Instant Pot Sweet Potatoes

Making sweet potatoes in your instant pot is easy and saves time. You can eat them as is, add them to chili or soup, or create an amazing dish- like Buddha bowls. Yum!

My local co-op has an abundance of different types of sweet potatoes this year, and as a big time sweet potato lover, you bet I have been trying them all.

Handy Sweet Potatoes Guide

The guidelines are a helpful base to use. Go with the higher time, the closer you are to the next size up.

It will also depend on the type of sweet potato you use. The red and orange potatoes typically seem to cook faster than the purple skinned ones.

Cooking Time by Width:
less than 2 inches: timer 15 minutes.

2 inches: timer 20-25 minutes.

2 1/2 inches: timer 25-30 minutes

*3 inches and larger: Cut in half lengthwise, and then cook according to size above.

*Note: If you want to keep them whole, it’s better to roast this size in the oven.

I am using these Japanese sweet potatoes as an example.

Isn’t that a pretty color? It is even stronger after you have rinsed and scrubbed them.

I put my cleaned potatoes on a trivet, set inside my Instant Pot, with 1 1/2 cups of water. (You use 1 cup if you have the smaller IP model.)

Then you close and seal the lid. I will cover all these steps in more detail in the recipe instructions down below.

I set my timer for 20 minutes, since these potatoes were a smidgen over two inches. (15 is my preset time.)

You choose the “Pressure Cook” selection, and you can see it lit on the panel.

Then you choose the “+” or “-” button on the display to set the time up or down. (I forgot to take a picture after resetting it to 20.lol)

After it finishes cooking, I wait until the silver float valve drops, then I turn the steam release lever to open.

Some people open it before then, but my method has worked best for me… also no chance of being scalded by hot steam. Yeah, no thanks!

The part you have to be careful of is the hot water dripping from the top, when you lift it off. That’s like any cooking lid though, so just do it carefully.

Below is one of the sweet potatoes 5 minutes after removing it from the IP.

Butter, salt, pepper, and some onion slivers on one side. Butter, brown sugar, coconut cream whip, and pomegranate on the other. So delicious!

I love eating them plain too, especially the sweeter varieties. They already taste like dessert, and really don’t need anything added.

Sweet Potato Health Benefits

They are also super healthy and by boiling/steaming them, you actually increase certain factors.

One of them is that it looks to alter their structure and help prevent blood sugar spikes, by allowing the starch to be more easily digested.

Here are links with more health information:

Healthline

WebMD

15 Health Benefits According to Science

Tasty and healthy are definitely pluses in anyone’s book.

One last item I want to cover is cooking different types together. I usually don’t do it.

This time I did, because the were all around the same width. I figured they should turn out the same, but nope they cooked very differently.

Different Sweet Potato Cooking Times…

Cook’s Illustrated notes that tan or purple-skinned sweet potatoes are dryer than the orange ones. Now I find out. Ugh haha

Anyway, it still turned out well, and the purples came out perfect for the time selected.

Now the orange variety was almost melty soft, which was actually perfect for me too. lol They taste just like sweet potato pie. I love happy mistakes.

Have fun experimenting and Enjoy!

Here is the recipe for the Seared Mushrooms, in the Buddha bowl above, and there is also a quinoa and brown rice mix underneath. Delicious!