Instant Pot Sweet Potatoes
Instant Pot Sweet Potatoes are a total game changer. Ready in half the time as a baked sweet potato, they are tender and creamy in the center and come out perfectly cooked each and every time.
Ingredients
- 2 - 8 sweet potatoes as many as you need/can fit
- 1 cup water
Instructions
- First, you'll want to estimate the width of your sweet potatoes to come up with an approximate cooking time. If you have a lot of potatoes, use the cooking time for the largest potato. (It will be about 20 - 45 minutes.)2 - 8 sweet potatoes
- Wash the potatoes, then poke them with a fork a few times.
- Pour 1 cup of water into the bottom of the pot. (Use 1 cup for a 3 or 6-quart Instant Pot or 1 ½ cups for an 8-quart Instant Pot.)1 cup water
- Then, place a trivet, steamer basket, or sling on top of the water. If you don't have a trivet, you can use mason jar rings, biscuit cutters, or make little logs out of aluminum foil - you just want to keep the potatoes out of the water.
- Next, arrange the sweet potatoes on top of the trivet, stacking them on top of each other if needed. You can load the Instant Pot all the way to the top, as long as the lid can close.
- Place the lid on your Instant Pot and set the valve to the Sealing position.
- Pressure Cook the sweet potatoes at High Pressure for the time you selected based on the size of your sweet potatoes. (Remember, it will also take 10-15 minutes for the Instant Pot to come to pressure.)
- When the cooking cycle completes, allow pressure to Naturally Release for about 10 minutes, then carefully Quick Release the remaining pressure.
- Carefully open the lid and allow the potatoes to cool for about 10 minutes before removing them from the Instant Pot. They will be really hot.
- Once the potatoes have cooled enough to touch, remove the sweet potato flesh from the skins and use it in your favorite sweet potato recipes. You can also just slice open the potatoes and serve them with a little butter, a sprinkle of brown sugar, or nut butter on top.
Notes
After cooking, sweet potatoes may be stored in the fridge for up to 4 days. You can remove them from their skins and freeze the mashed sweet potato for longer storage.
Measure the Size of Your Sweet Potatoes to Determine Cooking Time
After lots of practice and following recipes that didn't work out, I've narrowed it down to different cooking times based on the size of the potatoes. The Instant Pot will always take 10-15 minutes to come to pressure before the cooking cycle begins. All require at least a 10-minute Natural Release. (To be honest, sometimes I just let them sit for 15-20 minutes while I do other things.) You don't have to be exact, you can definitely eyeball the measurements.- Small Sweet Potatoes (about 2 inches or less in width): 15 minutes at High Pressure (Smaller sweet potatoes, like the bags of little sweet potatoes that you can get at Aldi, may take less than 15 minutes to cook, but it won't hurt them to cook for 15 minutes.)
- Medium Sweet Potatoes (about 3 inches in width): 30 minutes at High Pressure
- Large Sweet Potatoes (about 3 1/2 - 4 inches in width): 45 minutes at High Pressure
- Giant Sweet Potatoes - If you are able to get some giant Farmer's Market sweet potatoes where one potato could feed three people, I would recommend either cutting the potatoes into quarters before cooking or cut them into sweet potato cubes. (Otherwise, if you want to cook it whole, it will take about 60 minutes at High Pressure.)