Instant Pot Sweet Potatoes Recipe – Cooking sweet potatoes in an Instant Pot makes cooking sweet potatoes so quick and easy! Perfect for enjoying as baked sweet potatoes as a side dish or for cooking to use in sweet potato casserole and so many other dishes!
Looking for more delicious Instant Pot recipes? I think you’ll love my Instant Pot Rotisserie-Style Chicken, Instant Pot Eggs, and Instant Pot Oreo Cheesecake.
I’ve had my Instant Pot for some time now and am always discovering a few essential ways that I like to use it. From cooking chicken quickly to make Bart’s chicken salad throughout the week to steaming these sweet potatoes to serve like I would baked sweet potatoes or even to use in my sweet potato casserole. I make it again and again throughout the week!
Why I Love This Recipe
I know I’ve shared how I also like to prepare them in my slow cooker. That method works wonderfully and is great for popping them into the slow cooker before you head out the door in the mornings so that they are ready for supper when you walk back in the door in the evenings.
But you know, there are also those days that I forget to get them into my slow cooker and the Instant Pot has saved supper for sure! I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I’ll whip up a sweet potato like this for lunch. They are perfect every time!
How to Cook Sweet Potatoes in an Instant Pot
Ingredients
Water – you will need to add water to your Instant Pot to help the Instant Pot to build pressure and cook your sweet potatoes.
Sweet Potatoes – you will want to make sure you are using sweet potatoes that are of similar size to ensure they are all cooked evenly.
Step-by-Step Instructions
- Prep. Place steamer basket in Instant Pot and add 1 cup water.
- Clean. Scrub sweet potatoes until skins are clean. Place in the steamer basket.
- Cover and seal. Cover and place vent on lid to “Sealed.”
- Cook. Set on “Steam” program and set time for 10 minutes.
- Release pressure. When finished cooking, don’t open lid. Allow pressure to reduce naturally, about 25 minutes.
- Serve. Remove the lid and serve.
Storage Tips
To Make Ahead. Store sweet potatoes in the refrigerator for 3 to 4 days. Reheat in the microwave or in the oven before serving.
To Freeze. Peel sweet potatoes and place the flesh into freezer-safe containers for up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight and reheat before serving. Serve as mashed sweet potatoes, use in a soup, chili, casserole, or sweet potato pie.
Here’s my Instant Pot Sweet Potatoes Recipe. I topped them with my homemade cinnamon honey butter in case you want to give that a try, too! I hope you love them as much as we do! They are a weeknight classic around here now!
Instant Pot Sweet Potatoes Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup water
- 4 medium sweet potatoes
Instructions
- Prep. Place steamer basket in Instant Pot and add 1 cup water.
- Clean. Scrub sweet potatoes until skins are clean. Place in the steamer basket.
- Cover and seal. Cover and place vent on lid to "Sealed".
- Cook. Set on "Steam" program and set time for 10 minutes.
- Release pressure. When finished cooking, don't open lid. Allow pressure to reduce naturally, about 25 minutes.
- Serve. Remove lid and serve.
Notes
Make Ahead and Freezing Instructions
To Make Ahead. Store sweet potatoes in the refrigerator for 3 to 4 days. Reheat in the microwave or in the oven before serving. To Freeze. Peel sweet potatoes and place the flesh into freezer-safe containers for up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight and reheat before serving. Serve as mashed sweet potatoes, use in a soup, chili, casserole, or sweet potato pie.Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Enjoy!
Robyn xo
These come out amazing! I’m in North Florida and I put the free cooking rack in my IP that came for free with it. I then add a cup and a half of water to the bottom, next we scrub the potatoes well and just stick 3-4 medium to large (really closer to the large dize) in my IP. I seal the lid to “sealed” and Press the pressure button to on, which defaults to high, set the time to 30 minutes and forget about them. After 30 minutes I let it release pressure naturally and boom delicious potatoes. These in fact came out so delicious and perfectly sweet, that for Thanksgiving this year, I chose to use fresh sweet potatoes instead of candied yams. I mashed them up and made a sweet potato casserole out of them. Amazing and so easy I’m surprised I didn’t come up with how to do this myself till I read your blog. Thanks!!!
So glad you enjoyed the recipe! I used this recipe more times than I know just during the last couple of weeks! I made my sweet potatoes for my sweet potato casserole this way too – sooo easy! Thanks so much for letting me know you enjoyed it, Lauren! xo
Do I need to poke the potatoes with a fork before cooking?
Hi Elaine,
I don’t! I just pop them right on into the instant pot and they cook beautifully! I hope you enjoy them! xo
I just came across this recipe and made a sweet potato for lunch. I used a medium potato and followed your directions. It came out PERFECT! The skin looked like it was baked in an oven. I should have taken a picture but I ate it already. Think I’ll make another one tomorrow. Thanks!!
Oh Sue, I’m so glad that you loved it! Isn’t it amazing?! They are so tender!!! You’ll have to take a photo and share with me on Instagram if you use it. Just tag me so that I can see! I’m @addapinch there!
Robyn, I am a new Instant Pot owner and I am loving it. I have made baked sweet potatoes a few times with success you describe. I looked at several online recipes/methods with considerable variations in time. In reading all the comments of people who did not have the outcome of your delicious looking photos I am wondering if people are getting confused by your recipe card stating a “total time” of 15 minutes. Real life time from start to eatable finish is about 40 minutes when allowing the pressure cooker to release naturally. You do mention that but only in the instructions near the end. The quick reference at the top of the card is a bit misleading when you add on the additional 25 minutes. Seems total time should include the pressure release time. If you try to open and eat prior to that they would not be done. In a hurry people skim and I myself glance at the time reference on recipes and on yours I thought how does she get them done in 15 minutes when I knew every time I have made them in takes about 40 minutes. This is still so much quicker than in the oven. I hope this might bring some clarification to others.
Thank you for the recipe. I’m sorry that so many are not observant enough to compare the size of your sweet potatoes to the standard Collapsible Steamer Basket shown here. I’ve never seen such small sweet potatoes. I’m going to wash mine up right now and one is equal to three of yours, adjusting time accordingly!
Hi ! I use a pressure cooker (6 qt.). What’s so different about an INSTANT POT ?? Marketing??
You may e-mail your answer, if you like. Thank you..
You can steam in it, saute meat, cook the meat and make gravy in the same pot. Make hard boiled eggs, with a spring pan make cheese cakes and lasagna, incubate to make yogurt. It has safeguards to prevent opening when pressure is high and will not explode like the old fashioned ones. I’ve never owned a non electric, non digital pressure because I too afraid of accidents. I’m sure that’s why the instant pot and other electric pressure cookers (I own a GoWise 8 Quart) are so popular now.
Instant Pot and Pressure Cooker are the same thing. Just depends where you are from.
Delicious! Will be making these again. I cooked 1 fairly large one and added 3 minutes to the cooking time. Was not quite done and allowed to naturally release pressure for 30 minutes. Cut in half and put back in pressure cooker for another 4 minutes and it was perfect! I am in a higher altitude though, so that could have been why. Thanks for sharing. Definitely a keeper and will be a go to way of making sweet potatoes.
So glad you like this method and enjoyed the sweet potatoes! I make sweet potatoes like this so often and just love how they taste and how easy it is! Thanks so much, Cindy! xo
Started making this weekly in my apartment! So easy to do, thanks for sharing!
I make them all the time too, Julian! I’m so glad this works out well for you and that you enjoy them. Thanks so much for letting me know!
I tried this recipe with 3 very large sweet potatoes and only cooked for 8 minutes because I had one less potato. They did not cook through all the way. I even restarted them for an additional 5 minutes and still had to microwave them for 5 mintues after. Not sure what happened, so bummed!!
Hi Erin,
I’m sorry they didn’t get done, but I’ve not had that happen when I’ve cooked according to the recipe instructions. Even though you had 3 potatoes, you say they were very large. They probably should have cooked the amount of time in the recipe and allowed the pressure to reduce naturally. Hope this helps. Thanks!
I just got my Instant Pot today (yea!), and this was the first thing I made after doing the initial water test. The potatoes turned out PERFECT! I’m enjoying one now. My potatoes were medium-to-large sized. Thank you, thank you, Robyn!
Wonderful, Judy! I make potatoes in mine all the time – it’s just so simple and easy! I’m so happy it worked well for you and that you are enjoying them! Great to hear from you! Thanks so much! xo
So yummy your dish is! Do you think that using Aluminum Foil for these potatoes in instant pot can seed up the cooking time?