Instant Pot Sweet Potatoes have become one of my favorite ways to prepare sweet potatoes whether I’m serving them plain or adding them to recipes. I love to slip the prepared sweet potatoes out of their skin and serve them with only butter, and occasionally brown sugar and cinnamon, mashed into their flesh, but the possibilities are endless.
Cooking your sweet potatoes in the Instant pot is the easiest, and simplest, way to cook sweet potatoes in order to incorporate them into other recipes such as Pineapple Sweet Potatoes, Streusel Topped Sweet Potatoes, Sweet Tangy Yams, or a sweet potato pie.
Jump to RecipeInstant Pot Sweet Potatoes are so simple to prepare that I may start making some fancy sweet potato dishes on weeknights. This method is so easy that it’s not really a recipe. Ten minutes, or less, of preparation time is all that’s required. It’s almost as easy as opening a can of sweet potatoes, but it tastes much better.
What will you need to make this recipe?
- Fresh Sweet Potatoes
- An Instant Pot or other electric pressure cooker
- Water
It really is an easy recipe. It’s so simple that anyone can do this and come out with perfect sweet potatoes.
All you need to do is wash your sweet potatoes and cut them in half. There’s no need to peel them first which is a good thing in my book. Let’s be honest. Does anyone really like to peel potatoes? Place the rack inside of the inner pot of your Instant Pot and place the potatoes on the rack that came with your instant pot. Stack them on top of each other just don’t overfill the pot. I may have overfilled my inner pot beyond the max line inside, but it’s best that we follow the manufacturer’s recommendations.
Carefully pour 1 cup of water into the inner pot, put on the lid, seal the pressure valve, and set to pressure cook for 10 minutes.
Once the pressure cooker has finished cooking, allow natural pressure release for 10 minutes, then turn the valve to open and release any remaining steam.
Your Instant Pot Sweet Potatoes are ready. You can serve the halved sweet potatoes still in the skin, or you can carefully pick them up and pull off the skin. BE CAREFUL! THE INSTANT POT SWEET POTATOES ARE VERY HOT! I usually use tongs to pick them up and deposit each potato on a plate and use a fork or spoon to remove the skins.
If you’re going to use your Instant Pot Sweet Potatoes in another recipe, and they will be reheated, allow them to cool for several minutes before removing the skins. This makes the the sweet potatoes easier to handle, but if they get too cold, the skins seem to stick to them again.
That’s all there is to making Instant Pot Sweet Potatoes, and I’m sure you can see why this has become my favorite way to prepare them. I have transformed Instant Pot Sweet Potatoes into many different recipes as mentioned above, and I have plopped them onto a plate as is carefully plated them in their skins and served them, allowing family members and friends to season them to their liking by adding a dollop of butter or sprinkling with cinnamon and brown sugar.
However you choose to serve your Instant Pot Sweet Potatoes, this cooking method is certain to become a favorite. Give our recipe a try and let us know what you think by leaving a comment below, and let us know your favorite way to serve sweet potatoes.
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Instant Pot Sweet Potatoes
Equipment
- 6 quart Instant Pot or other electric pressure cooker
Ingredients
- 6 – 8 Sweet Potatoes Medium Sized
- 1 cup water
Instructions
- Wash sweet potatoes well
- Cut sweet potatoes in half lengthwise. (Cut them so the halves are the full length of the potatoes–long and skinny.)
- Place the rack in the inner pot of your Instant Pot.
- Arrange the halved sweet potatoes inside of the inner pot on top of the rack with the cut sides up. (This can be a bit like playing Tetris in a pressure cooker as you try to get all of them to fit.)
- Add 1 cup of water to the inner pot of the pressure cooker with the potatoes.
- Place inner pot into pressure cooker, if you removed it.
- Place lid onto the Instant Pot and turn the sealing valve to the sealed position.
- Set the timer to 10 minutes of pressure cooking.
- Once the 10 minutes have ended, allow natural pressure release for 10 minutes.
- Open valve to release remaining steam and pressure.
- Remove lid from Instant Pot, and remove potatoes from pot using tongs or another appropriate utensil. THE POTATOES WILL BE VERY HOT AND CAN BURN YOUR HAND.
- Serve the potatoes as they are, topped with butter and a sprinkle of brown sugar, or slip them out of their skins and mash them, or add to other recipes.
Oh my goodness – perfect timing! Thank you so much! I just started making my Thanksgiving game plan for two upcoming Thanksgiving dinner parties, and I was trying to think of recipes I can make that don’t involve the stove or oven (which are already so booked full for most holiday meals!). This sweet potato recipe is just the thing! So easy, too – yay!
Shelley, I’m glad to be able to help with planning and executing Thanksgiving dinner. I know what you mean about booked stovetops during the Holidays. I also know about needing to find alternative methods for getting a holiday meal on the table. I have had the misfortune of having my oven break twice for holidays–once several years ago just before Thanksgiving, and last year, my oven broke on Christmas Eve. I have some experience with preparing menu items in crockpots, pressure cookers, and toaster ovens. The Instant Pot Sweet Potatoes method is good,too, because you don’t have to babysit the Instant Pot. Your attention can be on other tasks.
I’m considering buying an Inta Pot soon, but I’m not sure which one or what size. Is a 6 qt big enough for your family? Is the Hamilton Beach a solid choice. The 8 qt might be better for a variety of dishes and sizes. Hmmm. Remember when using the terra cotta deep dishes and soaking the lid in water was the best thing to electric skillets?
Rusty, the six quart pressure cooker is big enough for our family of five. I’m not familiar with the Hamilton Beach model. I started out with a brandless electric pressure cooker that Bus boy gifted me for Christmas. (It was a Black Friday special from Walmart.) It was inexpensive and has a dial on it rather than an electronic keypad. I loved it, and I still use it. I also love my Instant Pot. They both have all of the same safety features. A friend of mine (Angie at KitchenHospitality.com) has a Farberware electric pressure cooker, and she loves it. Another friend has the Rival electric pressure cooker/programmable crock pot. It’s nice, but it doesn’t have a setting that allows you to choose your own cooking time. On the Instant Pot, that setting is either the manual or pressure cook button depending upon the model. The lowest she can set the time on the Rival model is for 5 minutes. That’s too long when you’re cooking something like broccoli that you still want to be crisp. My first pressure cooker has a dial, and I can set the time for as little as two minutes. I would recommend reading reviews, and then choose the one that fits your budget, but make sure it has a manual setting. As for size, the bigger the volume of your pressure cooker, the longer it will take to get to pressure. Keep that in mind when selecting you pressure cooker.
After checking out this recipe I need to get an instant pot. The time savings is huge. Thanks for sharing!
Analida, you will love having an electric pressure cooker.
I haven’t made sweet potatoes in the Instant Pot, but now I need to try. Thanks for sharing.
You will love making them this way. It’s so simple.
I love sweet potatoes! They’re perfect for breakfast or for a quick snack. And even better when they can be done in an instant pot.
Linda, I know, right? The Instant Pot is a game changer for so many things.
I love sweet potatoes and cooking them in the instant pot is a brilliant way to make them perfectly soft and ready quickly!
Thank you, Jenni. I love that even if I get distracted and forget about the potatoes, they still turn out fine. I once left them on keep warm for over an hour because I was distracted.
What a great method for cooking sweet potatoes! Thanks for sharing!
It’s my new favorite way to prepare them.
I love how this can be made in the instant pot! It’s such a quick and easy way to enjoy sweet potatoes!
Jamie, I was impressed by how simple this is. I had to share it with my readers.
Making sweet potatoes in my instant pot has been a game changer! I’ll be making them for thanksgiving this way!
Michelle, the Instant Pot is a game changer for so many things. Have you ever made “baked” potatoes in your electric pressure cooker. Those were the bigger game changer for me. They’re ready so fast, and I don’t have to heat up the house in the summer by turning on the oven.