If you’re looking for a diabetes friendly sweet potato recipe, look no further than our twice baked sweet potatoes with pecans! You can substitute them for sweet potato casserole at your Thanksgiving meal or have them any time of year. They’re tasty enough that we know you’ll want to!
This recipe is super easy and the ingredients are probably already in your pantry. All it needs is, of course, sweet potatoes, butter, milk, cinnamon, brown sugar, orange juice, and pecans. We substitute the marshmallows from a sweet potato casserole with candied pecans on our twice baked sweet potatoes to give a protein boost, healthy fats, and a bit of texture. The orange juice adds a little burst of flavor and freshness!
Our twice baked sweet potatoes are pretty simple. The sweet potatoes are baked first by themselves, then removed from the oven. Their insides are scooped out and mashed, mixed with the butter, milk, and cinnamon, and put back into the potato skins. After they’re baked again, the topping is added before they are baked a final time and cooled.
Even if you aren’t serving these as part of your Thanksgiving dinner, they can still be eaten with similar foods. We’d pair these with some vegetables (like green beans) and lean protein, like turkey!
For more of our nutritious and tasty recipes, take a look at these popular recipes:
- Baked Sweet Potato Fries
- Low Carb Stuffing
- Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Pistachios and Pomegranates
We hope you have a wonderful holiday season and try some healthier versions of traditional recipes. For a compilation of tasty Thanksgiving recipes, take a look at this blog. This blog includes low carb recipes for a holiday that is usually bursting with carbs. If you or a loved on needs to be following a low carb meal plan, these recipes will be especially helpful to you this holiday season.
8 Diabetes Friendly Holiday Dishes for a Low Carb Thanksgiving blog includes recipes for your special day.
Twice Baked Sweet Potato
Ingredients
- 2 sweet potato medium
- avocado oil
- salt
- 1 tbsp butter unsalted, softened
- 1 tbsp milk
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 2 tsp brown sugar
- 1 tbsp orange juice
- 1/4 cup pecans chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Rub outside sweet potatoes with avocado oil (or desired oil). Season with salt and place on baking sheet. Prick each potato with fork several times and bake in oven for 1 hour until soft.
- Remove potatoes from oven and cool slightly. Cut off the top third of each potato and carefully scoop out most of the sweet potato flesh, leaving about half an inch to provide support for the sweet potato.
- Mash sweet potato flesh well. Add butter, milk and cinnamon and stir to combine. Spoon potato mixture back into sweet potato skins and and return to oven and bake for 10 minutes.
- Meanwhile, combine brown sugar, orange juice, and pecans. Spread out on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil. Bake for 5-6 minutes. Stir, then return to oven for an addition 5-6 minutes. Remove from oven, stir again, and let cool.
- When potatoes are finished, remove from oven and top with pecans. Enjoy!
Nutrition
Please note:
Nutrition info is an estimate and may contain errors.
An award winning recipe developer, Dietitian Kaitlin’s mission is to empower others to reach their health goals by encouraging them to get back into the kitchen. Co-author of Nourished: 10 Ingredients to Happy, Healthy Eating and Cooking with Diabetes.
