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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This recipe is an amazing way to get anyone to eat sweet potatoes! My sister gobbled it up, and my dad had no idea that he ate the sweet potatoe! 😂 Thank you for the amazing recipe! Just slightly dry, so maybe add a bit more liquid, and top with some extra cheese for fun!
I made this with whole wheat penne and measured out 16 ounces and it was way to much pasta for the ingredients. I used ground hamburger as I didn’t have Turkey. It was very good but next time I’ll cut back in the pasta.
My fiance and I liked this. Both kids liked it (except one wasn’t a fan of the ground turkey). I would definitely make again but would maybe use 2 sweet potatoes and/or more broth to make it a little creamier. Ps- no one knew that there was even sweet potato in it 🙂
I first made this recipe a few years ago and just put it on my meal plan again for the coming week. I tend to add extra broth as I find it can be a little drier than I like by the time I get the browned top I look for in a casserole. So tasty and comforting!
This is delicious! I have made it several times and my family loves it. I sometimes just make the Mac and cheese for a side. I add chopped pickles( don’t judge lol) it really adds a new dimension. I use ketchup instead of the tomato purée as we like it that way. Yummy and thanks!
We’d love it if you could give us a star rating!
This turned out fantastic! I used canned pumpkin and extra seasonings in the cheese sauce and turkey mix to spice it up a little more and also added peas. My picky boyfriend loved it (which I always consider a win when cooking a “healthy” version of something). Thank you for the recipe 🙂
Such a yummy and easy take on mac and cheese. Love the use of sweet potato. Gives it a great smooth taste and texture. It’s a go to in our house.
I need to make this sometime soon. It’s SO GOOD.
Quick question, following the quantities listed and using 1 cup of pumpkin purée, the amount of noodles didn’t suffice to coat 1 pound of shells. What am I doing wrong or missing? Love the idea of using vegetable purée.
It was creamy and smelled like hamburger helper, but it needed more flavor. Not sure what to add. We usually use fresh garlic, so maybe that would help? Might try some oregano next time too.
Taco seasoning maybe?
Is the serving size 1/8 of a cup?
1/8 of the recipe! We didn’t measure in cups.
Your style of cooking is right up my alley and speaks to my heart! Thank you for all the lovely recipes!
<3