How to Make Steamed Sweet Potatoes

Co-authored by wikiHow Staff

Last Updated: September 5, 2021 Tested

With their deliciously smooth taste and nutrient content, sweet potatoes are perfect as both a staple food and as a "sometimes" snack. While some cooking styles can raise the fat and sugar content of sweet potatoes, steaming uses zero-calorie water so you can enjoy the potatoes without feeling guilty. Best of all, it's easy — all you need is heat, water, and a few pieces of cookware.

Ingredients

Basic Steamed Sweet Potatoes

1 pound sweet potatoes (about 3-5)
2 cups water

Recipe Variations^{[1]
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4 tablespoons butter
2 cloves garlic, chopped
Salt and pepper, to taste
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons pumpkin seeds, ground
2 tablespoons fresh rosemary, chopped
1/2 white onion, sliced
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Method 1

Method 1 of 2:

Making Basic Steamed Sweet Potatoes

1
Peel the sweet potatoes. This is generally easiest to do with a conventional potato peeler. You can also use a sharp knife.
- Throw the peelings into a compost bin to avoid waste. Better yet, cut the peels into long strips, leave a little flesh on them, and make sweet potato skins
2
Cut the potatoes into chunks. The exact size isn't important — cutting each potato into three or four slices is usually fine. What matters is that all the chunks are about the same size so that they cook evenly.

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3
Place the sweet potatoes in a steam tray. Steaming the sweet potatoes means exposing them to hot steam without submerging them in the boiling water below them. To do this, first put your potato chunks into a steam tray, which is a metal device that sits in a pot above the boiling water. Put the full steam tray in a large pot with two cups of water at the bottom.
- If you don't have a steam tray, you can improvise one from a small metal strainer. You can even put a clean cooking rack at the bottom of your pot.
4
Boil the water. Put the pot + steam tray on the stove over high heat. Cover the pot. When the water reaches a strong boil, reduce the heat to medium. Let the potatoes cook this way until soft all the way through.
- Depending on how big the sweet potato pieces are, cooking times will vary from about 15-20 minutes. A good policy is to check the potatoes for done-ness after about 12 minutes. You can do this by prodding them with a fork. If the fork slides in easily, the potato is cooked. If they still feel hard, cook for another 5 minutes.
- Remove the pot lid carefully — the escaping steam can burn you.
5
Serve and enjoy. When the sweet potatoes are soft, they're ready to eat. Turn off the heat and transfer them to a serving plate. Serve immediately. Season as desired.
- Sweet potatoes are (obviously) naturally sweet, so you can enjoy them as-is if you wish. In the next section, however, we've provided a few easy serving suggestions if you don't want to eat them plain.

Method 2

Method 2 of 2:

Recipe Variations

1
Eat with butter, salt, and pepper. This classic combination tastes just as good on sweet potatoes as it does on normal potatoes. It's not fancy, but it's always a fine choice.
- If you wish, you can simply toss the potatoes with butter, salt, and pepper once they finish steaming. However, if you're dining with picky eaters, you may want to serve the potatoes plain with butter, salt, and pepper on the side so everyone can have as much as they want.
2
Try savory garlic sweet potatoes. Garlic may not seem like a good accompaniment for sweet potatoes, but its zesty flavor actually compliments the vegetable's smoothness well. Don't use too much, however, as it can overpower the mild flavors of sweet potatoes easily. Here's just one way to make a garlicky sweet potato dish:^{[2]
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- Steam the potatoes as normal.
- Add olive oil, chopped garlic, and rosemary to a serving bowl with the potatoes. Stir well to combine and coat the potatoes evenly.
- Garnish with ground pumpkin seeds for presentation.
3
Cook with onion. Onion is another savory vegetable that pairs well with sweet potatoes. Like garlic, it's something you won't want to add too much of or you risk overpowering the potatoes. For best results, use white, yellow, or sweet onions — red onions have a little less sugar, so they're less sweet.^{[3]
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- Adding onions to a sweet potato dish is easy: just chop half an onion into small bits and steam them in the pot along with the potatoes.
4
Season with your favorite spices. Adding just the right spices to sweet potatoes can make them taste like a dessert without adding any extra calories. Sweet, pungent spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves tend to go best with sweet potatoes.
- Sprinkle very lightly at first — you can always add more, but you can't take the spices off once you've already added them.

Community Q&A

Question

How do I boil sweet potatoes?

Community Answer

Boil sweet potatoes for 15 to 20 minutes, until they are tender when pierced with a fork. Note: it will take less time if you cut the sweet potatoes into smaller pieces.