Hamburger Casserole with Sweet Potato Cheese Sauce
Published 8/9/2023 • Updated 8/29/2023
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This hamburger casserole is a wholesome, hearty, and protein-packed weeknight dinner. Made with ground turkey, a sweet potato cheese sauce, warm spices, and noodles, you’ll love this nourishing alternative to classic Hamburger Helper.
The OG hamburger casserole comes from a box and is essentially noodles and a powdered cheese sauce with ground hamburger mixed in. While boxed food has a time and a place, we’re here to help you recreate hamburger casserole in your own home with a Fit Foodie twist.
Say hello to our revamped, still hearty yet totally wholesome, hamburger casserole with a sweet potato cheese sauce. This easy and delicious hamburger casserole is made with spiced ground turkey, puréed sweet potatoes + cheese, and noodles. It bakes up in the oven to bubbly golden brown perfection – a comfort food we all love!
Featured Comment
“I made this tonight and everyone in my family loved it! Picky kids included.” – Trish
What You Need for Hamburger Casserole
No boxed mix here! Our version of hamburger casserole is just as comforting, but made without the additives and sodium so often found in classic hamburger casserole. It’s creamy and tastes even better than the classic! Here’s what you need for each part of this casserole recipe:
Meat: Classic hamburger casserole is made with ground beef, but for this recipe we used ground turkey. The turkey mixture comes together with onion and a few cozy spices.
Cheese Sauce: While there is still cheese in our homemade cheese sauce, the secret ingredient is actually sweet potatoes. They add a touch of sweetness, lots of nutrients, and the perfect bright orange color. You’ll purée the sweet potatoes and blend them together with cheese, broth, and salt.
Noodles: Instead of classic white noodles, we love to use whole wheat noodles or even a chickpea pasta for a little more protein.
Hamburger Casserole Substitutions
Use this casserole recipe as a starting point for what ingredients you have on hand or what you like best.
- Instead of using ground turkey, use the same amount of ground beef or ground chicken. You could even use beans or lentils to make it vegetarian.
- Use your favorite kind of noodle. Protein pasta (like chickpea noodles) or gluten free noodles work great in this recipe.
- If you don’t have time to make your own sweet potato purée, use the same amount of canned sweet potatoes or pumpkin in the sauce.
FAQ
Hamburger casserole can be made without traditional ground beef. We suggest subbing another ground meat such as turkey (like in this recipe) or chicken, but you could even use beans or lentils for a vegetarian version.
Yes! To halve this recipe, simply divide all of the ingredients in half and use a 8×8-inch square baking dish. Bake as directed.
1.5x or 2x the sweet potato cheese sauce for a saucier hamburger casserole.
If you notice the top of your casserole is crisping up too quickly, tent a piece of foil over the pan while it finishes baking.
How to Store this Casserole
We don’t suggest freezing hamburger casserole because the noodles will get soggy when defrosting. But, this recipe does reheat well when stored in the fridge for leftover meals throughout the week! When completely cool, transfer leftover casserole to an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 4 days.
Serving Suggestions
Hamburger casserole can totally be a meal on its own. However, if time allows, whip up a quick vegetable side to go along with it like air fryer broccoli, sautéed green beans, or air fryer asparagus for a double dose of veggies.
Hamburger Casserole with Sweet Potato Cheese Sauce
Ingredients
Turkey
- 1 lb. ground turkey
- 1/2 medium yellow onion, minced
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon ground pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon powdered mustard
- 3 tablespoons tomato purée
Sweet Potato Cheese Sauce
- 1 medium sweet potato, cooked and puréed
- 1/2 cup chicken broth
- 1 cup Colby jack cheese
- salt, to taste
Other
- 16 oz. shells, or any kind of noodle
- optional: more shredded cheese for topping
- optional: fresh parsley for serving
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400ºF. Cook and prepare your sweet potato purée by following our how to make sweet potato purée post for details. You'll need about 1 cup. Set aside.
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add 16 ounces of shell pasta to boiling water. Cook pasta until it is almost cooked. You want the pasta to still have a bite to it (harder than al dente) as it will continue to cook in the oven.
- Strain pasta, rinse with cold water, and set aside.
- Next, heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add olive oil. When olive oil is fragrant, add ground turkey. Break the turkey up into small pieces. Add in the rest of the ingredients for the ground turkey mixture, mix, and cook for 4-5 minutes. Remove from heat.
- Lower oven temperature to 375ºF. Place your sweet potato purée into a blender or food processor with all the ingredients for the sweet potato cheese sauce. Blend until all ingredients are combined and the sauce is nice and smooth.
- Spray a large 9×13-inch casserole dish with olive oil cooking spray. Place noodles, ground turkey, and sweet potato sauce into the casserole dish and mix until everything is coated in the sweet potato cheese sauce. Sprinkle with shredded cheese (optional), place into the oven, and bake for 15 minutes.
- Remove, let cool for 10 minutes, and sprinkle on fresh parsley.
Tips & Notes
- Storage: When completely cool, transfer leftover casserole to an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 4 days.
Watch It
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Very easy to make. Made it gluten free but still every bit as tasty. I’ll be repeating this one.
That is so good to hear! Thank you for taking the time to let us know:)
Did not disappoint thanks Lee my son had fun helping to prepare and mama is happy to get some sweet potatoes in there!
Hi what are the calories for this per serve thanks 🙂
Loved the cheese sauce but I think I should have doubled it…it didn’t come out as creamy looking as yours….seemed like I was short but followed directions to a T. More recipes using this sw. potato sauce please, this is GREAT!!
I always take my extra tomato paste and freeze it in 1 tbsp amounts on parchment paper. Once it’s frozen I stick it in a container so I can grab the quantities I need. Waste not, want not 🙂
how much pumpkin puree would you use?
I would say around 1 cup!
No nutritional info on this one?
How much of canned puree is equal to one potato?
I made this tonight and everyone in my family loved it! Picky kids included. They had no idea I used whole wheat noodles or sweet potatoes! ? I did cheat and used canned sweet potato purée. Can anything be substituted for the tomato purée? My grocery store only had an extra large can and I only needed 3 tablespoons. Thank you for a great recipe! This was truly comfort food.
Have you ever seen the little tubes of tomato puree that you can keep in your fridge?! They are so perfect for recipes like this! Or the mini cans of tomato paste are great for this too!
This was delicious! Oh my God cooking quinoa usually scares the shit out of me. Too much water in the pan and it’s snot, too little and it burns. It has such precise instructions. I do love quinoa though and it’s super healthy. 🙁 So this recipe was like finding a little diamond. It was ridiculously easy too. Thank you so much for this, I’m secretly hoping for more quinoa bake recipes in the future hehe
Oops added comment to the wrong recipe, sorry about that