Give sweet potatoes rich umami flavor with this recipe for miso butter sweet potatoes. You can bake the sweet potatoes or steam them in your Instant Pot (find recipes for both below) and top the potatoes with deliciously salty miso butter and an optional drizzle of maple syrup. Yum!
Looking for more recipes to use up that container of miso you bought? Try miso mushroom pasta or Instant Pot mushroom barley soup with miso.
Another favorite miso paste recipe is easy miso butter salmon.
Looking for sweet potato recipes? Sweet potato lovers will definitely want to try Brussels sprouts and sweet potatoes with maple-dijon dressing and quinoa sweet potato chili or vegetable fajitas.
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Ingredients
You need just three ingredients to make miso sweet potatoes. A drizzle of maple syrup is optional, or, you can make the dish more savory by adding green onion.
Miso paste: For this recipe use either yellow miso paste or white miso paste, which are milder and a little less salty than red miso.
Butter: Using a combination of both unsalted and salted butter balances the saltiness of this dish.
However, you can make this recipe using only unsalted butter (just add a pinch of sea salt to the finished potatoes) or use only salted butter (if you like salty food - which I do!)
Sweet Potatoes: You can use sweet potatoes or yams for this recipe, which are often mislabeled and sold interchangeably at grocery stores. Yams have a brownish/beige exterior and are starchier than sweet potatoes.
For this recipe, you can serve whole steamed or baked sweet potatoes or baked sweet potato slices.
Maple syrup (optional): Drizzling maple syrup over miso sweet potatoes is optional, but it adds a hint of sweetness that is so delicious with the salty flavor of the miso.
Additional Toppings: You can take the dish in a more savory direction by adding sliced green onions, black pepper or sesame seeds as a topping.
How to Cook Sweet Potatoes
For this recipe, the sweet potatoes can be baked in the oven or steamed in your Instant Pot and served whole or sliced. Below you'll find cooking instructions that show 4 different ways to cook sweet potatoes.
For all cooking methods, first wash the potatoes thoroughly with water and pat dry.
Baked sliced sweet potatoes: Heat oven to 400F. The potatoes can be peeled or unpeeled, your choice. Slice the sweet potatoes into ½-inch thick rounds. Drizzle a generous amount of oil over the potato slices and toss the slices with your hands to lightly coat. Bake on a lined sheet-pan for 20 minutes then flip the slices over and bake 15 to 20 minutes more.
If you'd like to add seasoning to the baked sliced sweet potatoes, check out this recipe for baked sweet potato slices with seasoning (leave out the salt if you're topping the slices with miso butter).
Steamed Instant Pot whole sweet potatoes: Prick the whole sweet potatoes several times with a fork. Pour 1 cup of water into the Instant Pot. Set a trivet or steamer basket over the water and add the potatoes. The cooking time depends entirely on how large the potatoes are. Try 25 to 35 minutes for medium-sized sweet potatoes.
Baked whole sweet potatoes: Pierce the potato several times with a fork or paring knife. Rub the skin lightly with olive oil. Bake at 400F for about 1 hour until the flesh is soft and you can easily pierce it with the tip of a knife.
Steamed Instant Pot sweet potatoes: This recipe for Instant Pot sweet potatoes gives detailed instructions for steaming potato cubes or whole sweet potatoes.
Step-by-Step Instructions
Step 1: Cook the sweet potatoes, either by baking in the oven or steaming the potatoes in your pressure cooker. Detailed cooking instructions can be found in the section above, "How to Cook Sweet Potatoes."
Step 2: Mash together butter and miso paste. This is easiest to do if the butter is softened.
Step 3: Dollop the miso butter onto baked or steamed whole sweet potatoes. The warm potato will melt the butter.
Step 4: The miso butter can also be melted over sliced sweet potatoes. Add a drizzle of maple syrup if you like.
For detailed instructions and ingredient amounts, see the recipe card below.
Recipe FAQ
Yes, you can roast or steam butternut squash, acorn squash, sauteed delicata squash or other varieties of winter squash and top the squash with miso butter.
Yes, you can. However, the natural sweetness of sweet potatoes pairs especially well with salty miso butter.
Whether you set the oven temperature at 400F or 450F, it will take close to an hour to bake a whole sweet potato.
The salty umami flavor of miso butter is also delicious over roasted vegetables, shrimp, salmon and pasta.
More Potato Recipes
📖 Recipe
Miso Butter Sweet Potatoes
Miso butter takes just a few minutes to make, however you do need to cook the sweet potatoes first. You can bake the sweet potatoes or cook them in your Instant Pot, either whole or sliced. Then top the warm potatoes with deliciously salty and rich miso butter and an optional drizzle of maple syrup.
For detailed sweet potato cooking instructions, see the blog post section above “How to Cook Sweet Potatoes.”
- Prep Time: 5
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes
- Yield: 4 to 6 servings
- Category: Side Dishes
- Cuisine: Japanese American
- Diet: Vegetarian
Ingredients
- 4 warm, cooked sweet potatoes (baked or steamed, whole or sliced)
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter*, softened
- 2 tablespoons salted butter*, softened
- 2 tablespoons white miso paste or yellow miso paste
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup, or more to taste (optional)
*Miso paste is quite salty, which is why I recommend using a combination of salted and unsalted butter. However, you can use only unsalted butter for a less salty flavor or use only salted butter is you like saltier food.
Instructions
- Use a fork to mash together the butter and miso paste in a bowl. If the butter is cold, soften it in the microwave for 20 seconds first. *If you're unsure if you love the flavor of miso, add just add 1 tablespoon at first, then taste the butter before adding more.
- Spoon the miso butter over warm sweet potatoes, letting it melt into the potatoes.
- If you’d like to add a little sweetness, drizzle maple syrup over the miso butter sweet potatoes.
- If you’d like to add savory flavor, sprinkle green onions over the potatoes.
Jen says
A surprisingly delicious combination...I'm kind of in love with the sweet and salty combination of sweet potatoes and miso butter.