of our other favorite Thanksgiving recipes are our cranberry sauce, and pumpkin cheesecake bites! No matter your craving we’ve got you covered, and we always have more to come!
Healthy Casseroles For Thanksgiving!
Casseroles are not only be one of the easiest dishes to make, but are also always a win at the dinner table every time! Combining all the ingredients and transferring to a casserole dish before baking to perfection seems easy enough, especially on one of the busiest days of the year, Thanksgiving! This sweet potato casserole is an absolute must this year, but we also highly recommend our low carb green bean casserole for some color and additional veggies!
Healthy Sweet Potato Casserole with Pecan Sauce
We decided to put this recipe out as early as possible since you might be as skeptical as Matt was at first. Now you have enough time to make a small test batch to see if it’s serve worthy (and trust us, we don’t put out recipes that aren’t serve worthy) prior to Thanksgiving. If you have this healthy sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, some cheddar, jalapeno biscuits and a low carb pecan pie, you’ll be set this year!
Nutrition – Casserole (1 serving)Calories: 80Fat: 5.7gProtein: 2.7gCarbs: 5.3g Fiber: 1.7g Net Carbs: 3.6gRecipe can be quickly added to MyFitnessPal – Search “KetoConnect – Healthy Sweet Potato Casserole”
Nutrition – Syrup (1 serving)Calories: 170Fat: 19gProtein: 1.2g Carbs: 1.6gFiber: 1.2gNet Carbs: 0.4gRecipe can be quickly added to MyFitnessPal – Search “KetoConnect – Pecan Cinnamon Syrup”
Healthy Sweet Potato Casserole
Ingredients:
Casserole
- 1 large head cauliflower
- 1 cup 100% pumpkin puree
- 2 large eggs
- 4 tbsp butter, melted
- 6 tbsp erythritol
- 1 tsp Pink Himalayan Salt
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
- Chop the head of cauliflower into florets and put inside a large saucepan. Add water to submerge all the cauliflower and bring to a boil. Cook through for 20 minutes in total, until the cauliflower is fork tender.
- Drain the cauliflower and add it to a processor. If your processor is small you may need to puree it in batches. As you pulse the cauliflower will work its way up the sides at which point you should stop, take off the lid and push it back down using a spatula. Do this 2-3 times until smooth.
- Once all the cauliflower is smooth add in the pumpkin and pulse until combined and uniform in color and consistency.
- Add the eggs, melted butter, erythitol, salt and vanilla extract and pulse until smooth and everything is combined.
- Pour all the mixture into a 9x13 casserole dish and bake for 20 minutes.
Notes
Pecan Cinnamon Syrup
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup coconut oil
- 1/2 tbsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 cup ground pecans
- 40 drops liquid stevia
Instructions:
- Make the sauce: Add the coconut oil to a small saucepan over medium heat. Once melted add the cinnamon, ground pecans (you can also roughly chop them) and stevia. Combine using a spatula. Serve immediately while still hot.
- Note: If you don't have already pre-ground pecans you can pulse them in a grinder or a blender to achieve the ground consistency or you can chop them up to your desired size.
Matt cautioned against using butter because it separates. What about using ghee?
Is there a substitute for erythritol? I can’t find it in the store.
Swerve is a popular brand, but you can use truvia! (NOT the baking blend, the granules!)
why cant we use the baking blend? lol because i think that is the one i bought last night oops.
The baking blend is part regular sugar.
Diana, you can get it on Amazon… https://www.amazon.com/NOW-Foods-733739069238-Erythritol-2-5-Pound/dp/B007XA49BG/ref=sr_1_3_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1511298454&sr=8-3&keywords=erythritol&th=1
question about cook time. You boil the cauliflower for 20 min and then bake everything for 20 minutes? So that’s 40 minutes of cook time?
Yep!
We loved this recipe. My husband made it the night it came out.
Came out perfect!
How much in advance can you make this?
A night before should be good. Maybe two. ANymore we wouldn’t reccomend.
Any suggestions if we can’t find pecans? Our stores are sold out!
Walnuts or even almonds!
I made this recipe yesterday. I admit I was very skeptical, because I love sweet potatoes and I do not like cauliflower or pumpkin. Even as I was making it, I was thinking that it was a waste of effort. Then I tried the finished product, with the sauce and it was amazing! It’s a great alternative for someone like me who is a picky vegetable eater! Thank you for doing what you do – it makes life much easier for us Keto peeps!
this recipe sounds so tasty and healthy ..cauliflower ,pumpkin woah amazing..definitely going to try this ..is there any replacement of Liquid Stevia??/
Would there be any benefit to the taste of the sauce if I roasted the pecans first? I have always preferred roasted vs raw nuts.
I’m going to toast mine tomorrow. It just adds that much more flavor.
I am making this for Thanksgiving tomorrow. It looks delicious! Can I make it ahead and bake it tomorrow, or does it need to be baked right after it is prepared?
Is it good served cold? Or better served hot? If hot how do you warm it up?
This is good hot OR cold, but we recommend hot, as the syrup just makes more sense that way. Warm in the oven if you’re making it ahead of time, probably 250 for 15 minutes.
What if I don’t have fresh cauliflower, only frozen? Would I boil 1 bag (or a pound) or two bags for two pounds? I’m scared mine will taste cauliflower-y if I make two lol. Help!
It’s not a direct 1:1 ratio, unfortunately.
Easier way without boiling OR using a food processor and cleaning all those parts….. Make cauliflower rice by water chopping cut florets in a Vitamix and drain. Put cauliflower in a very large microwaveable bowl and cook on high until tender, about 12 minutes. To this bowl I added everything else except the eggs. Iased my stick blender until it was smooth. Before adding the eggs I tasted it and MAN was it delicious!! I used maple extract instead of vanilla and I changed the erythritol for swerve-like sugars. Cooking now! Can’t wait to taste with turkey dinner.
I love your recipes!
I made this for Thanksgiving and I couldn’t believe how incredible it tasted. I have to admit I was really skeptical when I saw that the majority casserole is cauliflower (which I’m *not* a fan of) but by the end it really did taste like a sweet potato casserole. I feel like this is a dish you could totally serve to people not doing keto and they would have no idea that the main ingredient is cauliflower. I did make a few changes.
1. I didn’t make the sauce – only because I’m lazy, but I did add more Stevia to the casserole to make it a little sweeter.
2. I completely forgot the eggs, which made for a much runnier casserole, but it was still delicious.
3. I added pumpkin pie spice.
All in all, a fantastic recipe.
I just think you guys are the greatest. You inspire me and make me laugh. Keep on doing what ever you are doing, , can’t wait to try this out!
OMG! This recipe is A-MAZ-ING! I had trouble stopping myself from overeating on this dish. I am floored that you were able to make cauliflower taste and look like sweet potatoes. I will definitely be making this recipe again! Thanks for coming up with this!
Yesss Heather we are so glad you loved it!!!
So just a note: DO NOT use frozen riced cauliflower for this recipe (particularly if it is freezer burnt)! Was sadly disappointed with the outcome (tasted terrible!). However have redeemed myself since then by using fresh cauliflower and am back in heaven!
I was just wondering how many servings this recipe makes. Not sure if I missed this or not.
Thanks!
10!
I am new to Keto. It makes 10 servings. What is the serving size, 1/2 cup?
Sorry, we don’t measure/weigh the serving size. Just divide it into 10!
I’m new to Keto and sweet potato is my weakness. I really want to put my hand up at the family dinner to bring this dish for Thanksgiving but haven’t been able to find the liquid sweetener. Is there a substitute I could use? Please and thank you!
You can usually find bottles of the liquid stevia next to the sweeteners in the baking aisle. Sweet Drop is a brand that is sold in stores. You can also order online 🙂 if you can’t find that, you may be able to use liquid monk fruit or powdered erythritol, but erythritol usually re-crystallizes after it cools. You can check out our sweetener conversion chart.
This sounds great! My question is I’m a big frozen veggie user. About how many cups of cauliflower do you think you got from large head of cauliflower? Thanks!
I would look how heavy a standard head of cauliflower is, then use the same weight amount of frozen cauli.
Can the syrup be made in advance and reheated?
I couldn’t find the serving size on the syrup. How many servings per recipe please. Thank you!!!
It should be the same servings as the casserole.
I made this yesterday, and it was great. I didn’t feel like going to the work of making the sauce, so I simply sprinkled brown sugar Swerve on the top near the end of baking it. I also subbed 4T of brown sugar Swerve and 2T of regular Swerve for the sweetening in the casserole. I will definitely be making this again!
I have to admit I was skeptical at first but I made it and it is amazing!!! Thank you !!!
I can’t stop telling my husband how amazing this is as I’m on my third serving!! He’s lactose intolerant and can’t have any but I was thinking of making it again this weekend with coconut oil in place of butter and adding some butter flavoring? Do you think it’ll work and do you have any idea on how much to use of each? THANKS again for creating this masterpiece!!! I’m definitely putting your book on my Christmas list thanks to this ♥️
I think you could just use the same amount of butter as it calls for the coconut oil. I am not sure of the butter flavoring, you can just use however you want.
How much Cauliflower is this if I were to use Frozen?
I would look up how many grams or ounces a large cauliflower head is and use that amount.
Has anyone frozen this? I’m curious if I could make a batch and split it into servings for the freezer.
I’m sure it would be okay in the freezer. It might change the texture a little bit when reheating.
Made this last night as a side for a med-rare ribeye. It was soooo tasty. We didn’t have pecans for the topping but it doesn’t need it. I’m not a fan of just erythritol so I halved it and added about 5-10drops of stevia. SOOOOO GOOD!! This will be a holiday dish for sure!