Instant Pot Baked Sweet Potatoes

Instant Pot Baked Sweet Potatoes are everything you love about sweet potato casserole wrapped up all in one awesome, single-serving bundle. Cooked in your Instant Pot in half the time, with all the flavor you love. 

If you love easy, comforting Instant Pot dishes, then you’ll also love my recipes for Baked Potatoes, Instant Pot Chicken and Potatoes, and Instant Pot Mac and Cheese. 

I’ve found that people who eat sweet potatoes fall into two categories: they love them or they hate them. I, for one, love them. But, I have plenty of friends and family members that hate them. 

This recipe is for the haters. I do believe I can convert you with the power of Instant Pot Baked Sweet Potatoes, marshmallows, butter, pecans, cinnamon, and sugar. If you still aren’t with me after just one bite, then I seriously question if you are even alive on the inside and everything we’ve been through together throughout the years. 

I mean, if Buddy the Elf would enjoy these, then why wouldn’t you?

HOW DO YOU MAKE SWEET POTATOES IN THE INSTANT POT?

You don’t need much to bake sweet potatoes in an Instant Pot. 

The first thing you should do is to gently scrub the potatoes and pat them dry and remove any slips or darker areas with a knife. 

Next, place a trivet or metal stand on the bottom of your Instant Pot (it probably came with such an insert). Put 1 cup of water on the bottom of the Instant Pot. Put the potatoes on top of the trivet in an even row. 

Put the lid on the pot and lock it down. Turn the vent to the sealed position. Set the pot to Pressure Cook or Manual (depending on your brand of pot) and cook for 18 minutes. 

Let the Instant Pot naturally release its pressure (meaning, don’t do anything but keep an eye on the countdown timer) for 5 minutes, then quick release the valve. When the float valve drops or the steam stops coming out, you can take the lid off.

Now comes the fun part: adding the baked sweet potato toppings — you know, all the good stuff. (Unless you just want to serve them with butter, then just cool a bit, slice down the middle and serve.) Or you can cut down the middle, add butter, cinnamon-sugar or honey, and then top each potato with mini marshmallows and then put potatoes on a baking sheet to broil in the oven for 3-5 minutes, or until they are golden brown but not burnt. 

WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A SWEET POTATO AND A YAM?

Although sweet potatoes and yams are often used interchangeably, they are, in fact, two different tubers. 

A sweet potato is generally orange in color (although they do also come in other colors like white and purple). They are sweeter in taste than yams and the flesh has a shiny, even appearance when cut. They are also more slender in the middle and tapered on both ends, and they have more beta-carotene, iron, protein, and sugar than yams do. 

While a yam is a root vegetable that looks kind of tree-barky and textured on the outside. They are starchy and not sweet…more like a white, russet potato than a sweet potato, and not orange on the inside at all. Real yams are harder to find and are not often in conventional grocery stores.

HOW DO YOU MAKE SWEET POTATO SLIPS?

Did you know that you can grow more sweet potatoes from sweet potatoes that you already have? They are started by “slips” instead of seeds. Slips are shoots that grow off of a potato — sweet or otherwise. 

If you want to grow your own, take a healthy, clean sweet potato or two and cut them in half. Put each half in a glass of water with toothpicks holding up the other half so it’s not completely submerged. Put the glasses near something warm, like on a windowsill or near a radiator. In a couple weeks, your potatoes will start to sprout on the top and take root on the bottom, into the water. 

Plant the roots in some fertile, loose soil in the spring and water every day for a week, then every other day, then eventually weaning them off to only being watered once a week as the vines on top of the soil get bigger. 

Once you grow your own sweet potatoes, you can have baked sweet potatoes or pressure cooker potatoes any day you like!