14 Delicious Sweet Potato Breakfast Ideas

Potatoes already have a well-earned place at the American breakfast table, and you can do nearly anything with a sweet potato that you do with a regular one. With their unique flavor, sweet potatoes offer even more possibilities than their non-sweet counterparts — for instance, a golden Yukon in a bowl of oats would be simultaneously bland and overwhelming, but a sweet potato, helped along with a sprinkle of brown sugar, has a perfect place there.

In general, there’s a multitude of ways to cook sweet potatoes, and this is just as true at breakfast, so you never have to get bored with one application. You can look forward to not only their warm, earthy sweetness dancing hand-in-hand with coffee across your palate, but also feel good knowing that these delightful tubers – the orange ones, at least – are giving you a whopping dose of beta-carotene, which your body converts into vitamin A. Regular spuds can’t offer you as much, nor do they provide that associated gorgeous color. Sweet potatoes also pair excellently with savory breakfast flavors as well as those more sugar-focused, so take notes — breakfast is about to get a lot (or a little) sweeter.

A good breakfast hash is a filling and flavorful one-pot wonder. Typically consisting of eggs, potatoes, onions, and meat (with the last three ingredients all diced or chopped), the taters in the traditional version can be swapped out for sweet potatoes, with excellent results. Their sweetness complements the smokiness or spiciness of meats such as bacon or chorizo, and any seasonings you add to the dish — think cumin, paprika, or garlic.

Salmon elevates breakfast hash to new heights, too. Opt for smoked, and add in some fresh dill for the perfect punch for Mediterranean-style flavors. But breakfast hash is wonderfully versatile. You could make it vegan, for instance, by incorporating beans as your protein. Black beans go particularly well with the whole Southwest vibe, but any of your favorites could do — pinto, chickpeas, and so on. 

Sweet potatoes also have a place in breakfasts that require a spoon over a fork. If oatmeal is your jam, you’d best believe these colorful tubers can add a megadose of comforting warmth to it. Simply bake or microwave your potato until done, spoon out the flesh, and thoroughly stir it into your hot oats. Eat as is for simplicity, or top with all types of wonderful things: chopped nuts, maple syrup, raisins, brown sugar, cinnamon, or even a scoop from one of the best cottage cheese brands to offer tang, creaminess, and extra protein.

For an entirely different soupy breakfast option, take your lead from the Taiwanese and make congee (rice porridge). Congee can be eaten plain — it’s great if you’re feeling under the weather — but it’s also a wonderful medium for a number of breakfast ingredients. For example, it’s one of the best ways to use fish for breakfast. This includes sweet potatoes, a traditional add-in on the island of Taiwan, where carb-heavy sweet potato congee typically shares the breakfast table with more fat- and protein-filled sides or toppings. If you don’t have pickled radish or braised pork belly on hand, don’t sweat it. Just top it with anything you like: eggs, greens, or even get your fusion on and try it with chopped bacon.

For a paleo, grain-free option, use slabs of sliced sweet potatoes that have been baked or toasted (yes, in the actual bread toaster) to function as the landing pad for your toppings of choice. The result isn’t going to have that crunchy, grainy, gluten-y goodness of bread, but the sweet surface is still delicious in its own way and sets you up just right for a sweet or savory breakfast.

For a savory take, try it with typical toast toppings like eggs and mashed avocados sprinkled with some Trader Joe’s everything bagel seasoning (or a copycat made at home). Mediterranean-style is also good; some of the endless options include feta, tomatoes, tahini or tzatziki (although they’re different, either could be great), and a little lemony sumac.

For a sweet version, go for a nut butter and fruit combo. Beyond the classic PB and banana, the tartness of blueberries or raspberries would complement the natural sweetness of the potato. Almond or cashew butter, with their milder flavor profile than peanut, would share the palate nicely with the rest of the ingredients. Sprinkle with warm spices, shredded coconut, or even dark chocolate chips or shavings for added richness.

All your favorite comforting morning carbs can be jazzed up with the earthy sweetness of sweet potatoes, and that includes the two competing batter-based champions themselves: pancakes and waffles. Incorporating these mighty orange tubers into your recipe does require you to peel, boil, and mash them, but if that’s too off-putting a task for your a.m. hours, you can always use leftover mashed sweet potatoes. Besides cutting down on time and effort on the day of, this approach is a way to reduce food waste if your mashed taters were likely fated to end up in the garbage.

For both pancakes and waffles, you can omit the sugar that usually goes in the recipe — the spuds take over its job. For either dish, simply mix in your mashed sweet potatoes with your milk, butter, and eggs, and then combine this with your typical flour mixture before cooking as usual. Allow about 1 to 1 ¼ cups of potato for a recipe that feeds four.

Compared to whipping up pancakes, this breakfast idea gets you up close and personal with your sweet potato. Another grain-free paleo-diet idea, this recipe calls for you to merely mash or process your cooked sweet potato — skin included, if you like — before either eating it plain, with butter, or topping it with spices, milk, or nut butter of your choice. You then just dig in, eating it like you would a bowl of oatmeal.

Even if you couldn’t care less about following this or that diet, the dish is sweet, comforting, filling, and as tasty as you want it to be. It’s also another one that takes well to leftover mashed sweet potatoes; you can even prep a good quantity of it beforehand and just scoop some out in the morning — it will last three to four days in the fridge in an airtight container.

Though a tad more labor-intensive than a simple baked potato, enjoying a stuffed sweet potato for breakfast can be less time and trouble than making up an old-school breakfast casserole, depending on what you put in it. The difference between a stuffed sweet potato and a simple baked one with toppings is that you’ll be scooping out a portion of the cooked potato flesh when it’s done baking in the oven or microwave. You then fill that space with delicious ingredients and pop it back into the oven for a bit to let those toppings cook into a perfectly integrated masterpiece.

For traditional morning ingredients, go for eggs, bacon or sausage, cheese, and spices; rosemary is a delight, or use Italian seasoning for a little more depth. A plant-based version with beans, salsa, and so on is also possible, in which case you don’t necessarily need to send the stuffed potato back to the oven for further cooking. And, as always, a more dessert-for-breakfast version works – think peanut butter and banana. If your quantity of stuffing isn’t overwhelming, you can skip the step where you scoop out half the potato, and instead just mash it to blend with the rest of the goodies.

Sweet potatoes make excellent side dishes at breakfast as well as mains or components in a more complex dish. For a sweet, crispy side you can really sink your fork into, consider shaping them into patties or croquettes and then frying them until golden brown. For the former, just bake or microwave two or three sweet potatoes until you can mash them together. Add seasonings (any palate you like is possible, from Indian to Mexican) or sautéed onions, and form them into patties. Finally, fry them in a shallow pan of oil for about a minute per side.

Croquettes are a little more involved, having a breadcrumb coating, but are well worth the extra steps for their tantalizing crunch. Just mix mashed sweet potato with butter and seasonings, and let it chill until very cold — at least an hour. Shape it into balls, which you’ll first dredge in breadcrumbs, then a lightly beaten egg, and then back in the breadcrumbs. Fry, and enjoy.

When you want hash browns, nothing else will do; their crispy golden-brownness and tongue-tickling texture from the starchy shreds are irreplaceable with any other breakfast side. Swapping out regular potatoes with sweet potatoes is a modification that yields equally toothsome — if not more so — results. You still get that salty, carb-rich savoriness, but it’s enhanced by sweetness. Fry them in butter for its dairy-rich taste, or use a neutral oil to highlight more of the potato’s natural flavor while not having to worry about your butter burning.

There’s one caveat of note, however: If whole, cohesive hash brown patties are a sensory must for you, temper your expectations with your sweet potato swap, or forego them and stick with your regular recipe. There are waxy and starchy potatoes, and their uses can differ; one of the most vital distinctions is how well they stick together in a hash brown. The waxy ones, such as Yukon Gold or red, hold together nicely. But the starchy ones, such as Russets? Not so much. That said, there’s a trade-off: Team Starchy does tend to crisp up more beautifully than Team Waxy. Regular ol’ sweet potatoes are starchy, so you can expect a lovely golden color and satisfying crunch once fried, though they’ll more likely have that fall-apart texture that can be tantalizing in its own way.

Sweet potatoes once again lend their charms to breakfast when you incorporate them in that classic side dish staple: biscuits. When puréed or mashed, these lovely orange spuds add moisture to your dough and impart an unbeatable fluffiness, along with their Technicolor hue. To make them, fold in the puréed taters with your butter, milk, and dry flour mixture, working through any dryness or mealiness until fully combined. You can take the buttermilk route or stick with regular milk; the former just adds that blissful tang that complements the sweet tuber.

Use these biscuits in their traditional role as sides or yolk-sopper-uppers, or make a breakfast sandwich with egg, sausage, and a milder cheese that won’t overpower your biscuit’s earthy sweetness: Colby Jack or a mild or medium cheddar would work great. Alternatively, you could always make your sandwich vegetarian with a protein of tofu, tempeh, or seitan.

If you’re feeding a crowd at breakfast, a casserole is where it’s at. Regular potatoes have a well-established role in them, but consider the sweet ones if you’re looking for a pop of novelty. Options abound, from vegan to meaty goodness, ensuring there’s a version that will work for you.

Casseroles aren’t the world’s quickest meal, with their need for peeling and chopping and 30-40 minutes of baking (you likely already know that if you’re the type to pull out your casserole dish in the first place), but they typically offer 10 or so servings, and leftovers reheat well. Whatever version of a casserole you’re cooking, you’ll start with cubing your sweet potatoes, just as you would regular potatoes, and either baking them on a sheet or sautéing them in a Dutch oven or skillet with your onions. You can then layer your ingredients in the casserole dish and bake until melded and cohesive.

As for the specifics of those ingredients, the world is your oyster — or casserole. Pork or turkey sausage with medium cheddar and eggs is a classic that pairs just as well with sweet potatoes, but don’t discount a veggie version with kale and tofu, or even vegan with plant-based swaps all around.

A donut (or three) for breakfast invokes a nostalgic simplicity — perfect for those days when you just want to eat something that feels like a warm hug — and sweet potatoes can make this treat even tastier with their natural sugars. You can go old-school and deep-fry them, or you can take a more nutrition-conscious approach by air-frying or baking your donuts. Alternatively, try mixing in a little dark rum to your batter for a heady warmth, or nutmeg for a nutty, woody hit.

Whichever approach you take, you’ll need to purée a cooked sweet potato and combine it (via an electric mixer or a whisk) with the rest of your donut ingredients before you add your flour. Once you’ve rolled the dough and cut out your donuts, bake them for about 20 minutes at 400 F, or deep-fry them for a couple of minutes or so. The air-fryer approach will take about 8 minutes per batch at 350 F.

What goes on the outside of your donuts is almost as important as what’s inside. You can glaze them with butter, cream, and sugar, or stay simple with melted butter and cinnamon. Quite literally, it’s all good.

Falafel is a Mediterranean dish of deep-fried balls or patties made of ground chickpeas or fava beans, often eaten between pita as a sandwich. It’s beloved not only for its crispiness but also for its flavors, which come from your bean of choice and any seasonings used to give the falafel its oomph. Adding sweet potato to the mix and opting for breakfast-appropriate breads and add-ons makes for a perfect breakfast sandwich.

To make sweet potato falafel, you start, as you so often do, by cooking and mashing one or two sweet potatoes. Add in and thoroughly combine all the other makings of a good falafel — chickpeas, flour, spices, and seasonings — before forming little balls or patties (perhaps a more wieldy choice for a traditional bread sandwich). Chill these and then fry them in about an inch of oil in a Dutch oven or other deep pan, or bake them for a lighter option at 375 F for about 10 minutes.

The bread for your breakfast sandwich could be brioche, rye, sourdough, or even Hawaiian rolls, if you want to lean into that sweeter palate. Tahini would be great for lending a complementary nuttiness to the sweet potato and chickpea patties, along with pickles and a nice egg over-easy to burst for a pop of bright yellow color and unctuous flavor.

Many folks out there wholeheartedly believe in the invigorating powers of bready breakfast delights. If that’s you, sweet potato muffins or bread are right up your alley. Sweet potato adds the same moistness and sweet flavor to these baked goods as it does to breakfast biscuits, making it worth its while to mash or purée the tater for use — the first step for either muffins or bread.

Bring your mashed sweet potato into the mix for both bread and muffins by whisking it in with your recipe’s oil, sugars, eggs, and other wet ingredients. Then combine with your dry ingredients and bake according to your recipe. Sweet potato bread can be as sugary an affair as you want. Try it with no topping or icing for less sugar — a dollop of Greek yogurt would be a fantastic addition. For full-on sweetness, try a marshmallow frosting spread atop the bread once it’s cooled. For sweet potato muffins, a pecan streusel adds crunch and extra nuttiness, and some cinnamon sugar keeps things simple but tasty.

Many believe French toast is the reigning champ of bread-focused breakfast dishes, and one of the most delicious twists on French toast is bringing sweet potato into the game. If you don’t find it too much work to prepare French toast batter (or custard), coat your bread slices in it, and cook them, then including your spuds shouldn’t be too onerous, either. All you have to do is add about 1 cup of mashed sweet potato to the rest of the custard ingredients, combine, and proceed as usual.

Sweet potatoes offer an extra layer of yumminess from their natural sugars to the already decadent delight that is French toast. You can play around with toppings and bread varieties to your heart’s content. Make it extra indulgent with sliced pound cake, and sprinkle it with powdered sugar. For a lighter version, use a plant-based milk like almond or coconut instead of dairy, and top with fresh fruit.