Pressure cooker sweet potatoes whole stuffed with butter and cinnamon sugar or mashed are a quick easy healthy side dish made in your Instant Pot, Crockpot Express or as a Ninja Foodi recipe.
This is how to cook Instant Pot sweet potatoes perfectly. When done you can make twice baked and savory or sweet for the holidays. Just one easy Instant Pot recipe we have on our site to make dinnertime easier.
You may have made Instant Pot sweet potatoes cubed before but these were left whole. Typically you’d remove the skins but this way you can enjoy every bite. Comes out super duper fork tender, so good even your kids will ask for seconds.
Ninja Foodi (Option)
With this you could pressure cook with the lid that isn’t attached or make air fryer sweet potatoes with the one that is. The latter will create a VERY crisp skin. If you are all about texture I would suggest this version. You can serve whole or slice, stuff with fill with sweet goodies to make twice stuffed potatoes with it. Depends on how you want to serve them really.
Yet another cooking choice is to remove the insides, mix with marshmallows, cinnamon and sugar and make air fryer potato skins.
How long do you pressure cook sweet potatoes?
This is typically the fastest at 15 minutes with a natural release. If you make baked sweet potatoes at 400 it is closer to 45 minutes or so. Air fryer is about the same by the time the very center becomes tender and fluffy. You wouldn’t want to boil these as the skin will just soften so much it will fall off completely.
Of course you can cut down the time drastically if you cut into pieces. Sweet potato cubes baked in oven not only are quicker but get crispy too. Drizzled with maple syrup is a hit with my girls for sure. During the holidays you might want to use a mixer to get these nice and smooth.
You can do that too when done, but you’d likely want to remove the skins. We do that ahead of time when making our version of Instant Pot mashed sweet potatoes so I’d just follow those directions for that. A Thanksgiving favorite that used to take a lot longer until I got this multi cooker pot.
Ingredient Notes
Sweet potatoes are all you need, medium size is best – much large sweet potatoes may take longer.
Water is needed to steam them to the right tenderness, or any liquid will work. A trivet for inside your pot, with handles is nice to have. For reference I have a 6-quart Instant Pot pressure cooker. If you misplace or don’t want to get a trivet you can just wad up some foil like you see here to keep them out of the liquid below.
Pressure Cooker Sweet Potatoes Recipe
Equipment
- 1 trivet
Ingredients
- 2-3 sweet potatoes
- 1 c water
Instructions
- Wash sweet potatoes and pat dry. Add a trivet with 1 cup of water into the pot with potatoes sitting on top out of the liquid.
- Cook on high pressure for 15 minutes and allow steam to naturally release for 10 minutes. Then let out the rest by opening the valve.
- For mashed: Remove and allow to cool to the touch and remove skin. Slice, mash and add butter and cinnamon sugar
- For stuffed: Remove, slice and press sides to fluff up the middle. Loosen middle with fork and add toppings you would like. OR slice in half, scoop out a bit of the middle, fill with toppings or crack an egg inside and air fry at 400 for a few minutes to cook egg or melt toppings in the center
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
How to Make Twice Stuffed Sweet Potatoes
You could make them into a complete meal too! Look at the idea below. Yes, sweet and savory at the same time is so yummy. Allow to cool to warm, slice, scoop out some of the middle and then add something like an egg inside. You can add it raw and then bake in oven or air fryer at 400 like this until done to your liking.
Is it better to boil or bake sweet potatoes?
You know how I feel about boiling food y’all. It’s my absolute last choice. You not only lose out on flavor and texture but more importantly the hot water is going to leach out a lot of the vitamins too. Why would you do that?? There are so many other great methods such as this one to use instead. Use them.
And that is how you make perfect sweet potatoes in the Instant Pot y’all. As far as meal prep there is literally none, which is nice when you want an easy side dish idea. Once done the possibilities are endless. Think outside of the box and see what you love the best.
How to Reheat Cooked Sweet Potato
Of course, they save quite nicely. Once cooled you will want to either wrap in foil or store inside a freezer bag with the air pushed out. I like reheating in the air fryer to add a bit of crisp to the outside. If you just want it super soft again just use your microwave instead for about 2 minutes.
Leftovers are great to stuff really. It is already cooled and easy to handle. Then scoop the middle and make a pulled pork baked potato out of it. We are huge fans of this sweet savory combo. Jump to recipe and get started!
FAQ
Using a pressure cooker will take about 15 minutes with some natural release time. With time to pressurize you’d want to set aside about half an hour to get these done perfectly.
You can use either but they will have different results. Below explains how long to pressure cook using the lid that is not attached. That will make them super tender. The lid that is attached will air crisp, take longer and get crispy.