Vegan Jamaican Sweet Potato Pudding
I enjoyed sweet potato pudding while growing up in Jamaica. It is easy to make, using a food processor or a blender. I must say it wasn’t as easy to make when I was growing up, but it was such a delight to eat and an appreciation of my mother’s labor of love that brings back warm memories!
Vegan Jamaican Sweet Potato Pudding
In Jamaica, they call this baking style “hell a top, hell a bottom, and hallelujah in the middle.” It results in a decadent pudding with a perfectly baked sweet custard top.
Nowadays, I make my version of Jamaican sweet potato pudding vegan and gluten-free. I quickly peel and chop the potatoes. Process in a food processor, add canned coconut milk, gluten-free flour, and spices, and pop it in an oven. I do a special step to get the custard topping by adding extra sweetened coconut milk halfway during baking.
This recipe is a must-try, there isn’t much room to fail if you are trying it for the first time. You will be happy you tried it! Serve it with my Jamaican Stew Peas with Dumplings and my Jamaican Sorrel Drink for a truly authentic taste of the Island.
In Jamaica, this baking style is called “hell a top, hell a bottom, and hallelujah in the middle.” The result would be a decadent pudding perfectly baked with a sweet custard top.
Nowadays, I make my version of Jamaican sweet potato pudding vegan and gluten-free. I peel and chop the potatoes.
Process in a food processor, add canned coconut milk, gluten-free flour, and spices, and pop it in an oven. I do a special step to get the custard topping by adding extra sweetened coconut milk halfway during baking.
This recipe is a must-try, there isn’t much room to fail if you are trying it for the first time. You will be happy you tried it! Serve it with my Jamaican Stew Peas with Dumplings and my Jamaican Sorrel Drink for a truly authentic taste of the Island.
How To Make Vegan Jamaican Sweet Potato Pudding
To make Jamaican Sweet Potato pudding, you will need a special variety of sweet potato that has white flesh with red skin. It is mainly sold in West Indian, Asian and African grocery stores. But fortunately, it’s getting more popular here in the USA and it can even be found in Walmart. Sometimes it is also sold as ‘batata’.
Pro Chef Tip
Update: I have known readers who have replaced gluten-free flours with regular all-purpose flour with great success.
Also, a reader noted that she has doubled the flour and was able to have success using American sweet potatoes. I will have to try it soon.
How to Store Jamaican Sweet Potato Pudding?
I usually store mine for 1-2 days in a container with a tight-fitting lid, then refrigerate any leftovers. It also freezes well.
Other Vegan Desserts To Try
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Vegan Jamaican Sweet Potato Pudding
Ingredients
- 2 pounds sweet potato (aka batata) *See Notes
- 1 14-ounce can coconut milk
- 1 cup coconut palm sugar
- 1 teaspoon ginger freshly grated
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 cup gluten-free all purpose flour or brown rice flour
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon optional
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg optional
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
Custard Topping
- 1/2 cup coconut milk
- 1 tablespoon coconut sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 pinch cinnamon optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven 375℉. Grease a 9-inch round baking pan. Set aside.
- Peel sweet potatoes and roughly chop. Grate using the grater or a food processor in batches. If using a food processor or blender, add some coconut milk to help process.
- Transfer grated sweet potatoes to a large bowl, add coconut milk, coconut palm sugar, spices and salt.
- Stir in flour to form a mostly smooth batter.
- Pour batter into cake pan and bake for 45 minutes.
- Combine all topping ingredients in a small bowl and pour evenly on the top of the pudding.
- Return pudding to oven and bake for another 45 minutes or until top is golden brown.
- Delicious served alone or with coconut whipped cream.
- Please double the flour if using the regular American sweet potato variety.
I am a prime example of why you should read all the info before making this recipe. I used the orange sweet potatoes and didn’t double the flour. I ended up with a runny pudding but I must say it was still delicious! I will definitely try this again. Thank you
Ahh Claudey, I’m so sorry this happened. I will update the recipe and add extra notes. I’m happy the taste was delicious in spite of.
I am going to try out your vegan sweet potato pudding later grated the sweet potatoes already – I am going to eat more vegan dishes – I need to drop some pounds off.
Helen, thank you all the best on your journey. I hope you enjoy the pudding!
Hi Michelle!
This looks so delicious, I really want to try it! Can I replace the coconut milk with another non-dairy milk? Cashew or almond for example?
Lizzie, thank you. Yes you can replace the milk. The recipe will turn out fine it will just be missing the authentic Jamaican flavor but it will taste great!
I made it with cashew milk, it was SO delicious! Thank you for the recipe :)
Thank you Lizzie, I’m so happy it turned out great with your adjustments.
This was outstanding! I used some of the substitutions that people mentioned in the comments and a couple of my own. I would make it that way again!
Potatoes: half purple sweet potatoes (purple flesh, beige skin) and half Japanese sweet potato (ivory flesh, dark red skin) — these seemed like the best options at my local International grocery
Flour: cornmeal
Spices: ground cardamom, ground coriander, and a pinch of allspice
I also used a little less sugar. It was plenty sweet. And since I had only one can of coconut milk, I stretched it by using half cup as written for the custard, and making up the missing liquid in the pudding itself with some unsweetened almond milk that I had in my fridge.
To prepare the potatoes, I thought I could get away with using the grater disk of the food processor. That gave me shredded potato that I mixed with the other ingredients. It seemed like the texture would be wrong, so I put that all back in the food processor with the normal blade. The texture in the finished pudding was perfect, even though the batter didn’t look smooth to me.
It was a big hit at the potluck, with multiple people asking for the recipe. Thank you so much for an amazing dessert!
Wow Diane thank you for your feedback, I love your adjustments and I love purple sweet potatoes, in fact, all sweet potatoes so I’m definitely going to make a purple sweet potato pie for Christmas holidays. I’m so happy you redid the potatoes with a normal food processor blade, I just use my blender and it works fine. I’m glad that your friends at potluck enjoyed it. Thank you for sharing!
Also, I boiled the sweet potatoes first on accident but now I’m realizing are you supposed to bake them raw?? Just grated? I boiled and mashed them.
that is how Haitians make their version of sweet potato pudding by boiling them first. Along with other adjustments.
Joan, that’s interesting. now I’m curious to taste it done that way. I wonder if the result is like ours.
I tried using American sweet potatoes and while the flavor was GREAT, it was a little too liquidy. I probably should have added the extra cup of flour. Followed everything else pretty exact, besides the milk topping I had to use almond milk.
Mary, I’m happy you enjoyed the flavor. Hopefully, you will make it again with the correct adjustments, for American sweet potato you would need to double the amount of flour and yes it is grated raw sweet potatoes but you can chop and blend with the liquid in the recipe for convenience.
Can I put this un the vitamix? Or will the texture be too smooth? Thanks so much for your help :)
I put mine in my high-speed blender and it is great.
This looks amazing can’t wait to try this recipe. I have a few questions if you don’t mind: Can you use coconut almond milk in the carton instead of the can coconut milk? Can I substitue coconut flour instead of Gluten Free flour, any idea how much I would need? Thank you, I look forward to your response.
Thank you Kat, it is delicious. It should be fine with coconut flour but unfortunately I cannot guarantee because I haven’t tried it but I would love to know if it works when you do.
I enjoyed reading your posts. I enjoy cooking and making recipes of my own.
Hi Michelle. I’ll be using North American sweet potatoes can I bake it and mash instead of grating. It will only be a lot easier for me.
Shirley, how about chopping it and blending it. Definitely, the texture will be different but the taste will be great. Let me know how it turns out.