A Fool-Proof Formula for Baked Sweet Potatoes
Again, the timings above are very general, so your potatoes might need another minute or two if you open the lid and find they are still a bit firm in the center. If you prefer to have an exact timing formula, I’ve found that you can multiply the weight of the potato (in ounces) by 2.5 minutes to get a more exact time.
Pressure cooking has also been shown to preserve more nutrition in food when compared to other methods of cooking. (source) This is possibly due to the fact that the pressure cooker cooks foods at a lower temperature than most other cooking methods (usually at or below 250ºF), while also being faster in many cases. If you’re the type who likes general guidelines, here’s what I go by:
Small sweet potato (8 ounces or less): 20 minutes Medium sweet potato (9-14 ounces): 30 – 35 minutes Large sweet potato (15 ounces and up): 40 – 50 minutes
All of these timings above are using the manual high pressure setting, and allow for 10 minutes of natural pressure release before opening the lid. So, be sure to add about 8 minutes for the pot to pressurize, and 10 minutes for the pot to de-pressurize to your overall expected time. This means a small sweet potato will take 38 minutes total, from start to finish.
( __ ) ounces x 2.5 minutes = cooking time at high pressure
For example, an 9 ounce potato x 2.5 minutes = 22.5 minutes of cook time at high pressure. (Plus the 10 minute natural release later.) And a 16 ounce potato x 2.5 minutes = 40 minutes of cook time at high pressure. Note: If you’re cooking multiple sweet potatoes that vary in size, always go by the cooking time for the largest potato to ensure they are fully cooked. (It’s not a big deal if you over-cook the smaller potatoes.) If the potatoes are drastically different, you can cut the extra-large potatoes in half to shorten their cooking time.
Instant Pot Sweet Potato Cubes
If you’d rather not cook whole sweet potatoes, you can cut the sweet potatoes into cubes for much faster cooking. I put the sweet potato cubes into a steamer basket with water below, then cook them for 8 minutes at high pressure with a quick release. (Meaning, you move the steam release valve to venting as soon as the Instant Pot beeps to signal that the cooking cycle is complete.)
The cubed sweet potatoes can be easily mashed for Mashed Sweet Potatoes, added to my Sweet Potato & Quinoa Mason Jar Salads, or can be saved and used later in a Sweet Potato Smoothie.
What Goes Well with Sweet Potatoes?
If you’re wondering what to serve your sweet potatoes with, I thought I’d share some of my favorite pairings. For food combining purposes, I like to serve baked sweet potatoes with a vegan salad or soup for a filling, yet easy-to-digest meal. Here are some of my favorites:
Vegan Quinoa Salad Instant Pot Vegan Chili Quinoa & Black Bean Salad Instant Pot Lentil Soup Detox Salad with Lemon Ginger Dressing
However you serve these Instant Pot Sweet Potatoes, I hope you’ll love them! If you have leftover sweet potato, keep in mind that they freeze well, too. You can save the frozen sweet potato to add to smoothies or curry sauces in the future. Recipe Notes:
This timing is for sweet potatoes only. For white potatoes, refer to my Instant Pot Baked Potatoes tutorial. To speed the cooking time, cut the sweet potatoes in half and go by the appropriate timing for the weight of the largest half. You can also cut the sweet potatoes into cubes for even faster cooking, as noted in the post above.
– Reader Feedback: Have you tried cooking sweet potatoes in your Instant Pot yet? What’s your favorite thing to serve them with?
