Paleo sweet potato waffles are deliciously simple. These are made with just two main ingredients!
Watch my cooking show episode for Sweet Potato Waffles here:
The Paleo Breakfast Dilemma
When you decide to eat more real food, one of the first things that goes off the menu is refined carbohydrates. A typical standard Western diet places refined carbs at the center of breakfast.
That leaves many people new to paleo wondering, “What can I eat?”
Bagels, toast, breakfast cereal, croissants, muffins – dessert for breakfast! – are some of the typical breakfast fare that doesn’t fit well with a real food diet. Naturally, minds drift to gluten-free varieties of these foods.
And it’s common now-a-days to find a huge variety of gluten-free options on supermarket shelves.
What About Gluten-Free Waffles?
Baking mixes, pancake mix, bread, and even granolas are usually pretty easy to find. While these non-gluten, grain-free options are okay for occasional use by many people, they can also be problematic.
That’s why I’m sharing my Sweet Potato Waffles recipe with you today.
So Why are Gluten-Free Baked Goods a Problem?
If you’re trying to repair your body’s insulin sensitivity, gluten-free flours can stall your efforts.
The reason is that many gluten-free baking flours are highly processed. Most contain very little fiber. For that reason alone, these options can spike blood sugar pretty high…
…sometimes as much as or more than grains.
(Here comes bad cop nutritionist Steph…)
If you’re focusing on repairing your body composition, insulin response, gut health, etc. you’d do best if you mostly avoid gluten-free baked goods. Once you’ve resolved some of that stuff, it’s probably a better time to indulge.
But shoot, sometimes you still want a dang waffle. I get that.
Why I Love These Sweet Potato Waffles
Luckily, these Sweet Potato Waffles tick all the boxes.
- They are made from a whole food source of carbohydrates: sweet potatoes.
- Protein from eggs bumps up the nutrient density.
- They’re rich in vitamins and minerals, unlike most gluten-free flours and pancake mixes.
- They come together pretty easily.
- Unlike regular waffles, these are pretty filling.
Now, if you drown these sweet potato waffles in a gallon of maple syrup, that’s not great either. Just be cool.
When you think about what you can make with them, a whole new breakfast world opens up.
What To Serve with These Sweet Potato Waffles
- Pile them high with slow cooked shredded pork or chicken. Suggestions: Slow Cooker Shredded Pork or Green Chile Chicken
- Instead of a savory spice blend, use something like pumpkin pie spice for a sweeter flavor.
- Top with a couple fried eggs and a drizzle of Easy Paleo Ghee Hollandaise
- Use them like bread and build a sandwich.
- Put a slice of frittata on top for a delicious breakfast. Suggestions: Hearty Spinach Beef Frittata or Chicken Bacon Mushroom Quiche
For this recipe, be sure to grease your waffle iron even if the surface is non-stick. I just take a paper towel, dip it in coconut oil, and run it between the nooks and crannies before I make each waffle. This is the waffle iron I have.
How Long To Cook These Sweet Potato Waffles
The Sweet Potato Waffles will come out best if you let them cook for longer than your waffle maker indicates. Typically, the waffle iron has a little light that let’s you know when it’s done.
I got the best results when I allowed it to keep cooking for at least a few more minutes. When I lifted the lid and everything looked nicely browned, I turned it out onto a plate.
Of course, these Sweet Potato Waffles aren’t as sturdy as normal waffles would be, so remove them from the waffle iron with care. These are best when eaten fresh, though I’ve stored them in the refrigerator for a couple days.
Are Sweet Potato Waffles Whole30?
Note: If you’re doing Whole30, these waffles may fall into the SWYPO category for you. If normal waffles are a trigger food for you, I’d recommend avoiding this recipe during your Whole30.
Sweet Potato Waffles Recipe (Paleo, Gluten-Free)
Ingredients
- 2 medium sweet potatoes shredded using a box grater, peeled if desired
- 2 large eggs beaten
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- Pinch sea salt
- Coconut oil for greasing the waffle iron
Instructions
- Preheat the waffle iron.
- In a large bowl, combine the shredded sweet potato, eggs, cinnamon, and sea salt. Mix until everything combines evenly.
- When the waffle iron is preheated, lightly grease the inside, both top and bottom.
- Scoop about ⅓ of the sweet potato and egg mixture into the waffle iron, pushing it out to a circular shape. I didn’t go all the way out to the edge because that would make the waffle too thin.
- Close the lid and cook, letting it go past the finished light for at least a few more minutes. It’ll be slightly browned and hold together when it’s done.
- Gently turn the waffle out onto a plate, then repeat with the remaining mixture.
Recipe Video
Recipe Notes
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44 Responses
What exactly is Primal Palate Breakfast Seasoning? The link turned up lots of recipes but I didn’t see anything about that seasoning. Thanks a bunch! :0)
Hey Jen…It’s a mixture of: garlic, onion, oregano, cinnamon, turmeric and sage 🙂
Hi Steph,
Cool recipe!!
I live in Australia and over here sweet potatoes generally only come in one size: MASSIVE. Seriously it can be hard to buy one that’s less that 2 pounds.
Do you know approximately how much a medium sweet potato weighs?
Wishing you health and happiness this new year,
– Pippa
Hey Pippa…somewhere in the ballpark of ~325-350 grams or so. Reminds me I need to get in the habit of making my recipes metric again…I didn’t think anyone was using it so I stopped 😉
Metric would be great! I’m from the US but vastly prefer metric, especially for cooking and baking, because of the level of precision.
Noted, thanks. I used metric for a long time on the site but nobody seemed to use it so I stopped. I don’t do any baking here on the site and for the vast majority of the recipes, a visual approximation usually works 🙂
I don’t have a waffle iron. I wonder if I could make these as pancakes instead on my griddle? They look delish!!
Give it a shot!
So good, so simple ♥️. My whole family was happy! Thank you!
Angel, I’m excited to hear that you enjoyed it!
Are you not concerned by the nonstick coating on the wafflemaker?
For the three waffles I’ll make every 6 months or so, no. There are far worse things I could do to myself 😉
Could I substitute a flax or chia in place of the egg? Thank you.
You can try it and let us know what happens. I haven’t tested that sub yet.
Steph, These look delicious – I’ve been looking for different ways to use up our sweet potatoes this winter and can’t wait to try these waffles! 🙂
Hi Lori, Thank you for sharing your thoughts, I’m sure you’ll find more valuable information exploring the site. Have fun!
oh. my. god.
If you love sweet potatoes you will LOVE these. I can’t believe how simple this recipe is. Add some cinnamon to the mix!! It’s heavenly..
Yay thanks Nikki! It’s so easy, right? 🙂
So is the shredded sweat potatoes raw and they just cook in the waffle maker?
Yes.
It also easy to cube and boil the sweet potato and add to Bob’s Mills pancake mix and then make waffels or Pancakes.
Maybe thats not paleo….but still yummy
Genius.
This recipe does not work
What about it didn’t work? I’ve seen dozens of people post it on Instagram and it’s been made successfully and looks just like the photo. I’m happy to try to help but you need to give me details.
I am having a REALLY hard time getting these to turn out… they are sticking. I’ve tried greasing the CRAP out of my iron… I thought maybe my potatoes were too big so I added more egg.. Its just a big pain. Any thoughts of what I’m doing wrong?
I have no idea. I haven’t had a problem with them sticking in my waffle iron. If yours is old maybe the nonstick coating isn’t what it used to be? And I also recommend cooking them for way longer than the little waffle iron light indicates. Did you do that?
I had a similar problem with the sticking (though, my goodness, they still tasted wonderful!). I’ll try cooking them a lot longer next time. I wonder if this type of recipe (though it is simple) lends itself well to a video so we can see how much you put onto the waffle iron (maybe mine were too thin or thick?) and how much you press the waffle iron down (this was a question for me as to whether I should really press the iron down to smash it all in there?). I’m not giving up yet, because I think my kids *may* eat this due to the fun form factor of having them as a waffle. 🙂
I can make a video, yes. I really grease the whole surface well after each waffle and usually don’t have a problem. I wonder if folks are forgetting to reapply the oil?
I had trouble getting it well-greased with coconut oil. So after the second waffle, I switched to spray canola oil (which I don’t like to use), because it seems to coat the iron more evenly, but they still stuck. To get ridiculously detailed about this, it mostly stuck to the bottom of the waffle iron. I think perhaps this is because I was getting to the “soft potatoes” point but not yet to the “crispy, well formed” point. My theory is that I needed to press the waffle iron down (for consistent contact between the iron and the waffles) and I need to cook them for a longer period of time. I’ll report back on my progress next time. Experiments in sweet potato waffles! 🙂
I should look into getting some spray oil that’s not canola. I hate using that stuff (but we use it to season the grill because it’s good at super high heat (or that’s my understanding?).
Ghee is a great high temperature cooking fat. The smoke point is very high.
Trader Joe’s has coconut oil spray
I use a paper towel dipped in coconut oil or a pastry brush to brush all the crannies. Yessss pressing down will help for sure!
Making these right now. Oh my goodness…yum. Used pumpkin pie spice. Cooked for quite a bit longer than waffle maker green light indicated, especially to make sure the egg was cooked through. Definitely hit the spot on this chilly-ish fall morning 🙂
Woohoo! Glad to hear that Lisa 🙂
Can you use yams instead?
Yes, yams and sweet potatoes are used interchangeably.
What is the make & model of your food processor, it made shredding those sweet potatoes a cinch. Takes me forever with a box grater !
Thanks.
Hi Terissa…it’s a Cuisinart 7-cup Classic style 🙂 https://amzn.to/2G8rL7z
I thought these were great! I did some experimenting, and at least with MY waffle iron (Cuisinart) it seemed that the thicker/less cooked they are, the more they stick. So if you’re having a problem, maybe try putting in a bit less of the mixture or cooking them longer.
I had a few friends over for brekkie today, so I made these waffles, homemade sausage, and eggs. It was wonderful and satisfying.
In spite of my efforts with the basting brush and coconut oil, I did have some waffles that stuck to the iron and sort of turned into hash browns, but were delicious anyway. Mostly I think it was my fault for opening the waffle iron too soon, which caused them to split through the middle, with part of the waffle being stuck to the top and part being stuck to the bottom. I can totally envision eating one of these waffles topped with pulled pork & a tangy coleslaw. If I had some pulled pork laying around, that would be my lunch today because I actually have 2 waffles left over (I used 2 large sweet potatoes and 4 eggs).
And BTW I always love using a basting brush, it totally appeals to my inner child, so I use mine at every opportunity.
Thanks for another awesome recipe.
I will continue lurking around here and trying things 🙂
Your photo on Instagram looked perfect, Terri. I’m glad that it nourished your bodies and hearts <3
Love your new site, Steph! It is very well organized and user friendly. I dont have a waffle maker, could I make pancakes instead with this recipe?
Hi Basmah…thank you for checking it out!! Yes you could give that a shot!