November 4, 2014
(last updated September 20, 2020) 
What’s better than a five ingredient recipe? A five ingredient recipe that involves sweet potatoes and maple syrup, I say. November might as well be called the month of sweet potatoes, and this recipe is a perfect celebration of my favorite root vegetable.
The “pudding” requires no cooking over the stove; just bake your sweet potatoes, scoop out the flesh, blend them with coconut milk, and go. It’s all about as easy as preparing hummus, and the result is a silky smooth pudding that’s equally good for breakfast, a snack, or dessert.
You can use any kind of sweet potatoes or yam-type sweet potatoes in the recipe: jewel sweet potatoes, purple sweet potatoes, garnet yams, or even Japanese yams (which won’t have the same vibrant color, but they will taste wonderful). You can also choose to get fancy with spices and sweeteners, if you like, but I chose to keep things very simple here. I whipped up this pudding on Friday morning before traveling, and was delighted to realize that it can be made with common pantry items (potatoes, salt, maple syrup, coconut milk, vanilla). Here’s the recipe.
You can choose to add a little less maple syrup than what’s called for, as the potatoes add plenty of natural sweetness. I’d imagine that cinnamon, nutmeg, pumpkin pie spice, and chai spices all make wonderful additions. I may experiment with adding mesquite or yacon syrup for depth next time I whip this up, which I have no doubt will be soon.
For dessert, a simple sprinkle of goji berries is a perfect touch. If you want to serve the pudding for breakfast, I’d pile it high with some homemade granola — my toasted pumpkin and cranberry granola would be perfect.
No matter how you serve it, I hope you’ll enjoy this low-stress treat. The holiday season can be wonderful from a culinary standpoint, but sometimes it’s nice to step back and prepare something that’s as easy as it is tasty. This one fits the bill.
Till soon,
xo
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I just died and went to heaven. I even just gave a little bit of this from my boyfriend to try and he doesn’t even like coconut and he also really enjoyed it. This was SO easy. I just eyed up the ingredients, I didn’t do exact measurements. I highly recommend using a food processor a suggested in the recipe. I tried putting it in a regular blender, but regular blenders have nothing on Vitamix, so into the food processor it went. I’ve made this for Thanksgiving at my parents house where they will be multiple guests that cannot have dairy or gluten. Thank you so much for this recipe, I will be sharing it and using it again and again!
So glad that you enjoyed it, Fran!
i didn’t know how to make my own pudding before.
I make something similar to this, sweet potato ice cream. After baking I freeze the sweet potatoes and the milk, then blend with the other ingredients in the vita mix! My kids LOVE it!
This looks insanely delicious!! I might even be able to sneak sweet potatoes by my husband with this one 😉
Everybody in my house loved this pudding. My husband (who stay far away from vegan) asked me to make it for thanksgiving get together and he liked it.
As luck would have it, I had two sweet potatoes and the perfect amount of coconut milk waiting to be used up, so I just whipped this up with my immersion blender. It is amazingly creamy and delicious! I only used about 1/2 the maple syrup (I like things really sweet, and this was sweet enough) – for anyone making this, I recommend starting with 1/2 and adding more if desired. I also added cinnamon and will try ginger next time. This is definitely going to become a fall favorite! Thank you, Gena! 🙂
What a great idea! I’ve been eating baked sweet potatoes lately and topped them with coconut oil, honey and cinnamon.
I am interested to see how this is served warm after blending the sweet potatoes right out of the oven. This is the kind of thing I like to eat for dinner on a cool evening 🙂
Hmmm, can’t say I would have ever thought of making a pudding out of sweet potatoes, but it sounds pretty good!
I was just talking about sweet potato recipes this morning with my roomies and this is the best!!! I love this for the morning with some added nuts and seeds for topping. I live in a place where the heat stays quick low all winter and I am prone to being cold. This would be a great warming breakfast with some ginger and cloves!
Hi Gena! This recipe sounds amazing!
I’ve been thinking about this topic for a while now, but you Instagram of “his and hers green smoothies” this morning reminded me of it. I was wondering if you would write a post about dating/relationships as a vegan. I had a long term boyfriend for about 2 years and I started transitioning to veganism about a year ago. He was also a “foodie” (how we met) and we discussed food a lot.
We recently broke up, and I have started dating again. I find it hard to explain my food choices and veganism in general to someone new. I often find myself toning it down or downplaying it just to seem less high maintenance.
For example, although I eat plant-based about 95% of the time, I will still occasionally have fish or eggs if I’m eating out. Rather than making a fuss about vegan options at a recent breakfast date, I just ordered an egg white scramble. Another example, at a Mexican restaurant I frequent, I normally ask for raw veggies as a guac dipper, I didn’t want to appear snooty in front of a date so I just ate the corn chips that were served. This one wasn’t a vegan issue, but just another example.
I’m sure things while get more comfortable once I start getting more comfortable with a person, but I’m just wondering if you have any tips or tricks to not make the vegan food aspect of dating such an “event” and try to explain it to a date without appearing rigid, high maintenance or just plain weird!
Also, my date knows I cook so he recently asked if I would cook for him, do you have any suggestions of recipes to gently introduce a meat-loving male to the vegan world?
Let me know! Thank you so much!
-Natalie
good luck natalie! i think just explaining that that is how you like to eat, it is the food that makes you feel best, is the way to go. at restaurants, just ask for stuff politely with a smile 🙂 i actually really like the idea of asking for veggies to dip in the salsa! (i noramlly just eat it plain!) so thanks 🙂
and good luck again!
i love how smooth they look!
Looks really amazing! Haven’t eaten sweet potatoes in this style yet, but I’m very curious how this will taste! Does it really taste that sweet? 🙂
Love the limited ingredient list. I can only imagine how creamy this is with the added coconut milk and the crunch from the goji berries. YUM! Pinning this now.
Yum, looks so dreamy! I love recipes that are healthy enough for breakfast, but taste like dessert 🙂
Looks so glorious, Gena. I made something similar and used it as a topping for a shepherd’s pie I will share later this week. 🙂
Your photos are gorgeous, and I bet the taste is just as phenomenal! I made a smoothie three times last week (that’s how good it was) with these exact same ingredients plus a pinch of cinnamon, allspice, and nutmeg.
That looks so silky smooth, like absolutely perfect pudding. I am getting real with this pudding asap. Like, tomorrow. Amazing. Thanks so much for the recipe!
Gena, this sounds lovely and right up my alley! Thank you for creating such a simple, but wonderful treat.