Mashed Potato Stuffing (Virgin Islands)

Mashed Potato Stuffing (Virgin Islands)

Don't let this Virgin Islands side dish miss your dinner table this Thanksgiving. This Caribbean spin on potato stuffing uses white sweet potatoes that are boiled and mashed into a smooth consistency with raisins, vegetables and seasoning.

Course Side Dish

Cuisine Caribbean

Prep Time 25

Cook Time 45

Total Time 1 10

Servings servings

Calories 287kcal

Author Charla

Ingredients

2-2½ lb white sweet potatoes or use regular white potatoes, see notes
4 tablespoon vegan butter (32g)
2 tablespoon olive oil (28g)
½ cup onion (80g) minced
4 garlic cloves (12g)minced
½ cup green bell peppers (74g)minced
½ cup red bell peppers (74g)minced
2 tablespoon celery (16g)minced
⅓ cup raisins (48g)add more raisins if you wish
¼ cup coconut sugar (48g)can use raw cane sugar
¼ cup tomato paste (65g)
1 tablespoon parsley (4g)
1 teaspoon thyme (2g)
1 teaspoon black pepper (2g)
¼ teaspoon cinnamon (0.5g)optional
pink salt to taste
almond milk if needed to breakdown the potatoes

Instructions

Preheat the oven at 180C/356F or gas mark 4.
Wash and dry the white sweet potatoes before proceeding to peel the potatoes using a paring knife/peeler.
Roughly chop the potato into chunks before adding them to a large pot of water. Add enough water to the pot so that all the potatoes are completely submerged in water.
Bring the pot to the boil and cook the potato chunks until tender., Be sure to determine the readiness by pricking a piece of potato with a fork. It should be soft to the touch.
Drain off the excess water, transfer the potato to a large bowl and use a potato masher/immersion stick blender to break down the potato chunks into a mash and incorporate the butter (you can use some almond milk if you want to make it creamy).
On medium heat add the olive oil and begin to saute the onion and garlic for 30 seconds.
Quickly add the bell peppers, celery and raisins and cook for 1 minute.
Add the coconut sugar, tomato paste, thyme, parsley, black pepper, salt to your taste and cinnamon. The contents in the frying pan should take on a red hue.
Continue to toss and rotate the pan for another minute before removing it from the stove.
Pour the sauteed ingredients in with the mash potatoes and use a folding technique to ensure the fruit and vegetables are fully incorporated, note the potato should be a subtle red hue.
Do a taste test and adjust seasoning, if required.
Transfer the potato stuffing into an oven proof dish, using a knife or the back of a large spoon to evenly distribute the mixture, it should resemble a deep pie.
Bake in the oven until golden brown (this should take 30-45 minutes)
Remove and allow to cool before serving accordingly.

Video

Notes

**Just to clarify the dish is called potato stuffing BUT title says "MASHED". I put mashed at the beginning because this helps to bring the post up in Google search hence making it visible**

While the potatoes are boiling I recommended sauteing the rest of the ingredients to cut down on the cooking time.

You can peel the potatoes the day before and have the ingredients ready ahead of time.

Red skinned sweet potatoes can be found in any market/supermarket in a neighbourhood that has a high percentage of African/Caribbean/Asian and Latinos.

You can use a splash of almond milk to help breakdown the potatoes if you want to

I recommend using white sweet potatoes (use the orange ones if you can't get white ones) and coconut sugar because they don't raise blood sugar levels very quickly.

You can omit using any sugar since sweet potatoes are naturally sweet.

Use can used dried thyme if you don't have any thyme to hand.

Any leftovers can be refrigerated for up to 3 days.

Do a taste test of the stuffing once all of the ingredients are incorporated together. You may want to add something else i.e more thyme, more tomato, black pepper etc...

Nutrition