Sweet Potatoes in the Slow Cooker (Or Instant Pot!)
If you like creamy, sweet potatoes with a buttery texture, then you’ll love how they turn out in the slow cooker or Instant Pot! Try this hands-off, foolproof method for perfectly cooked sweet potatoes.
Sometimes I feel like when I cook my sweet potatoes in the oven, they don’t quite get soft enough for my liking. Cooking them in the slow cooker or the Instant Pot is incredibly easy, and they turn out so good they literally almost melt in your mouth. And the best part is you don’t need to add anything to them!
Super Nutritious Sweet Potatoes
We love sweet potatoes because they are very versatile, tasty, and they can be cooked in a variety of ways. But we also love them because they are SO good for you! Some of the major health benefits are these:
- VITAMIN A 262% of the Daily Value in ONE small sweet potato!
- VITAMIN C 29% of the Daily Value in ONE small sweet potato!
- Beta – carotene 23,018 mcg
- Fiber Twice as much fiber compared to regular potatoes
How to Make Sweet Potatoes in the Slow Cooker
First, rinse/scrub the outside of your sweet potatoes. I like to scrub them well because we like to eat the skin. Don’t dry them; just put them right in your slow cooker. The liquid that clings to the outside of the potatoes after rinsing is the only liquid you need.
Set your cooker to low and cook for 6-7 hours depending on how big your sweet potatoes are. I recommend cooking 4 at a time so they’re in a single layer on the bottom of the pot. This helps them cook evenly. They’ll produce a little bit of liquid during the cooking process. You’ll know they’re done because you will be able to stick a fork right through the potato.
How to Cook Sweet Potatoes in the Instant Pot
Cooking extra-tender sweet potatoes in the IP is just as easy as using your slow cooker. (And it’s faster, too!)
Rinse and scrub your sweet potatoes, and place them on top of the metal wire steaming rack that came with your IP. Like this:
Add one cup of water to the bottom of the IP, and lock the lid. Set the pressure cooker to cook for 15 minutes under pressure for medium-sized sweets, or 19 minutes for large sweets.
Let the pressure come down naturally for at least ten minutes. (You can let it come down naturally all the way if you like… but if you’re in a hurry to eat, you can go ahead and flip the valve after ten minutes.)
That’s all there is to it! With basically no effort yo’ll have perfectly cooked sweet potatoes: smooth, creamy and sweet. These are so good!
We like to eat them just like they are, as a side dish for dinner, or the main course. Cooking them in the slow cooker or Instant Pot is great, because you can cook a lot, save them in your fridge and then use them for all of these other yummy recipes!
More Sweet Potato Recipes
Eat MORE of this tasty and nutritious veggie! Try these recipes:
- Flourless Sweet Potato Blender Muffins
- Sweet Potato Taquitos
- Quick honey mashed sweet pototoes
- Sweet potato quinoa bake
Sweet Potatoes in the Slow Cooker
Ingredients
Instructions
- Rinse sweet potatoes well. (Don't dry them off.)
- Place sweet potatoes in a single layer on the bottom of the slow cooker.
- Set the cooker on high 6-7 hours, or until potatoes pierce easily with a fork.
- Serve hot, or cool and refrigerate up to 5 days.
Nutrition
www.superhealthykids.com
Instant Pot Sweet Potatoes
Ingredients
- 4 medium sweet potato
Instructions
- Place the steel steamer rack inside the instant pot, and add one cup of water.
- Rinse the sweet potatoes* and arrange them on top of the rack in a single layer, as many as you would like, and can fit.
- Lock the lid and set the manual pressure: 15 minutes for small-medium sweet potatoes, and 19 minutes for large sweet potatoes.
- At the end of cooking, let the pressure release naturally for at least 10 minutes, or until the button drops.
Nutrition
www.superhealthykids.com
Natalie Monson
I'm a registered dietitian, mom of 4, avid lover of food and strong promoter of healthy habits. Here you will find lots of delicious recipes full of fruits and veggies, tips for getting your kids to eat better and become intuitive eaters and lots of resources for feeding your family.
Learn More about Natalie
Do you add water to the crockpot? I’d love to do this! Love sweet potatoes!
hi. yes u need to add little water as steam in the cooker will cook them and keep them soft. hope it helps 😉
how long do they take in the crock pot and on what setting do you use?
Set to low and cook for 6-7 hours depending on how big your sweet potatoes are. I would recommend cooking 4 at a time.
I can’t wait to try this. I’ve noticed that some sweet potatoes are sweeter than others…do you know whic variety is sweeter or how to choose the sweetest?
I love making a bit batch of sweet potatoes on Sunday and then having them for breakfast through the week but never thought to use the slow cooker (which is great since who wants to run the oven in this heat?). Quick question – do you need to poke holes in them first? Thanks!
Hi, i made them in my slow cooker and just had to wait for 2 minutes, no need to poke holes. just use any kind of slow cooker.these were amazing in taste too. i hope this helps.:)
I <3 sweet potatoes! What a great way to make them - I'm going to do it right now. When I make them in the oven, I add olive oil and pepper, and a little salt so the skins are all crunchy and delicious. Can I do that in the slow cooker as well? Thanks so much!
hi. yes u can make them in cooker. i dont add anything but just water in cooker. they are extremely delicious cooked this way.:)
I would love crock pot recipies, anything meatless.
Does this work for regular potatos as well?
hi kim. yes i made boiled potatoes like this way. they were also a great way to save time boiling the potatoes. as in cooker, it took just 2 minutes.
gonna have to explain to me how it only took 2 minutes in a slow cooker……..everyone else says 4-6 hours depending on heat setting
Love the idea but these are yams in the picture, not sweet potatoes.
Hi Brei – yams and sweet potatoes are the same as far as i know – depends on what country you live in what they’re called
It says in the recipe all you need is to rinse the potatoes, but do not dry them. That is all the moisture you need. Potatoes have a lot of water in them, so liquid eeks out and the potatoes will steam in it.
These are Sweet Potatoes in the picture!
Yams are a version of cooked sweet potatoes.
Hence the term “candied yams” they are basically one and the same.
That is absolutely NOT true! Again Americans assuming what is ignorantly true in US applies to the global community. Ignorant US grocery folks may label, incorrectly, sweet potatoes as yams…doesn’t erase truth that in Africa and Polynesia they have yams. You can buy real yams in many int’l supermarkets in US.
Slow cooking in the crock pot will not produce a crunchy skin. This method steams the potatoes in their own juices.
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Do you poke them with a fork all around like when baking in the oven?
You don’t need to because they are cooking so slowly.
Popular in the American South, these yellow or orange tubers are elongated with ends that taper to a point and are of two dominant types. The paler-skinned sweet potato has a thin, light yellow skin with pale yellow flesh which is not sweet and has a dry, crumbly texture similar to a white baking potato. The darker-skinned variety (which is most often called “yam” in error) has a thicker, dark orange to reddish skin with a vivid orange, sweet flesh and a moist texture.
The paler-skinned sweet potato has a thin, light yellow skin with pale yellow flesh which is not sweet and has a dry, crumbly texture similar to a white baking potato. The darker-skinned variety (which is most often called “yam” in error) has a thicker, dark orange to reddish skin with a vivid orange, sweet flesh and a moist texture.
Thanks Kyra!
No holes needed! Just wash them and stick them in. So easy!
Its true. The skins are so soft they practically melt off which is a great way for kids to eat them 🙂
This is a great article on the true difference between a sweet potato and a yam. If you really are concerned with the difference, you should read it:
http://www.kitchendaily.com/read/yam-sweet-potato
You don’t need to poke with a fork before cooking. The steam releases slower and it will not explode 🙂
My crockpot has a High & Low setting. I can program it to cook for as long as as I want. Would it be 6 hours on High? Thank you!
The recipe specifies the low setting.
I can tell, regarding the previous posters’ questions …
Natalie has an amazing calm of self control sprinkled with a sense of humor 😉
She certainly does
Sounds good but have you ever peeled the sweet potatoes, cut in 2inch cubes … Put in large
Baking pan drizzle Olive oil over the potatoes?
Sprinkle Seasalt .. bake
in 410 degree oven for 25 min or till golden brown & soft to eat…delicious!
Yes! Or in potato wedges and bake. Same with parsnips…deeelish!
I agree!!
This is really nice topic, which is very useful for me.
Nice post, fully informative thanks for sharing
Yep!
I don’t like sweet potatoes too much. But my Granny got me to eat then this one way. She would clean and rub them in oil and bake them until the outside skin is crispy and the flesh was mush! Then she would smother them with real butter, salt and pepper and serve them with pork chops! I loved the butter in the sweet flesh with the pork! And the crispy skin was good with a little extra butter! 😉 I bet these would be good served the same way!
For some reason this blew my mind! Why had I not thought of this?? It inspired my post and I turned it into a delicious vegan meal with that gorgeous slow cooked sweet potato as the centerpiece – thank you!!
http://modernfamilycooking.com/lunch-box-ideas/crock-pot-sweet-potatoes-broccoli-hummus-avocado/
I don’t have a good scrubber for the potatoes, if I peeled them would it be OK in the slow cooker?
Imho, you don’t need to ‘scrub’ with any utensil…just wash off making sure all the dirt is gone. As far as the skin…yes it would cook but dry out and prob not be very nice and the outside would also be ruined, hard. The skin is nature’s wrapping…it allows the moisture to stay inside and steam it rather than bake it. If you can’t bear the skin once cooled you can scoop the meat out. Another yummy thing…once meat sccoped out, cut in strips, then you can butter the skin, a lil salt and fry it in a pan for yummy and mineral& vitamin rich crunchy treat! (Don’t forget much of the vitamins and minerals are in the skins of our veggies
My daughter cooks them in the crock pot without skins (she peels them) and they turn out just fine. Not dry at all, instead soft, sweet & delicious!.
I make mine in a microwave. Just prick them with a fork, put in a ziplock microwaveable plastic bag and cook them for about 10-12 min on hight. They’re perfect with garlic Greek yogurt
The food products we get now is not good for health. But still we are forced to buy these things because of no other alternatives. The recipe you have shared here seems to be good. Anyways I’m going to try this. Thank you for sharing this wonderful recipe.
Sounds delicious!
It would probably work – they might be more mushy because more water would leach out. I would say worth a try!
This looks great; can’t wait to try it out this coming week. 🙂
Sweet potatoes are a staple at my house. This is an old post, but wanted to share. Not only do we love them, my dogs love them too. They are a great diet food. We have boiled , baked. microwaved, but never slow cooked. I will try this. My daughter puts brown sugar and butter on hers. I sometimes cut them in rounds and caramelize with brown sugar and butter on the stove top in an iron skillet. Super food!
Brilliant idea! I need to try this!
Always looking for new recipes and foods to cook. Am having a blast with my wife’s Ninja Slow Cooker/Oven. 82 yrs. old and just now getting into cooking!!
This morning was the first day of farmers market here in my home town of Longview, Tx. Its my favorite time of year because all the locals come out and you get the freshest produce that you can find year round. I bought a huge thing of sweet potatoes for 5 dollars and couldn’t wait to get busy eating them. I found your post through pintrest. I have a birthday party to go to at 3 so this was a no brainer to try out. In my other slow cooker I put in some bbq chicken thighs to go with it. When I get home I’ll make some fresh garlic green beans to round out this effortless dinner! I cant wait! Thanks for the post!!!
Can you stack them up (I have 8 to cook) or do they have to all fit on the bottom of the crockpot?
Thanks for the tip. I did this for a Japanese sweet potato which has a little thicker skin but it still was perfect! I did add a cup of water since the sweet potato didn’t produce any moisture on its own and started to look a little too dry. Really want to thank you again. You saved me from using the oven during the California summer.
So glad it worked out for you!
Sorry, but when I tried this recipe,the potatoes tasted disgusting! Total waste. Could not eat. I fed it to my dogs.
I cook eight sweet potatoes at a time in the slow cooker. Then peel, mash, and add coconut oil, salt, and cinnamon. We eat them cold—as a creamy, pudding-like dessert! You can top your “pudding “ with toasted walnuts or pecans.
Sounds amazing!!
Awesome
I have never tried sweet potatoes. But it seems delicious
I have never thought of making baked sweet potato in a slow cooker or pressure cooker.
I got a pressure cooker yesterday, so will give this a go tonight – thanks. 🙂
I cooked sweet potatoes in my crockpot and they were awful, tasted like dirt because they took on the taste of peel.
I never tried sweet potato. But like it
This is a great article on the true difference between a sweet potato and a yam.
Great blog, Nice information share really enjoyed waiting for your new blog.
This looks great; can’t wait to try it out this coming week.
yams and sweet potatoes are not the same but pretty much cook the same thanks
I’ve used this recipe multiple times and never disappointed. So delicious!!
Hello,
Hi or low pressure?
High pressure.