These vegan sweet potato rolls are the soft and pillowy bread of your dreams. A beautiful golden color thanks to the sweet potatoes, these savory dinner rolls are the perfect accompaniment to any fall feast, or to take a simple dinner to the next level. The soft and enriched dough is made vegan with the simple substitution of vegan butter (oil works too, though) for the typical dairy version and aquafaba for the traditional egg. Aquafaba (the water that comes from a can of cooked beans) works with the mashed sweet potato to create the softest bread that practically melts in your mouth.
The sweet potato rolls are made using a simple yeasted recipe, only requiring 5 ingredients, 3 minutes of kneading, and a couple of (mostly hands off) hours. They are so fast (by bread standards) and so easy to make, making them the perfect recipe for your busy life! With minimal effort you can have beautiful, warm, mouth-watering rolls to serve with dinner, and, quite possibly, steal the entire show.
I wrote a bit about enriched doughs in my post for coconut ginger custard filled doughnuts, and while these dinner rolls aren't deep fried and have no added sugar, the concept is basically the same. The fats in the dough effectively shorten the gluten strands (the protein network) for a more delicate bread. Increasing the ratio of starch in the dough, done by adding sweet potato and aquafaba, also influences the final texture of the dough, allowing for a tender product with a longer shelf life (i.e. these rolls don't go stale as quickly as unenriched bread would).
All the flavor from the sweet potato, milk, and vegan butter means that I don't opt for my typical slow, refrigerated rise overnight (which builds flavor through that slow yeast proliferation) and certainly, the final product is lacking for nothing. The rolls are soft and savory, buttery with yeasty undertones and a mild sweet potato flavor. They are delicious plain, dipped in soup, or slathered with vegan butter. There's nothing quite like eating hot, freshly baked bread that you've made yourself. That these rolls are quick and easy to make means that you'll be able to enjoy that experience as often as you'd like!
These vegan sweet potato rolls would be perfect for Thanksgiving dinner. We enjoyed them recently with this black bean soup recipe. You can make them with leftover cooked squash or sweet potato, the canned stuff, or do what I did and quickly microwave a sweet potato just for this purpose (see notes after recipe for microwave instructions). I can't get enough of these rolls and imagine that they'll be making an appearance on our table several times this fall.
Let me know if you try these vegan sweet potato rolls! Leave a comment and/or rate the recipe below, tag me on Instagram (#thecuriouschickpea), or share with me on Facebook! Happy baking everyone!
Notes:
- Aquafaba is the liquid from cooking beans. Chickpeas create some of the best aquafaba, and it’s easiest to collect it from a can. When separating the liquid from a can of beans, first shake the can before opening to loosen and distribute the starches and proteins that settle on bottom. Then strain and freeze the liquid until you’re ready to use it.
- This recipe can easily be doubled or tripled as needed to serve a crowd.
Vegan Sweet Potato Rolls
Beautifully orange-hued, soft and tender dinner rolls are made with mashed sweet potatoes and perfect for a fall feast.
Ingredients
- 2 teaspoon (7 g) instant yeast
- ½ cup (120 mL) warm plant milk, ~110 ºF
- ½ cup (100 g) cooked and mashed sweet potato*
- 2 tablespoon (15 mL) melted vegan butter or vegetable oil, plus extra for brushing
- ¼ cup (60 mL) aquafaba
- 3 - 3 ⅓ cups (360 - 400 g) all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon (5 g) salt
Instructions
- In a small mixing bowl whisk together the yeast and warm milk. Let sit for a few minutes until the yeast is dissolved and the mixture is a bit foamy (if your kitchen is cooler it may not get foamy in that shorter time frame). Add the mashed sweet potato, melted vegan butter, and aquafaba and whisk until smooth. If the mixture is very lumpy blend with a immersion blender or regular blender until fairly smooth ( a few small lumps are ok).
- In a large mixing bowl whisk together the flour and the salt. Pour in the wet ingredients and using a wooden spoon or your clean hand, mix together until it just comes together to form a shaggy dough.
- Turn onto a clean, lightly floured surface and knead by hand for about 3 minutes, until you have a smooth and barely tacky dough. Add flour or water if necessary to reach the desired texture. Alternatively knead in a stand mixer for 3 minutes, checking after 2 minutes to see if additional flour or water is needed.
- Form the dough into a ball, and place in an large, oiled mixing bowl, turning the dough ball to coat in oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for around 1 - 1 ½ hours, or until doubled in size (time will vary depending on how warm your room is, and may take even longer if it's below 70 ºF).
- When dough has doubled in size, preheat your oven to 400 ºF with a rack placed in the center. Prepare a large baking dish or a large cast iron (12") skillet by brushing the inside with melted butter (or vegetable oil), making sure to cover both the bottom and sides.
- Punch dough the dough and turn it onto a clean counter. Divide into 14 equal sized pieces and roll into balls. Place the rolls seam side down in the prepared baking dish or cast iron skillet, leaving 1 - 1 ½" between each roll. Cover and leave to rise 20-30 minutes until swollen and about doubled.
- When doubled in size, brush the tops of the rolls with melted butter. Put in oven and bake for 15-18 minutes until the rolls are a golden color on top.
- The rolls are best served warm, but are also very tasty at room temperature.
Notes
*To quickly cook a sweet potato: wash it and pierce it several times with a fork all over. Wrap in a paper towel and microwave in 2 minute intervals until a fork easily pierces through with no resistance. Exact time will vary, depending on how large your sweet potato is. You can substitute canned sweet potato purée, or pumpkin or squash purée. Canned pumpkin or squash can vary in moisture so you may have to adjust the flour.
*loosely adapted from King Arthur Flour
Hello, Chickpea,
Thanks for sharing another tempting recipe. Is there any way that this could be broken down to a two-day endeavor, say,buy refrigerating the dough after Step 4? If so, s should the dough ball sit out for a couple of hours before going into the fridge? A nd then how soon should it be taken out for shaping before the bake?
I'd like to start these tomorrow and bake and serve the day after, just to cut down on stress...
How's that for being a pain? Thanks so much!
Certainly you can break the recipe into two days! I would either 1) put the dough in the fridge for the first rise, so immediately after kneading cover the bowl and place it in the fridge. Then shape and let rise for maybe 45 minutes before baking. Or 2) let the dough rise out of the fridge then shape and then place on a greased, parchment lined baking tray and bake straight from the fridge the next day. Let me know what you do and how it turns out!
Hi! This recipe looks amazing and I can't wait to try it! I'm newly vegan so I'm confused about the warm milk ingredient (I didn't think milk was included in the vegan diet). I'd prefer not to use any dairy. Can I use warm water?? Thank you!
Hi Katie! I do mean non-dairy/plant milk just accidentally left that qualifier out. Any should work! Soy, almond, cashew, oat, etc. I’ll update the recipe to make it more clear 🙂
Warm water would work but the vegan milk makes for a softer roll.
Have you successfully tried making these with gluten free flour? I wonder whether soft vegan GF rolls are a figment of my imagination.
Hi Sharon, I haven’t done any yeasted gluten free baking so unfortunately I can’t say or guess how this recipe would go with gluten free flour. But I would imagine soft fluffy buns are still possible!
What is a substitute for the chickpea liquid. I cook my chickpeas from dry, I could use that but since it's not required I am tempted to use a linseed egg instead... What are your thoughts?
I would substitute water or plant milk. The aquafaba makes a nice softness to the dough, I’m not sure a different egg replacer would have quite the same effect but you could try and I believe it would still be great!
The article is very useful. I will follow it to vegan sweet potato rolls for my family. They are a big fan of potato rolls.
Could u please make a gluten free vegansweet potato bun recipe which works please . to use as a burger bun. Really looking for a good recipe as I'm vegan and gluten free
I made these rolls and they are delicious. I followed the recipe and they came out soft and tasty. I am going to a women's group tonight and will make a double batch. I am so excited about sharing the recipe with them.
I'm so happy to hear you enjoyed them! Hope your women's group did as well!
Have you tried this recipe with regular potatoes? I have a friend who is vegan, but she does not like sweet potatoes.
Thanks.
Could I make this into a loaf?
Delicious. They really are soft and tender. Microwaving the potato was definitely a good idea. Really quick to pull this together. (Other than the rise times.) lol
Potatoes are so great for making a soft dough. Before going plant based I used to make a cinnamon bun recipe that used Yukon gold Potatoes.
You don't happen to have a sweet dough using Potatoes do you?! 😉