Japanese Sweet Potato Paste (Healthy Dessert Spread or Dip!)

This sweet potato jam is called “satsumaimo paste” in Japanese. It’s a super easy sweet spread that you can use as a fruit or cookie dip or in other desserts – even for creme brulee toast! Bonus: it can easily be made vegan! Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links.

Satsumaimo Paste – Where This Recipe Came From

Every time I peruse Japanese food blogs, I learn something new. Recently I’ve been seeing Japanese home cooks make fun and easy toasts with various toppings. For example, have you seen the melon pan spread that you can buy at convenience stores in Japan? You just spread it on toast and let the top broil in a toaster oven!

The recipe I have for you today is very similar – it’s a sweet spread that you can put on toast, but it’s made out of sweet potato! In America, I feel like this would be called something like “sweet potato jam” or “sweet potato butter” but in Japanese it’s called “satsumaimo paste,” since satsumaimo is the Japanese word for sweet potato. It’s very popular in the Japanese blogosphere, and I can see why. It’s soooooo smooth and creamy, even when made vegan, and super easy to make!

What Makes Japanese Sweet Potato Special

When I talk about Japanese sweet potatoes, I’m referring to the “Murasaki” variety, which can be found at many grocery stores in America, including Trader Joe’s. They have a nuttier, almost chestnut-like flavor as opposed to other American varieties that taste more floral or yammy to me. I’m told that murasaki sweet potatoes also are an excellent source of nutrition, with a higher vitamin content than orange sweet potato varieties, being an especially good source of vitamin A, potassium, fiber, and vitamin C. That means you should definitely make this recipe! Who doesn’t want to sneak more fiber into their diet?

Ingredients

You only need three ingredients for this recipe: a roasted Japanese sweet potato, milk (I like soy milk), and sugar.

Japanese sweet potatoes (“satsumaimo” in Japanese) have a purple-ish skin and a light colored flesh. When roasted (then called “yakiimo”), they become super soft and fluffy. 

If you take that roasted sweet potato and blend it with a little milk and sugar, you get satsumaimo paste! It takes very little milk and sugar, as Japanese sweet potatoes naturally have a very smooth and moist texture.

Ingredient Substitutions

You can use any kind of milk you like – I prefer soy milk, which keeps this recipe vegan. However, dairy milk is totally fine.

You can also decrease the amount of sugar as much as you want or substitute maple syrup or honey.

For the sweet potato though, I do not recommend any sort of substitutions. Other types of sweet potatoes may be more dry, mealy, or grainy and not produce a smooth spread. If you are willing to experiment with the amounts of liquid, then feel free to try other varieties. If you’re looking specifically for a purple sweet potato paste, try my Okinawan sweet potato jam recipe!

How to Roast Japanese Sweet Potatoes

Wash your sweet potato really well, poke holes in it with a fork, and bake at 425 degrees F for one hour. I usually do this the night before to serve with dinner. Then, I save the leftovers in the fridge and make this paste the next day. When starting with leftover roasted potatoes, the cook time is literally one minute.

Alternatively, if you’ve decided to make this recipe last minute, you can also microwave your potato until soft. For a medium sized potato, this usually takes me around 5 minutes.

Equipment Needed

The only kitchen appliances you need are some sort of blender or food processor and a digital kitchen scale. I actually use my single serving Ninja smoothie blender, since it’s a small amount. Japanese sweet potatoes are so soft that you could probably mix this by hand or with a handheld electric mixer if you really wanted, but a blender is definitely easiest.

I recommend a digital scale as sweet potatoes will all differ in size. Knowing the ratio of milk and sugar to add by weight will make it easier to adjust this recipe. If you really don’t want to get a scale, know that I used a “medium” sized sweet potato for this recipe and that 75g of soy milk is also a little more than 1/4 cup.

What to Make with Sweet Potato Paste

You can use this paste the same as you would use other jams, spreads, butters, or dips. Blend it into a latte! Sandwich it between cookies! Spread it on waffles or pancakes! Use it as a filling in sweet steamed buns, daifuku mochi, or manju! There are so many dishes you can create. My favorite, though? Sweet potato creme brulee toast!

Make Creme Brulee Toast

You’ll see in the recipe card that a kitchen blowtorch is listed as an optional piece of equipment – this is for if you want to make creme brulee toast.

Toast a slice of white bread, preferably Japanese shokupan or a fluffy milk bread. Spread some sweet potato paste on top. Sprinkle some sugar and then use the kitchen blowtorch to creme brulee the top. SOOO GOOD.

Alternatively, you can try spreading the jam and sprinkling the sugar, then toasting the whole thing under a broiler, but I find that I often burn my toast that way.

More Sweet Potato Recipes

Love sweet potato in all forms? Check out these other recipes!

• Purple Sweet Potato Latte
• Purple Sweet Potato Pop Tarts
• Okinawan Sweet Potato Haupia Pie Bars
• Japanese Sweet Potato Creme Brulee