Some of Our Favorite Sweet Potato Casserole Recipes for Thanksgiving

Sweet potato casserole is as essential to Thanksgiving as the turkey, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie. Of course there are many things you can do with sweet potatoes: make a sweet potato casserole with marshmallows (or without), bake a sweet potato pie, or try a sweet potato souffle. Sweet potato recipes are endless and we’ve certainly shared a lot of them over the past week here on Family Kitchen. In case you missed any, here are some of our favorite sweet potato recipes…

Easy Sweet Potato Casserole with Marshmallows

“I never liked sweet potatoes until my mother-in-law introduced me to easy baked sweet potatoes. The sweet potatoes I had at her home were the first fresh sweet potatoes I ever had, and I instantly fell in love.” -Angie McGowan, Eclectic Recipes
Southern Comfort Sweet Potato Casserole

“There are so many amazing Sweet Potato Casserole Recipes to choose from for Thanksgiving Dinner. I am presenting four options for you to choose from based on your preferences: Southern Comfort, Bourbon, Pineapple and Streusel…” -Jennifer Savor The Thyme
A No-Measuring Sweet Potato Casserole
“Some home cooks don’t like to measure because they don’t need to. Others don’t like to because they don’t know that they need to. I don’t like to measure because I’m moving fast!” –Angie McGowan
Baked Sweet Potatoes with Pecans
“Are you looking for an alternative to traditional sweet potato casserole? These marshmallow and pecan topped sweet potatoes are sure to impress your holiday guests.” -Angie McGowan
Homemade Cinnamon Marshmallows for a Sweet Potato Upgrade
“Sweet potato casserole topped with marshmallows is not exactly the height of haute cuisine. My combination? Roasted sweet potatoes, butter, a touch of cream, cinnamon, maple syrup, orange zest and, the piece de resistance, homemade cinnamon marshmallows.” -Stacie, OneHungryMama

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Green bean casserole creator says onions made dish iconic

Dorcas B. Reilly mixed and cooked and stirred and tested hundreds of recipes during the more than 25 years she worked as a home economist in the Creative Food Center for Campbell's Soup Co.
Every day, she and a handful of co-workers concocted new dishes, bringing them to the group to test on each other's taste buds. Some went back for more work. Some went to the trash.
One side dish Reilly created became a culinary cultural icon. In 1955, she reconstituted some Campbell's cream of mushroom soup, mixed in a can of green beans, stirred in some fried onions and poured it all into a casserole dish for baking.
Fifty five years later, it's difficult to remember a time when the green bean casserole wasn't a Thanksgiving staple. The creamy, crispy side dish became so iconic, Reilly's recipe card became a part of the collection at the National Inventors Hall of Fame in Akron, Ohio.
Not that Reilly knew of her success at the time. Now 84 and living near her two children and four grandchildren in Haddonfield, N.J., she says it took more than 20 years for her to get a sense that the dish she created and her co-workers honed had found a permanent place at the holiday table. In the mid-1970s, a Campbell's researcher found that the recipe was the most requested in company history.
That fact amazed her, but she could understand why. After all, green beans are a popular food item. It helped that green beans and soup were not expensive in 1955. The dish also didn't require a lot of preparation.
The key was the fried onions, she says. Crispy and sweet from the carmelization during frying, she added them to give the dish another texture. Back then, fried onions were a gourmet novelty.
"It upscaled the dish," Reilly says.
"It made the casserole much more attractive. If it had just been green beans and soup, it would have been flat and almost colorless. It elevated it into another category."
As she's done every year since creating it, she will make the casserole for her family's Thanksgiving meal the same classic way. Unless the test kitchen cook in her comes out.
"At one point years ago I put some carrots in with the green beans for some color," she says. "I haven't done that for a while, but now that you mention it. I might do that this Thanksgiving

Associated Press file photo

READ MORE - Green bean casserole creator says onions made dish iconic