Southern Soul Food Christmas Side Dishes | Christmas Candied Yams
The most magical time of the year comes with a holiday feast that should include Southern, savory, and soul food best Christmas dinner side dishes! Starting with a soul food Christmas candied yams recipe.
9x13 baking dish or casserole dish (if not using an Instant Pot)
KitchenAid classic Y-peeler
Ingredients
3 poundssweet potatoes3 -3 ½ pounds
6cupswatercool water
½cupwater
½cupbutterunsalted butter, or vegan butter
½cupbrown sugar
½cupsugargranulated
2teaspoonscinnamonof ground
½teaspoonnutmeg
2tablespoonsmaple syrup
¼teaspoongingerground or minced
¼teaspoonclovesground
1tablespoonvanilla extract
1 ½cupsmarshmallows*Optional – miniature marshmallows for topping
Instructions
Wash the sweet potatoes. (I like to use this vegetable scrubber HERE.)
Peel and cut the sweet potatoes into thick round wedges.
Then set them aside to soak in a bowl of cool water to prevent browning while preparing the candied yams syrup.
Melt the butter in a medium-sized bowl in the microwave.
Add the brown sugar, granulated sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, maple syrup, ginger, ground clove, and vanilla extract to the melted butter.
Mix the ingredients well to create the syrup glaze for the candied yams.
Next, Drain the sweet potato rounds in a colander.
Open the Instant Pot lid and add ½ a cup of water and the sweet potato rounds to the stainless-steel inner pot.
Pour the syrup glaze over the sweet potatoes.
Close the Instant Pot lid (ensure the valve is up – in the position for sealing) and pressure cook on high for 5 minutes.
When the cook time is finished, allow a natural pressure release for at least 5 minutes.
To open the Instant Pot lid, move the valve to ‘venting’ and manually release any remaining pressure, if applicable.
Optional - Open the Instant Pot lid and sprinkle the miniature marshmallows over the cooked, candied yams.
With the lid placed not entirely on the Instant Pot (in a resting position, so it doesn’t lock back into position on the pot) continue with the setting on ‘keep warm.’
After about 5 minutes, check to see if the marshmallows have melted.
Once the marshmallows are melted, turn off the Instant Pot and transfer your Black folks’ Southern candied yams recipe to a serving dish.
Serve Christmas candied yams right away, and enjoy!
Optionally, garnish with chopped pecans or walnuts, like a candied sweet potato casserole recipe.
Video
Notes
An Instant Pot pressure cooker cooks Christmas candied yams just right! So fork-tender, sweet, and citrusy with buttery caramel toffee flavor – yum!In only a fraction of the time, you can return to all those other Christmas side dishes on your list.