Sweet Potato Khmer

This Sweet Potato Khmer Recipe is a sweet potato casserole featuring yams, crushed pineapple, diced apples, pecans, and a spicy sauce made with butter, cinnamon, ginger, and rum.

I used to document our food waste each Friday. Doing so was educational, not just because I shared tips for how I minimized our food waste. But also for me, as I began to see patterns. I learned that one of the most obvious ways to avoid food waste is to cook food that your family actually enjoys eating. However, there are some food items that you prepare at the holidays because they are a tradition. Then they end up neglected by everyone except for the family members who survived the great depression and have acquired the ability to eat anything. After a couple of years of tossing out leftover candied yams, I decided that something had to be done. Skipping yams on Thanksgiving was not an option, so I put out the word to my family and friends, and my husband’s aunt came to the rescue with a delicious Sweet Potatoes Khmer recipe.

What is Sweet Potato Khmer?

Sweet Potato Khmer is a casserole using canned yams or sweet potatoes. When I lived on the West Coast, I bought canned sweet potatoes. Now that I live in the South, I can only find canned yams. But they are the same thing. Seriously. “Yam” is a regional name for the sweet potato with orange flesh. So a sweet potato by any other name tastes the same. Here is the yummy part: this sweet potato casserole includes pineapple, apple, pecans, and a spicy sauce with butter, cinnamon, ginger, and rum. Our elders did not play! Why did we ever trade all this deliciousness for marshmallows?

The recipe below is my adaptation of my aunt’s adaptation of an old family recipe. Packaging sizes change over time, so opt for the closest size to what the recipe calls for if you can’t find the exact size. I also changed some of the measurements to make them more understandable. For example, does anybody know how much a “jigger” is or how to measure it?! If you’re wondering, it is approximately 3 tablespoons. If you are a bartender or have inherited a jigger from your great aunt, use it to measure the rum. Otherwise, just add 3 tablespoons.

Make Ahead Tip: If you are making this sweet potato casserole for Thanksgiving or some other family holiday, you can make it the day before and reheat it in the oven before serving. I reheat it at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes.

Sweet Potato Khmer Recipe

This sweet potato recipe makes a lot, so you can halve it if you are serving it to 6 people or less.

Ingredients:

• 2 (29-ounce) cans yams or sweet potatoes, drained
• 1 (8-ounce) small can crushed pineapple, drained, but save the juice
• 2 cooking apples, peeled and diced
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 3 Tablespoons butter
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ginger
• 3 tablespoons Jamaican rum (optional)
• 1/2 cup pecans, diced

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and coat a 9×12 casserole dish with butter.
2. Mash the sweet potatoes.
3. Mix the sweet potatoes with crushed pineapple and diced apples.
4.  Prepare a syrup: Melt the butter in a saucepan. Once the butter is melted add the brown sugar, and stir until smooth. Add the juice from the canned pineapple and water, continue stirring until smooth. Add the cinnamon, ginger, and rum. Stir well.
5. Pour half of the syrup into the sweet potato mixture; mix thoroughly.
6. Spoon the sweet potato mixture into a buttered 9 x 12 casserole dish. Spread the remainder of the syrup on top of the sweet potatoes. Sprinkle the pecan pieces over the top of the casserole.
7. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

Printable Recipe for Sweet Potato Khmer

Do you cook something that you don’t really like because it is a family tradition? Have you adapted some of those old recipes to make them edible?

More Sweet Potato Recipes:

Chai Spiced Sweet Potatoes

Savory Roasted Sweet Potatoes

Pumpkin Pie Spiced Sweet Potatoes

Roasted Yukon Gold Potatoes and Sweet Potatoes

Hasselback Sweet Potatoes with Cinnamon Honey Glaze

15 Sweet Potato Recipes + How to Store Sweet Potatoes