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!
I was ready to cook my sweet potatoes, pot of water ready, peeler in hand when I thought “I bet the IP would be great for these.” I searched the internet and found this recipe…..dumped out the water and put away the peeler. I cooked 6 of what I would call small sweet potatoes with 15 min at pressure and natural release and they turned out great. I had two sweet potatoes that were 2-3x the size of the ones I cooked Those are probably the size people are having problems with.
Hi Tara, I’m so glad this method worked for you! Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment!
These came out great! I made 5 smallish potatoes, added a pinch of salt to a Tblsp of butter with a Tblsp of maple syrup and put under the broiler for 2-3 minutes. Talk about yummy! Next time I’ll add some cinnamon. Thanks for the recipe!
Love the broiler touch! Yum!
I just bought an Instant Pot, and used the suggestion offered here for one very large sweet potato. I set it for 20 minutes and it took forever. I pressed “manual”, set time to 20 minutes, and it took longer than that???? Not sure I understand this pot.
It does take some time to come to pressure. The time starts counting down when the Instant Pot pressurizes. Once you get used to it, you’ll love it!
I have two large ones. How long should I cook them?
It depends on how large they are, but I’d start with 18 minutes.
I just got my instant pot and this is the first thing I made since we bake sweet potatoes a few times each week. I had two medium to large sweet potatoes and cooked them in my 3 quart IP on high pressure (with more setting) for 18 mins allowing natural pressure release. They were REALLY GOOD! My new go-to method for making sweet potatoes!
Awesome! I hope this is the beginning of a beautiful relationship with your instant pot. ;) I have a lot of Instant Pot recipes here!
Very tasty and smooth coming out of the instant pot.
So glad you liked this method! Thanks for taking the time to come back and leave a comment!
Did exactly what the recipe says and my instant pot said “burn” on it because all the water reduced. Sweet potato’s we’re still hard on the inside.
Did you add water to the instant pot and use the steamer basket?
Thank-you for the recipe. My new favorite way to make sweet potatoes!
So happy to hear you like these! Thanks for taking the time to come back and leave a comment!
Thank you for the sweet potato Instant Pot instruction. The 4 sweet potatoes cooked to perfection! Received the 6 quart Instant Pot for a Christmas gift and am impressed with the way it cooks!
The altitude here in Colorado doesn’t seem to change cooking times, which I thought would.
That’s great to know, thanks Frances! So glad this method of cooking sweet potatoes worked for you! Thanks for taking the time to come back and leave a comment!
What if I peeled the Sweet Potatoes, would I still use the basket?
I’ve never used peeled sweet potatoes, so I’m not sure how they’d work. They might disintegrate a little using this method. I did a google search and it looks like there are recipes for using the steamer basket, and without…so it might work! Let me know if you try it!