Baked Sweet Potato and Egg Cups are a delicious and nutritious breakfast made with grated sweet potatoes, eggs and spices baked in a muffin tin.
Baked Sweet Potato Egg Cups
A healthier version of eggs in a nest made with grated sweet potatoes seasoned with thyme, salt, and pepper and mixed with pecorino, which adds a sharp sweetness to the potatoes. The potatoes bake in a muffin tin and then are topped with an egg and baked a little longer. When done, sprinkle with more pecorino and enjoy! For more sweet potato recipes, try this Turkey and Sweet Potato Frittata or these Skillet Sweet Potato Chicken Hash with Eggs.
To shave off some prep time, use the grater attachment on your food processor to prepare the sweet potatoes. Plus, the machine makes nice long shreds, which are perfect for the potato cups. This recipe bakes in under 25 minutes, depending on how you like your eggs. After you crack an egg in each cup, bake for 12 minutes if you want runny yolks or 14 for a slightly harder yolk.
Is it healthy to eat sweet potatoes for breakfast?
Sweet potatoes are a very healthy breakfast option. They’re high in vitamins A and C and minerals like potassium and calcium. Their high fiber content paired with the protein from the egg and cheese will keep you full throughout the day.
Meal Prep Tips:
These sweet potato and egg cups are great to bake at the beginning of the week and pull out as needed for breakfast. They will keep in the refrigerator for up to a week. To reheat, microwave for 30 to 60 seconds until warm.
Variations:
- Feel free to use any hard grated cheese, like Parmesan, asiago, or Mexican cotija or leave it out.
- Swap the thyme for oregano or rosemary.
More Sweet Potato Recipes You’ll Love:
- Smashed Sweet Potatoes
- Slow Cooker Chicken Enchilada Stuffed Sweet Potatoes
- Turmeric Roasted Chicken Sweet Potatoes
- Slow Cooker Chickpea and Sweet Potato Stew
- Air Fryer Sweet Potato Fries
Baked Sweet Potato and Egg Cups
Ingredients
- Olive oil spray
- 2 1/2 cups peeled and grated, on large holes sweet potatoes (about 1 8-ounce potato)
- 2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme leaves
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
- 1/8 teaspoon black pepper, plus more to taste,
- 1 ounce finely grated Pecorino cheese, 2 teaspoons reserved
- 6 large eggs
Instructions
- Preheat over to 375°F. Spray a 6-cup non-stick muffin tin with oil spray and set aside.
- Toss grated sweet potato, thyme, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/8 teaspoon black pepper, onion powder and pecorino cheese (except for reserved 2 teaspoons) together in a mixing bowl to combine.
- Divide potato mixture evenly into six portions (about 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon) and place each in a prepared muffin cups.
- Press mixture into the bottom and up along the sides of each cup to form a well making certain there are no open gaps.
- Spray the insides of the potato wells with olive oil spray. Transfer to oven and bake for 8 minutes.
- Remove muffin tin from oven, gently press the bottoms of the sweet potato cups and crack an egg into each.
- Return tin to the oven and bake until white are set and yolk are cooked, 12 minutes for runny eggs, 14 for slightly hardened yolks.
- Let sit one minute before carefully removing using an off set spatula.
- Sprinkle with remains remaining pecorino and more salt and pepper to taste if desired.
This is absolutely DELICIOUS! I think I could eat the whole tray in 2 days. This recipe will be on repeat for my breakfast. I followed it exactly as written and look to experiment down the road. Perfect as is.
Loved this recipe! Our daughter and her BF spent the night and I wanted to make these for the week…even though my husband wanted to make fried egg, cheese and ham sandwiches for breakfast which is one of his specialties. (Not a healthy option). I liked that I could make these ahead of time and eat them all week and the sweet potato I chose was enough to make 1.5X the recipe so it made 9 little egg nests. So much for eating them all week because they ALL got eaten up by everyone…including my husband!! He mocked them when I explained what they were, but when they came out of the oven his eyes got big and he wanted one too! I will definitely make these again!
They’re in the oven now cant wait! How have ya’ll been storing them? Any luck with freezing? thank you
What do you use to grate the sweet potatoes so nicely
A box grater
Could butternut squash replace sweet pitatoes?
I added finely minced onion and garlic in place of the onion powder, fabulous!!
i don’t have sweet potatoes, so i used potatoes instead, it was super delicious ! wondering if i want to use meat instead, how much should it be ?
thank you for the recipe !
Very easy to make. Only change I would make is less thyme, jr was very overpowering imo. Otherwise, these are delicious!
My muffin cups must have been too small as my sweet potato didn’t “set”
Next time I will squeeze out the water from the grated potatoes, and add less salt. Maybe my potatoes will
Crisp up in the first cook that way. They are delicious though.
I was surprised at how tasty and filling these were! I love that the nutritional information is provided so I can enter them on my Noom app. I baked mine for 14 minutes, which made my eggs medium-well done. Delicious!
Could try baking as directed, remove from oven, let rest. Then turn pan upside down, spray with olive oil, and place cups over the bottom side of the the muffin pan. Bake to desired crispiness.
Fabulous idea and absolutely delicious !! Served for dinner with Naval Orange Salad (topped with a little bacon)
Great meal idea! I didn’t think to pair these together but willl do now. We live the navel orange salad, so tasty and refreshing!
One of these days I intend to learn how to measure! Too much onion powder. Did not use spices other than salt and pepper. Cut recipe in half just to try it and not have too much waste… just in case. Loved these! Unusual taste. Need better muffin tin. Need to work out some issues but I love them!!!
I made this for lunch today. Having type 2 diabetes, it’s hard to find delicious foods that won’t raise my blood sugar.. All I know is, this is delicious!
I thought these would last a week. They disappeared in3 days. Time to make more. My only disappointment is the sweet potatoes cups didn’t crisp up. I will try baking them longer before adding the spinach and egg.
The recipe calls for onion powder but no where to use in the instructions… so I added to the grated sweet potato. we’ll see if this is right! 🙂
Yes you were correct. Directions have been updated. 🙂
Anyone try this in an air fryer?
What other types of cheese, could be used?
These were delicious! I made the sweet potato cups the night before and then cooked them with the eggs in the morning. That was a big time saver. Used 3/4 teaspoon of dried thyme and grated Parmesan cheese. The bottoms were a little mushy as other reviewers have stated but the sides were super crispy. Thanks for a great breakfast recipe!
Was ok. Would’ve liked it more if the cup was crispy. Also, the onion powder isn’t listed in the instructions so the first time I made it, I missed that. Lastly, the thyme was a bit heavy but that’s probably more taste than the recipe.
Can you use Idaho potato instead of sweet potato?
How to get the sweet potato crispier and not sticking? I used non stick muffin tins and sprayed them and they still stuck a little.
How can you get the sweet potato more crispy? It turned out great except it was a bit mushy.
Would the sweet potato hold together without the cheese? Dairy allergy here. Thanks!!
Can’t wait to try these, and would love to take to make a head for a grab and go meal for work…how do you recommend reheating them?
Can you make these ahead and use them as needed for eggs later in the week?
Sure!