Instant Pot Sweet Potatoes – Perfect Every Time!
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Instant Pot sweet potatoes come out silky smooth every time. Pressure cooking sweet potatoes may be the best way yet!
Recipe Overview
Why you’ll love it: Pressure cooking is a very easy way to cook sweet potatoes and there’s no need to turn on your oven. They turn out great!
How long it takes: 40 minutes total
Equipment you’ll need: Instant Pot/pressure cooker, wire trivet
Servings: make as many as you like (within reason!)
- 1 Recipe Overview
- 2 About Instant Pot Sweet Potatoes
- 3 What You’ll Need
- 4 A Sweet Little Scrub Brush
- 5 How To Make Instant Pot Sweet Potatoes
- 6 How To Use Cooked Sweet Potatoes
- 7 FAQs
- 8 Storage & Reheating Tips
- 9 More Instant Pot Basics
- 10 Get the Recipe: Instant Pot Sweet Potatoes – Perfect Every Time!
I eat a lot of sweet potatoes. I mean, A LOT. Roasted, in a hash, sweet potato toast, mashed, pureed, noodled, baked, turned into chips, basically any way I can. On special occasions, I love to make scalloped sweet potatoes with bacon and Gruyère. If you don’t believe me, take a look at my list of 25 easy sweet potato recipes!
When I have done a Whole30 diet in the past, sweet potatoes satisfied my carb cravings but I had to get creative to keep from getting bored. I also had to find quick and easy ways to prepare them so I didn’t have a reason to fall off the Whole30 wagon.
Enter the Instant Pot, one of my favorite Whole30 tools. It makes the most perfect sweet potatoes.
I’ll admit, I sometimes resort to the microwave to cook sweet potatoes. Stab them with a fork, wrap them in paper towel, and they’re ready in about 5 minutes. However, that method does tend to dry them out, whereas the Instant Pot will not.
This is definitely my new go-to method, and I think it’s going to be yours, too.
About Instant Pot Sweet Potatoes
Instant Pot sweet potatoes are steamed. The flesh becomes velvety smooth and creamy; the skin is very soft. They differ somewhat from baked sweet potatoes which are a bit drier with a tougher skin.
This post is more of a how-to than an actual recipe. Once you’ve learned how to use your Instant Pot to cook sweet potatoes, it will be a cooking method you turn to over and over again.
Instant Pots can be a food prepper’s dream. Just get that Instant Pot working on food for the whole week. You can stock your fridge with boiled eggs, cooked shredded chicken, and now creamy cooked sweet potatoes. Dinner will be a snap! Prep Instant Pot white rice and freeze it in serving size bags. It’s so handy. Works for brown rice, too, or quinoa!
I’ll get you started here and give you helpful tips and information. As always, look for the recipe card near the end of the post for complete instructions and nutrition information.
What You’ll Need
- Sweet Potatoes: Look for medium-sized sweet potatoes that are about two inches in diameter. After testing this recipe several times, we came to the conclusion that larger potatoes just don’t cook as evenly. They tend to stay hard in the middle even if you increase the cooking time. The recipe is written for four sweet potatoes; you can cook fewer or more potatoes as you wish.
- Instant Pot/Pressure Cooker/Multicooker: I use a 6-quart Instant Pot.
- Water: Don’t forget to add the water! Water is necessary to create steam; the steam builds up, and pressurizes the cooker.
How To Make Instant Pot Sweet Potatoes
Scrub the sweet potatoes well and trim if necessary. I usually trim the wrinkly ends off.
Pour one cup of water into the bottom of the pot. Put the wire trivet into the pot and arrange the sweet potatoes on the trivet.
Lock the lid in place and set the Instant Pot to Pressure Cook (or Manual – High Pressure, depending on your model). Set the cook time for 15 minutes. It will take approximately 10 minutes to pressurize.
After the 15 minute timer goes off, allow the pressure to release naturally. That means you don’t do anything for fifteen minutes. When fifteen minutes have passed, release any remaining pressure; carefully remove the lid.
The sweet potatoes should be perfectly well-done, silky smooth and delicious! The skin will be very soft and is totally edible.
Now that you know how to make perfect sweet potatoes, eat them just the way they are or top them with a nice-sized chunk of homemade garlic butter, or enhance their sweetness with a sprinkle of cinnamon sugar.
How To Use Cooked Sweet Potatoes
Stuffed sweet potatoes
Cut a slit in the middle of the potato and open it up. Add any sort of filling you like: chili with all the toppings, scrambled eggs with avocado, black beans and tomato salsa, bacon, salmon, shredded chicken, whatever! Recently we’ve been loving these quick-cooking fried chicken bites.
Mashed sweet potatoes
Scoop the sweet potatoes out of the skins and mash it. Add seasonings like chili powder, curry powder, or taco seasoning. A drizzle of hot honey is so good! Top them with a sprinkle of savory granola, toasted pine nuts, or roasted pumpkin seeds (pepitas). Try vanilla bean mashed sweet potatoes.
More ideas
Try handheld sweet potato casserole, sweet potato bread pudding, or twice baked sweet potatoes.
I can’t wait to hear from you : What are you going to do with these Instant Pot sweet potatoes?
FAQs
According to NutritionFacts.org, the healthiest way to cook sweet potatoes is to boil them. It lowers the glycemic index by half and they undergo a cellular change which makes the nutrients more available.
However, sweet potatoes are a very healthy food, whether they are boiled, baked, or roasted. If you like them better baked or roasted, you’ll probably end up eating more sweet potatoes, and that’s going to be great for your health!
Yes, sweet potatoes can be frozen for up to twelve months. Raw sweet potatoes do need to be blanched first because of the high water content. For a good guide on how to freeze sweet potatoes, both cooked and raw, check out HomeCookBasics.
Yes, the peel of sweet potatoes is totally edible and has more antioxidants than the flesh (ten times more!).
Storage & Reheating Tips
Cooked sweet potatoes can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. They will keep in the freezer for up to 12 months in a freezer safe container. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator before reheating.
To reheat, microwave until heated through.
Did you make this? Be sure to leave a review below and tag me @rachelcooksblog on Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest!
Ingredients
- 4 medium-sized sweet potatoes (10-12 oz. each), approximately 2 inches in diameter (see note)
- 1 cup water
Instructions
- Scrub sweet potatoes and trim if necessary. Pour water into Instant Pot. Place wire trivet in the bottom of the Instant Pot and place sweet potatoes on top of the trivet.
- Secure the lid and turn valve to seal.
- Select Pressure Cook (or Manual on High) for 15 minutes. It will take about 10 minutes to come to pressure.
- Allow pressure to release naturally (do nothing after the timer goes off) for 15 minutes.
- Release remaining pressure, remove lid, and serve.
Notes
- Serving size: Half of 1 medium sweet potato.
- Sweet potatoes with a diameter much larger than 2 inches cook less evenly, even if you add extra time.
- You can add fewer sweet potatoes or add more. Cooking time is the same but it will take less/more time for the Instant Pot to come to pressure.
- Cooked sweet potatoes can be stored in the fridge for up to 5 days in an airtight container.
Nutrition Information
This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators.
Michelle says
What steamer basket do you use and/or recommend?
Rachel Gurk says
I use the one that came with my Instant Pot. This one looks great too, though!
David Garcia says
I cooked two whole 1 pound of sweet potatoes on high pressure. They were not fork tender all the way thru after 30 minutes. Cooked a additional 10 minutes and then a 10 minute natural release. The sweet potatoes were then tender all the way thru. This has been hotly debated on the on the Facebook InstantPot Community. Cooking times vary wildly from 7 to 45 minutes. I am just guessing (no proof yet) this is happening because grocery stores are selling yams labeled as sweet potatoes. There are yams that look almost exactly like sweet potatoes. Also possible, sweet potatoes grown in one region verse. another could take longer to cook. My suggestion is check for doneness after 10 minutes then check every 15 minutes until done. Option 2: peel and dice sweet potatoes. It should take less time to cook. I hope this helps.
Rachel Gurk says
Good tips, thank you!
Gary Y. says
What Americans call “yams” vs “sweet potatoes” are exactly the same thing–SWEET POTATOES. Differences in size, color, texture, etc. and even cooking times are simply differences in varieties. TRUE yams, on the other hand, are a totally different thing, a tuber native to Africa totally unrelated to sweet potatoes. The confusion comes from enslaved people discovering sweet potatoes in America which look somewhat similar to what they recognized from their homeland, so they called them “yams”. The confusion has endured and the terms have become interchangeable. But whether they’re labeled as one or the other is irrelevant. They’re the same thing . . . unless you’re in Africa.
Sarah Brenner says
My 3 medium size sweet potatoes did NOT cook through using this recipe…15 minutes high pressure, 15 minutes natural de-pressurizing. I live at 7000 feet elevation. I wonder if it takes longer at high altitude, and…how much longer?Sarah
Rachel Gurk says
I’m not sure — I don’t have any experience with high altitude cooking….maybe someone else will weigh in with their suggestions. Were the potatoes thicker and shorter? Sometimes that can affect cooking time.
Maggie Boyle says
At 7000 feet you need to add 25% to your cooking times. Starting at 3000 ft add 5 percent and then 5 more for every thousand feet.
Jen says
I don’t think it takes longer at 7,000 ft as the ip goes to 15 lbs of pressure… same as pressure reached for an ip at sea level… (and it works by causing water to come to boil at higher level than the standard 212 degrees f at sea level).
Ed says
Add 1 Tbsp of chipotle powder and 1/4 cup of maple syrup. Really spices them up.
Rachel Gurk says
Sounds tasty!
Pam says
Easy peasy. Thank you!
Rachel Gurk says
You’re welcome! Glad you liked it!
Marnie says
What if you don’t have a steamer mine isn’t a true instant pot brand.
Rachel Gurk says
If you have a metal or a silicone steamer basket that will fit inside your pressure cooker, that will work fine!
Chris says
My husband loves sweet potatoes but when he buys them by the bag we could never use them fast enough before they got bad. I love this recipe and cook the whole bag at once and then wrap them by 2 in foil and freeze. A pop in the microwave and they’re ready.
Rachel Gurk says
Awesome, I’m so glad to hear that this recipe is making your life easier! Thanks for sharing your freezer tip!
CJ says
I skip the foil (for the environment) and just put as many as will fit in a ziploc freezer bag.
Rachel Gurk says
Smart!
Marge Teilhaber says
Alternatively, pop those frozen cooked sweet potatoes into the IP and steam for 5 minutes, natural release.
Rachel Gurk says
Sounds like a good idea! I’ll have to try that some time. :) Thanks Marge!
Cyainthe kitchen says
Thanks, gonna try my tater for 10 min, its the size of 2 med, will letcha know !
Rachel Gurk says
Let me know how it turns out!
Leslie says
Not sure what’s happening with what I’m doing, but after 22 minutes on high pressure with natural release, the potatoes are still a bit hard in the middle. I did 2 fairly chubby sweet potatoes, but followed the recipe to the letter for the 15 minutes. Put them in for another 7 minutes and still hard in the middle.
Rachel Gurk says
Oh no! It must be that your potatoes were a lot bigger than mine. If you have particularly large potatoes, you could try cutting them in half.
Arno says
How large were yours? I had the same problem and mine was big but not unusual.
Rachel Gurk says
It depends on if they are fat or skinny too. If you think yours look large, just bump up the cooking time a few minutes. I did 5 thicker ones yesterday and I set my IP to 18 minutes and they were perfect.
Lesley says
Same problem here too. So over amateur blogger recipes.
Rachel Gurk says
Are you sure you had the valve turned to seal and not vent? That can make this recipe fail. I’ve used this method for cooking sweet potatoes many times and it always works.
Tiffany says
Can you think of a way these might work in the IP tonpar cook them to be used as sweet potato “toast”? (When you slice the potatoes and bake for 15-20 and then finish in the toaster when you’re ready to eat them?)
Rachel Gurk says
It might work if you slightly undercook them, but I would be concerned they might be hard in the centers and cooked on the edges. It’s worth a shot, though! The time investment is small and if it doesn’t work, you still have a baked sweet potato to eat. ;) Let me know if you give it a try!
Heather says
Tiffany, i was literally reading these comments to figure out how to prep them for “toast” as well!! wondering if you ever tried it?
Eag says
How many minutes if i cut them in half lengthwise?
Rachel Gurk says
I haven’t tested it that way since they cook so quickly whole. I’d be concerned that they might get overly mushy from steam if you cut them in half. Let me know if you try it, though!
Patty Bishop says
I cut two large sweet potatoes in half, placed in trivet, with 1.5 c water in bottom. Cook 10 min, pressure release natural about 10 min. Delicious, just right!
Rachel Gurk says
Awesome, thanks for sharing that with us! I’ll have to try it that way sometime.
Karen says
I’m new to IP and still learning to adjust cooking times. How long would you cook just one BIG sweet potato (please)?
Rachel Gurk says
Depending on the size, I think 15-20 minutes would work! Let the pressure release naturally when it’s done.
Kristen says
Do you have to puncture holes in the potoatoes before putting them in the instantpot?
Rachel Gurk says
No, it’s not necessary. :) Enjoy!
diana says
Hey, looks like you forgot to mention the important part about adding the sweet potatoes into the steamer! lol
Rachel Gurk says
Minor detail, right?! Ha! Can I blame it on mom brain? Thanks! ;) It does definitely work better if the sweet potatoes are IN the Instant Pot. Happy New Year!
Debbie says
Can you tell me the best way to reheat these if made ahead of time?
Rachel Gurk says
I reheat them in the microwave :)