Recipe Overview
Why you’ll love it: Instant Pot sweet potatoes come out silky smooth every time. Pressure cooking sweet potatoes may be the best (and easiest) way yet!
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!)
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!
I 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. Enter the Instant Pot! I’ve found that a pressure cooker makes the most perfect sweet potatoes. This is definitely my new go-to method, and I think it’s going to be yours, too.
About Instant Pot Sweet Potatoes
Soft and creamy. Instant Pot sweet potatoes are steamed which causes the flesh to become velvety smooth and creamy. The skin becomes very soft. Instant Pot sweet potatoes differ from baked sweet potatoes which tend to be a bit drier with a tougher skin.
An easy cooking method. 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.
Perfect for food prepping. 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!
Ingredient Notes
- 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.
A Sweet Little Scrub Brush
Buy a good brush to scrub the outside of your potatoes. I love this one – it has soft and firm bristles and it’s dishwasher safe. I also love the way it fits in your hand.
How To Make Instant Pot Sweet Potatoes
Prep the potatoes. Scrub the sweet potatoes well and trim if necessary. I usually trim the wrinkly ends off.
Add water. Pour one cup of water into the bottom of the pot. Don’t skip the water! Water is necessary to create steam; the steam builds up, and pressurizes the cooker.
Add the sweet potatoes. Place the wire trivet into the pot and arrange the sweet potatoes on the trivet.
Cook. 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.
Natural release. 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 you know how to make perfect sweet potatoes!
Serve. Enjoy the sweet potatoes just the way they are or top them with a nice-sized chunk of homemade garlic butter. You can eat the soft peeling or remove it. I like to enhance the sweet potatoes with a sprinkle of cinnamon sugar. Keep reading for more suggestions.
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
Use these cooked sweet potatoes to make a creamy sweet potato casserole with marshmallows, sweet potato bread pudding, or twice baked sweet potatoes.
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.
More Instant Pot Basics
Instant Pot Sweet Potatoes – perfect every time!
Ingredients
- 4 medium-sized sweet potatoes (10 to 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.4 medium-sized sweet potatoes (10 to 12 oz. each), approximately 2 inches in diameter, 1 cup water
- Secure the lid and turn valve to seal, if necessary on your model.
- 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
- Selecting sweet potatoes: After numerous tests, we found that sweet potatoes with a diameter much larger than 2 inches cook less evenly, even if you add extra time. Try to find sweet potatoes that are fairly similar in size, about 2 inches in diameter.
- Adjusting yield: You can cook 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.
- Storage: Cooked sweet potatoes can be stored in the fridge for up to 5 days in an airtight container or frozen for up to a year.
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Did You Make This?Share a comment and rating below! I love hearing what you think!
Just made this a few minutes ago and they turned out extremely soggy. They still taste great, but maybe I’ll try less cook time next time. I’ve only used my Instant Pot a few times though, so I’m still learning. Would ten minutes be enough to make sure they’re still cooked but not soggy?
It really depends on the size. If they’re smaller sweet potatoes, they may cook in 10 minutes. However, they are more…moist…than traditionally baked sweet potatoes since they are more or less steamed.
I keep trying this recipe over and over and it isn’t working. Vent is sealed. They are two larger sweet potatoes this time, and I set it to 22 minutes and it natural released for 20 min. Opened and still very hard. Mine is a 6 quart instant pot with an actual “pressure cook” button vs manual. So I hit that,add sure it was on high, and between “less” and “more”, so. the middle. Not sure what is going wrong and I’m so confused!
Hmmm…that’s very strange. Does your Instant Pot work for other recipes? Maybe you need a new rubber ring? How old is it?
Rachel…thanks for sharing this recipe. It worked great. I have a 6qt IPDUO and I did your instructions exactly….I should have weighed my sweet potatoes just so I know for future reference but I did six with one of those laying on top of the five that fit on the trivet that came with my IP. The only difference was that my value didn’t drop at 10 minutes but at 19 minutes so I’m sure the extra time for my natural release may have made mine come out perfectly. My leftovers are going to be made into sweet potato biscuits. Yum-Oh!
Oooh sweet potato biscuits sound so yummy! Thanks for taking the time to come back and leave a comment!
This recipe does not work! I’ve tried it twice. Once with one large sweet potato and again with 2 medium sweet potatoes and both times they were hard in the middle. Had to put them back in the IP for another 10 minutes and natural release for another 5-10 minutes.
Are you sure your valve is turned to “seal” and not “vent?” That could be the problem.
How long should I cook two small sweet potatoes? Should I use the same amount of water?
Depends on how small – if they’re quite small, try 10 minutes and still do the 10 minute natural release. Same amount of water. :)
Perfect! The natural release is the key!
So happy to hear this method worked well for you, Katrina! Thanks for taking the time to come back and leave a comment!
These were so easy to do and so soft and delicious when they were done! My potatoes must have been the same size as yours as 15 minutes followed by natural release was perfect!
So glad to hear this method worked for you! Thanks for taking the time to come back and leave a comment!
Came out perfect. Took 15 minutes for pressure to release naturally
Will definitely do forever ;-)
I’m so glad you liked this method, Susie! Thanks for taking the time to come back and leave a comment!
I will never bake sweet potatoes in the oven again. These are perfect and so easy in the instapot. I love to cook a big batch, cool them, and freeze them. They are ready and so sweet any time I want them.
Sometimes I have to cook white and sweet potatoes at the same time, and just use the sweet potato timing. Also, the green Progressive scrubbing brush truly is better than any other I have used. It feels great in my sometimes arthritic hands and somehow cleans faster and better than any other I have used.
I’m so happy to hear that! Do they freeze well?
I’m sure it’s in the comments some where but thickness of potato is crucial to cooking time. 15 min is for very small or thin potatoes.
Absolutely! If you have particularly thick potatoes, you’ll want to increase cooking time to 18-19 minutes.
Just made these in my 8-qt instant pot, and they were wonderful! So creamy and tasty! Thank you for the excellent alternative!
So happy to hear that! Thanks for taking the time to come back and leave a comment, Mary Lou! It means so much to me.