Roasted Sweet Potatoes Are The Perfect Base For A Savory Sweet Dip

Roasted sweet potatoes can tantalize taste buds even when prepared in the simplest way. Yet, the reality is that they have an incredible amount of culinary potential. Given their richly nuanced flavor profile and lusciously smooth textures, roasted sweet potatoes can be the ideal base for a sweet and savory dip. Perfect for dunking crudité and crackers, give spuds a mash and let yourself be amazed at what the tubers can do.

Orange, white, or purple, sweet potatoes boast a sweet starchiness with hints of earthiness. When roasted, they take on an especially honeyed quality as spuds caramelize. They also develop a toastiness that plays well with their mellow umami edge. It's precisely this sweet-and-savory profile that allows the potatoes to complement and contrast a range of ingredients, making them a great choice when introduced into dips and spreads. Of course, it also doesn't hurt that sweet potatoes' soft and fluffy flesh mixes seamlessly, giving dips an even silky consistency.

Generally, a single spud is all that's needed to prep potatoes for a dip, but quantities may vary. For ultra-tender taters, we recommend leaving them whole and pricking them with a fork before placing them on an oven — or an air fryer — rack to roast. Once they've finished cooking, let sweet potatoes cool before scraping out the flesh and adding it to a food processor with nothing more than a glug of oil and some seasonings. Then, pulse the dip ingredients until smooth. For textural diversity, spuds can be smashed by hand prior to stirring into spreads.

Roasted sweet potatoes make a stellar spread when blitzed with oil and seasonings. But, with the help of an extra ingredient or two, the honeyed puree can be transformed tenfold. For instance, a spoonful of herbaceous pesto or chimichurri imparts freshness, whereas a drizzle of honey mustard dressing or cranberry jam accentuates sweetness, all while flavorful nut butter can provide a degree of toastiness — just imagine how caramelized spuds can tie together a satay sauce.

Using your favorite dips as a blueprint is another wise choice when crafting the potato-based dip. Draw inspiration from a classic chip dip and combine pureed spuds with sour cream (or tangy Greek yogurt) and caramelized onions to boost umami. Otherwise, fold the mash into queso for a zesty and decadent fusion. Spice lovers might even want to try making a smoky muhammara spin-off by blending sweet potatoes with red peppers and walnuts. That said, following in the footsteps of a bean dip isn't a bad idea, either. Whether you pulse spuds with a cup of chickpeas to whip up a creamy hummus or add roasted taters to a 7-layer dip is entirely up to you.

With so many ways to customize the sweetly earthy dip, building flavor is easy. Regardless of which unique combination of ingredients is introduced into the mix, remember that you can't go wrong with smashed and roasted sweet potatoes as a base.