Sweet Potato Pie Smoothie

Sweet potato pie is a delicious runner up for the more common pumpkin pie, just less squashy tasting! While I actually have never officially made the pie, I am familiar with the ingredients and came up with a delicious recipe for a Sweet Potato Pie smoothie! (My family always does pumpkin pies).

Funny comment though, even though everyone calls it a sweet potato pie, I think pretty much everyone uses yams. Sweet potatoes generally are more white/yellow in color, sometimes purple if you get a special variety. Yams are orange and rich in carotenes, plus fiber. Fiber in a smoothie is great for keeping you fuller longer!

This Sweet Potato Pie Smoothie is a nutrient rich and tasty breakfast. I used canned coconut milk as it is thicker and nice and creamy, but you do need to add either a nut milk or goat milk to thin this smoothie out a bit, otherwise it can be a bit hard to drink. Use 1/4 cup of nut milk or goat milk and add in some more if needed.

Ingredients:

• About 4 inches of an orange yam (palm size or 1 small yam, or half large)
• heaping 1/4 tsp of cinnamon
• few sprinkles clove powder
• few sprinkles nutmeg powder
• sprinkle ground ginger powder
• ½ cup canned coconut milk (typically a thicker milk for extra richness)
• 1/4 cup nut milk or goat milk
• 4 ice cubes
• 1 tbs coconut oil
• 2 scoops Clean Whole Protein
• 4 candied pecans for blending, 3 for topping*
• 1 tsp maple syrup

Directions:

1. Roast a yam at 375 F for about an hour or until fork tender the night before. Cool in the fridge overnight.
2. Blend everything up in a good blender.
3. Top this thick smoothie with 3 extra candied pecans.
4. Enjoy!

*I used a recipe from All-American Paleo Table by Caroline Potter for the candied pecans. The instructions are in her recipe: Roasted Beet Salad with Pears and Candied Pecans (great for Thanksgiving!). That recipe uses cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, maple syrup and sugar. I personally cut down by half on the sugar and salt, but keep the maple syrup and everything else the same.

Notes: The blended candied pecans and just the teaspoon of maple syrup made this pretty good smoothie into a delicious pie-in-a-glass treat! Cooking an extra yam at dinner the night before makes easy prep for this smoothie. I usually don’t like eating leftover roasted sweet potatoes (aka yams), but this is a good way to use them up before they get old and forgotten about in the fridge. I usually use Jewel yams.