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5 from 45 votes

Instant Pot Sweet Potatoes

Instant Pot Sweet Potatoes Recipe and Time Chart. Best way to cook buttery creamy whole sweet potatoes in Instant Pot based on our Test Kitchen experiments. Enjoy this delicious healthy baked sweet potato side dish, appetizer, or snack.
Servings 2 - 4
Total Time 40 minutes

Ingredients

  • 2 - 4 whole sweet potatoes (circumference: 6 – 12 inches, weight: 160g – 700g)
  • 1 cup (250ml) cold water
  • Optional Toppings: butter & maple syrup

Instructions

  • Wash Sweet Potatoes: Rinse and scrub the sweet potatoes in cold water.
  • Pressure Cook Sweet Potatoes: Put 1 cup (250ml) cold water and a steamer rack in Instant Pot. Put whole sweet potatoes on steamer rack.
    Close the lid, then turn Venting Knob to Sealing Position. Pressure cook sweet potatoes at High Pressure (depending on your sweet potatoes' circumference) for:
    Preference: Fully cooked with some chew - Fully tender
    a) 6 inches: 15 - 20 mins
    b) 8 inches: 25 - 30 mins
    c) 10 inches: 35 - 40 mins
    d) 12 inches: 45 - 50 mins
    Then, do a Full Natural Release (roughly 10 - 11 mins). Open the lid carefully.
  • Serve: Serve the sweet potatoes as is or drizzle with maple syrup and butter. Enjoy your sweet treat! :)

Video

Notes

1. Best Pressure Cooking Time: The cooking times are tested in 6qt Instant Pot at Sea Level. Use our time chart as a reference guide. Make sure to adjust according to your texture preference and altitude (see chart). 
  • Measuring Circumference: Wrap your measuring tape around the whole sweet potatoes once to find the circumference
  • Sweet Potatoes with a Circumference of 11 Inches or More: Save time by cutting the sweet potatoes in half (lengthwise) before pressure cooking. This will cut short the pressure cook time from 45 mins to 25 mins!
  • Cooking More Sweet Potatoes: If you're pressure cooking more sweet potatoes or using an 8qt Instant Pot, you may need to decrease the pressure cooking time by 1 to 3 minutes depending on how many you're cooking. Make sure not to pack them too tightly and adjust the cooking time accordingly.
  • Purple Sweet Potatoes: We briefly tested a few purple sweet potatoes with the cooking time chart and they worked.
2. Piercing the Skin: You don't need to poke the skin before pressure cooking sweet potatoes in Instant Pot.
3. How to Buy Sweet Potatoes
  • Size: look for small to medium sweet potatoes
  • Weight: feels heavy for their size
  • Appearance: skin should be firm, smooth (not highly wrinkled), even-toned, no brown/black discoloration, hydrated, no soft spots, no bruises, not wet, no freshly growing roots or sign of sprouting
4. How to Store Sweet Potatoes
  • Cool, Well Ventilated, Dark Place: Try to store sweet potatoes in a loosely covered bag or basket to allow air circulation (e.g. wrap in newspaper or brown paper bags); don't refrigerate because they don't keep well in the fridge.
  • Storage Duration (if stored properly):
    • Raw Sweet Potatoes: last for about 3 - 5 weeks
    • Cooked Sweet Potatoes: last for 7 days in the fridge in a tightly closed container
  • Still Good to Eat? You can cut it open and check. If there are no dark brown spots inside the flesh, it should still be good to eat.
5. Sweet Potatoes Toppings Ideas: Butter, salt and pepper, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, honey, maple syrup, sour cream, chives, shredded cheese, Greek yogurt, Jalapenos, pico de gallo + black beans, shredded chicken, bacon + egg + cheese, guacamole.
Rate Amy + Jacky's Recipe: If you've tried our recipe, rate the recipe in the Comments section. Thank you!
Author: Amy + Jacky
Calories: 115kcal

Nutrition

Serving: 300g | Calories: 115kcal | Carbohydrates: 26.8g | Protein: 2.1g | Fat: 0.2g | Saturated Fat: 0.1g | Sodium: 41mg | Fiber: 3.8g | Sugar: 8.7g