Instant Pot Sweet Potatoes

Instant Pot sweet potatoes are fast and easy! Cook them in the pressure cooker and they come out perfectly every time.

Can you make Instant Pot sweet potatoes? When we first got a pressure cooker, we wondered whether our favorite root vegetable would work in this contraption. We threw in the raw veggie…and poof! Out came perfectly moist sweet potatoes with little effort and faster than an oven! The pressure cooker is now our go to method for cooking whole sweet potatoes. Here’s how to make Instant Pot sweet potatoes (scroll down for the recipe).

Why make Instant Pot sweet potatoes

We were on the fence for years about the Instant Pot. Until one day, a friend mentioned you can make Instant pot sweet potatoes much faster than baking them. Once we tried it, we were sold! We’ve been cooking up healthy recipes with our Instant Pot ever since. Cooking sweet potatoes in an electric pressure cooker has a few advantages over baking them in the oven:

• It’s faster. Baking sweet potatoes takes about 1 hour with preheat time. A pressure cooker takes 35 minutes total!
• They come out perfectly cooked. Instant Pot sweet potatoes come out with a perfectly moist, velvety interior.
• It’s totally hands off. Cooking sweet potatoes in a pressure cooker is totally hands off! Baking requires more steps (rubbing with oil and salt and pepper, checking for doneness, etc).

How to make Instant Pot sweet potatoes

What’s the total time for pressure cooker sweet potatoes? The total time for this recipe is 35 minutes. That’s pretty good compared to about 1 hour for baked sweet potatoes. (Though, we do have a time-saving trick for making a quick baked sweet potato!) Here’s how to make sweet potatoes in an Instant Pot:

1. Scrub the sweet potatoes. Place the stainless steel trivet into the Instant Pot, then place the potatoes on top. Add 1 cup water.
2. Lock the lid of the Instant Pot. Place the pressure release handle (vent) in the “Sealing” position.
3. Cook on high pressure 16 minutes: Press the Pressure Cook button, making sure the “High Pressure” setting is selected, and set the time for 16 minutes. Note that it takes about 10 minutes for the pot to “preheat” and come up to pressure before it starts cooking. 
4. Natural release for 10 minutes: After the Instant Pot beeps, wait for another 10 minutes to let the Instant Pot naturally release pressure. (Tip: We set a timer for this part so we don’t forget!) After 10 minutes, vent any remaining steam by moving the vent to “Venting”, covering your hand with a towel or hot pad.
5. Open the lid and carefully remove the hot sweet potatoes with tongs. Serve immediately, or store in the refrigerator for 3 to 4 days.

A note on potato size

A final note: the timing for how to cook sweet potatoes in an Instant Pot does depend on the size of the potatoes. This recipe is for medium to large potatoes, about 10 to 12 ounces each. For very large sweet potatoes, use about 18 minutes. Smaller potatoes could use less time, about 14 minutes.

Ways to serve them

How can you serve Instant Pot sweet potatoes? Let us count the ways! We created our sweet potatoes with Thai peanut butter sauce recipe especially for the pressure cooker method, and we get lots of messages on Instagram and from readers that they love it! Here are our three favorite ideas:

1. Topped with peanut butter sauce: These Sweet Potatoes with Peanut Butter Sauce feature a crunchy cabbage and pepper slaw and lots of cilantro. They’ve become a fan favorite.
2. Loaded Mexican style: These Mexican Sweet Potatoes are topped with black bean salsa and creamy cilantro sauce.
3. With Moroccan lentils: Try Healthy Sweet Potato with Moroccan Lentils, a warm-spiced mix of lentils drizzled with our best tahini sauce.

On Instant Pot brands

An Instant Pot is basically a programmable pressure cooker. The concept is to cook foods at high pressure, which dramatically cuts down on cooking time. The one we have is Instant Pot brand: here’s the Instant Pot we have. This recipe is customized for a 6 quart pressure cooker. We also can’t speak to other brands and types of pressure cookers. For example, Instant Pot Mini works differently, so use it at your own risk.

More Instant Pot recipes

There are so many ways to use an Instant pot: you can make rice, quinoa, dried beans, dried chickpeas, mashed potatoes, soups, and more! Here are some of our favorites:

• Try basics like Refried Beans, Lentils, Lentils and Rice, Quinoa, Hard Boiled Eggs, or How to Cook Rice: White Rice & Brown Rice
• Make a pot of Instant Pot Spaghetti or Creamy Instant Pot Pasta
• Try Instant Pot Tacos with Smoky Lentils
• Go for Instant Pot Wild Rice Soup

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This Instant pot sweet potatoes recipe is…

This Instant Pot sweet potatoes recipe is vegetarian, gluten-free, vegan, plant-based, dairy-free, naturally sweet, and refined sugar-free.

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