Purple sweet potatoes are packed with nutrition and taste like a little slice of heaven! Learn how to cook purple sweet potatoes two ways: in the oven and in the Instant Pot. Discover why this superfood belongs in your kitchen every single day!
Don’t you just love food that looks pretty AND is healthy?
I know I do!
The purple sweet potato is the complete package: beauty, taste, and incredible nutrition all in one. I eat it as often as I can find it at my local store, and once you try it, you’ll understand why!
🤔 What are Stokes Purple® sweet potatoes
Stokes purple sweet potatoes are my absolute favorite to make and eat! Created in the United States, they get their name from their birthplace.
Stokes, North Carolina!
Even though they now grow in California, they still proudly bear their original name along with the same incredible taste and nutrition.
What makes them so special? Starting with their skin, which is deep purple and easy to cook + eat. Their flesh is a stunning violet color that stays vibrant even after cooking. They’re slightly denser and less sweet than regular orange sweet potatoes, with a unique, rich, nutty flavor.
When learning how to cook purple sweet potatoes, the key is understanding that their dense flesh needs slightly longer cooking than regular sweet potatoes. Trust me, they’re worth every extra minute!
✅ Choosing the right purple sweet potato
- I look for the baby purple sweet potatoes. They are sweeter and have a more even taste when cooked. Side Note: Always go with organic baby sweet potatoes because they don’t have pesticides.
- When choosing them look for firm skin that’s slightly soft to the touch. Those ones will be easy to cut into and cook evenly.
- Go for long symmetrical looking ones too. If this sounds familiar it’s because I look for the same qualities when buying regular sweet potatoes. At least I am consistent, right? LOL!
- Finally —> wash, wash, wash these cute little purple sweet potatoes! Even though they’re organic they travel a long way before reaching your plate. You never know where they’ve been, haha!
🧑🍳 How to Cook Purple Sweet Potatoes Two Ways
Baking them in the oven
This is generally the recommended way to cook them. The company that makes them suggests that they should be oven-baked to retain most of their nutritional content.
I have to agree with them because they do taste so good when oven-roasted.
1. Wash them thoroughly
This is one of those steps that I see most people make a mistakes. Either they will forget to wash them or just give them a quick rinse.
Take a vegetable brush to the sweet potato and clean it thoroughly. Since we are eating the skin of these potatoes, it helps to make sure it’s clean, right?!
2. Fork it!
I like to poke some holes into them because they cook evenly and cook from the inside out.
Be careful when you are forking it, though. I have poked myself hard with a fork and the pain is unimaginable, lol! So, learn from my excruciating pain and pierce it carefully.
3. Wrap it up and bake in the oven
The company that makes it recommends wrapping it in foil before chucking it in the oven. I make sure I wrap them tightly in foil and then place them in the preheated oven. It cooks the potato evenly.
Saving the best for last! I put the wrapped potato on a baking tray to collect any juice drippings while the sweet potato is being cooked. in a 350°F (176°C). Place the wrapped potato in a 350°F (176°C) oven and let it cook, uninterrupted, for at least 1 hour.
Please note that oven temperatures vary by manufacturer, and your altitude, too. Also, if you are using a toaster oven, you will need to bake it longer than an hour.
Once it’s cooked, I like to leave it in for about 20 minutes so that the potato cooks a little more.
Remove from the oven and season it. Serve it immediately.
Cooking them in an Instant Pot
If you are a fan of the Instant Pot, like me, your first instinct is to cook the sweet potato in it. I like cooking it in the Instant Pot because it doesn’t turn out dry, like it did in the air fryer.
Place a washed purple sweet potato into a stackable pan like these (Affiliate Link), Amazon, or you can use a steamer basket too. I strongly recommend using one or the other and not putting the potato directly into the inner pot.
1. Wash, Fork the purple sweet potato
Wash and poke the purple sweet potato with a fork. I highly recommend poking it because it cooks the sweet potato from the inside out.
2. Put the sweet potato in a separate container
Use a steamer basket or a stackable pan. Place your washed sweet potato in it, and place that container in the Instant Pot. Cover the lid of the Instant Pot.
3. Place a little water in the inner container of the Instant Pot
I add about 1 cup of water to my 6-qt Instant Pot container
4. Place the container in the Instant Pot
Put the stackable or wire basket in the Instant Pot and close the lid
5. Set the Instant Pot to “Bean/Chili”
Connect your Instant Pot and set it to “Bean/Chili”. Remove the “Keep Warm” option and let it cook by itself for about 25 minutes.
FYI, it took one Stokes Purple Sweet Potato about 25 minutes to fully cook in the Instant Pot.
The cook time will depend on the size of your sweet potato.
6. Let the Instant Pot cool down
Don’t rush to open the Instant Pot if you can avoid it. I know it’s tempting to open it quickly and devour that delicious sweet potato! Resist the urge, if you can.
Once the float valve pin drops, you should be able to safely open the Instant Pot. Open it and remove the sweet potato using tongs.
Place it on a plate and split it using a pairing knife. Scoop the insides a little, then top it with salt, pepper,, and fresh lime juice. Garnish with fresh mint and serve immediately.
Purple Sweet Potatoes
Ingredients
- 1 Frieda’s Stokes Purple® Sweet Potato
- ½ tsp Himalayan pink salt
- ½ tsp black pepper adjust to taste
- 1 tsp fresh lime juice
- fresh mint for garnish
Instructions
If using the oven, be sure to preheat it 350°F (176°C) first
- Thoroughly wash the sweet potato
- Using a fork, poke some holes into the sweet potato
Baking in the oven
- Wrap the sweet potato in foil
- Place the wrapped potato on a baking tray
- Put the tray in the oven and let it bake for 1 hour
- Turn off oven and let the potato stay inside for about 20 minutes.
Cooking in the instant pot
- Add 1.5 cups of water to the Instant Pot container.
- Place the washed sweet potato in a stackable pan or a steamer basket and put it inside the IP container.
- Close the lid and choose the “Bean/Chili” option. Remove the “Keep Warm” option
- Let it cook for about 25 minutes and then wait for the float valve pin to drop.
- Open it and use a pair of tongs to remove the sweet potato
Serving the purple sweet potato
- Split it longitudinally and scoop out the pulp a little using a fork.
- Season it with salt, pepper and lime.
- Garnish with mint and serve.
Notes
- Always go with the organic purple sweet potato. They don’t have any of the nasty pesticides and they also taste much better.
- Personally, I don’t like air frying them because they turn out dry. Maybe, I am just doing it wrong, lol! I prefer baking them in the oven and the Instant Pot.
- Eat them up as soon as you can. I cook them and eat them up in the same day. They don’t take too much time to cook, so it’s easy to make and eat them immediately.
Nutrition
🔺 Less is more!
I know it’s tempting to put all kinds of ingredients into sweet potatoes. But sweet potatoes are best when you eat them as plain as possible.
For my money, I only salt and pepper it with a dab of fresh lime juice. If I have fresh mint, I will add it to the sweet potatoes because mint brings out the best in the sweet potato. The minty taste mixed with the tangy and sweet taste is a HEAVENLY combination.
Ideally, cook and eat them on the same day. I don’t like storing them because they just don’t taste the same a day or two later. It’s a personal preference, but based on experience.
Resist the temptation to douse it with sour cream, mayo, butter, black beans, corn, and any other ingredients! Channel that temptation, instead, into loading a baked sweet potato.
Or, go the radical way and make this simple, yet delicious ube cheesecake. You will love its textures and flavors.
“That’s not a purple sweet potato, that’s a YAM!!!”
Inevitably, some troll is going to tell me or you that this is known as yam or ube or taro, or even a Charleston sweet potato.
Set them straight! These are Stokes sweet potatoes that are famous for their taste and color. They are classed as sweet potatoes because they have the same texture and taste.
Also, it says right on the top of the potato that it’s a purple sweet potato. Don’t worry about what the trolls say, just read the label and devour the potato.
🏥 Nutrition benefits of Stokes Purple sweet potatoes
- Rich in antioxidants! – Anything with the color purple is always a sign that it’s packed with antioxidants. They have a ton of Anthocyanin antioxidants in them.
- Packed with beta carotene! – Beta carotene is mostly in the skin, but the whole sweet potato has plenty of it too.
- Good source of Vitamin C! – Just one purple sweet potato contains 20mg of Vitamin C.
- Wonderful source of Magnesium – It has 17mg of magnesium and happens to be bioavailable too.
- Other trace nutrients – Manganese, folate, folic acid, copper, calcium, Vitamin B6, Vitamin K, and Zinc.
Source: Ecowatch, Freida’s Stokes sweet potatoes, wholefoodsmarket.com
🏋️ Benefits are skin deep and beyond!
You know how we love to discard the skin in, oh, EVERY veggie?
We need to stop doing that once and for all! Even I am guilty of doing it.
Most veggies have so much nutrition and fiber content in the skin. The skin in these purple sweet potatoes is rich in beta carotene and antioxidants. Also, there is plenty of fiber in the skin that your gut bugs love munching on!
So, no matter how you cook them, be sure to keep the skin on! I even keep the skin for air fryer potato nibbles
❓ Answering your questions
Yes, you can refrigerate or freeze them. But, I don’t recommend it! Most of the nutrition is lost in the process of freezing and heating it.
If you have to freeze them, cook them, let them cool down, and freeze them immediately. Don’t season them first.
When you are ready to serve them, put them in a heated oven directly from the refrigerator. Heat for about 20-30 minutes before serving.
I am not even going to dignify that question with an answer!
I will just say that microwaving them kills most, if not all, of the nutrition.
What you are left with is just a hard rock with no nutrition or taste!
Yes, the skin is edible. These purple sweet potatoes are packed with nutrition that extends to their skin, too. Don’t discard them because they have so much nutrition.
They get the purple color because they are rich in antioxidants called anthocyanins. This antioxidant is responsible for giving the vibrant color in so many veggies, like purple sweet potatoes.
Personally, I don’t like air frying them because they turn out dry. Maybe I am just doing it wrong, lol! I prefer cooking them in the Instant Pot and also in the oven. I have boiled them on the stove top too, and that wasn’t so bad. But, for me, the Instant Pot is the best way to cook them.
💌 Sharing is caring
Don’t be shy, chime in below in the comments. Let me hear your opinion on this recipe. If you enjoyed this, please give it 5 stars and share it on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and Instagram.
Thank you for this recipe, the purple sweet potatoes turned out great in the instant pot! My only suggestion would be to add the one cup of water to the actual recipe, it wasn’t listed. Other than that, I will always cook these potatoes this way.
Yikes, I can’t belive I forgot to include that. Thanks for letting me know, it has been corrected now.
I loved this recipe and cooked them in my instant pot. My only constructive criticism would be to add the cup of water in the step by step instructions…it was only in the long version did I see to do this. Otherwise, this was a great way to cook these sweet potatoes and they turned out great! Thank you!
I think you may have commented twice. Sorry for not responding earlier, I have been away. It’s fixed now.
I made this tonight for dinner. I got one huge purple sweet potato from the farmer’s market. I cut it in half and treated it like two potatoes. This recipe worked perfectly! I was afraid that they were too big and wouldn’t be done all the way through. But after waiting the 20 minutes, they were sift and perfect. I made a white bean onion mixture to stuff them. Thanks for the recipe!
Thank you so much, Debi! I am drooling at your stuffed white bean onion mixture recipe. Going to try it myself. These purple sweet potatoes are so versatile because they can be put into so many recipes.
That purple sweet potato is so pretty! I’ve never seen or heard of it before, you always have such original creative recipes! Pinning for later.
Thank you, Natalia
Yum! I loved these purple sweet potatoes. I made mine in the instant pot for a quick and easy weeknight dinner. Love mine simple with some butter! So good!
Thank you, Anaiah. They are the best when cooked in the Instant pot. Thank you for your kind comments
So delicious and so easy to make in the instant pot! The color on these is amazing!
Thank you, Chenee
These are so cool! I had never heard of them before but I love it! I’ve had purple broccoli and purple carrots, but never purple sweet potatoes!
Thank you, Amy
I don’t think I have ever seen purple sweet potatoes, but I am going to have to be on the lookout from now on!! This looks so good, bookmarked to make later 🙂
Thank you, Cathleen
I am in love with the colour of these sweet potatoes! I am definitely going to pin this because I love how healthy this is. Thank you for sharing this recipe!
Thank you, Ramona
We love these purple sweet potatoes! Healthy, nutritious, colorful. Agree, simple is best when it comes to dressing them. Awesome!
Thank you, Loreto.
I am on the hunt to find these purple potatoes. They look so good and would make great baked potatoes! Thanks for the idea 🙂
Thank you, Kathryn
There are so many new things that I’m excited to try with this recipe! Thanks for sharing!!
Thank you, Leslie
A great tasting way to add color to our dinner plate. Thank you for sharing!
Thank you, Marta.
I don’t think I’ve ever put mint on my sweet potatoes, but I’m going to try your recipe! Thanks for featuring my recipe for Purple Sweet Potato Skins with Brie and Sweet Walnuts. Everything looks so good on your page today!
Thank you, Dorothy. I love your idea of using the potato skin. It has plenty of nutrients, so it makes sense to devour it.
This is unique to me and I want to find them they look delicious!
Thank you, Claudia
I’ve never tried purple sweet potatoes before, but I love standard sweet potatoes! (can i call them standard?) I’m excited to try this out and will keep an eye out at the grocery store for these!
LOL, you can definitely call them standard sweet potatoes. I call them that too.
I’ve never had purple sweet potatoes but they sound delicious and so good for you.
Thank you, Andrea
I LOVE Stokes purple sweet potatoes – we eat them all the time in our house, such a great nutritious side dish!
Thank you, Gina
Looks so simple and so delicious! These potatoes look great, I like that they are healthy too.
Thank you, Biana