The farmer’s markets have been teeming with sweet potatoes over the past few months, nearly every vendor’s table robust with the deep garnet hues of freshly dug spuds. What better way to warm up a cold winter than with a perfect blend of sweet and savory flavors to grace your dinner table?
Naturally, over the holiday season I had ample opportunities to test various sweet potato recipes – we love them, after all! And right away I confirmed what I’d long suspected: The pressure cooker (in our case, the Instant Pot) makes light work of sweet potatoes, saving you time and allowing you to get to dinner much quicker.
I’ve got two recipes for you today, and they both start the same way. Scrub two sweet potatoes and place on the trivet in your Instant Pot. Add half a cup of water to the bottom of the pot, close the lid, and set to High pressure for 25 minutes, waiting 10 minutes before quick releasing.
Now, here is where the two roads diverge. You can either pluck both potatoes out of the pot (carefully!), slice them open, dress them with cinnamon and butter (and some marshmallows if you’re into that sort of thing) and serve them, or you can peel them and mash them up with some creamer, maple syrup and spices after the fact. Both recipes are below – just be sure to stop at the “hoist the potatoes from the pot” step if you want to enjoy them baked and intact!
INSTANT POT SWEET POTATOES (TWO WAYS!)
Serves 2
What you’ll need:
Two medium to large sweet potatoes, scrubbed
½ cup of water
1 tsp. cinnamon or to taste
2 tbsp. butter
½ cup mini-marshmallows
2 tbsp. maple syrup
½ cup vegan creamer
Both recipes start the same way. Place two potatoes atop the trivet in the Instant Pot and pour ½ cup water into the pot to cover the bottom. Close the lid and set the pressure cooker to High pressure for 25 minutes. Once the time has elapsed, allow to naturally release for 10 minutes before quick-releasing the remaining pressure.
Remove the potatoes from the pressure cooker. If you’d like to serve baked sweet potatoes, simply slice the spuds lengthwise and top with cinnamon, butter and marshmallows to taste.
If you’d like mashed sweet potatoes instead, drain the Instant Pot, peel the cooked potatoes (you’ll probably want to let them cool for a few minutes first; the skins will probably fall right off) and then roughly dice them. Place them back into the pressure cooker, add the butter, cinnamon, syrup and creamer (start with smaller dousings of creamer at first to make sure it ends up at the proper consistency), and then mash the potatoes with a potato masher, stirring with a spoon to combine everything.
Serve either as-is or with some marshmallows atop it, and enjoy!
:)