Instant Pot Chinese Sweet Potato Soup

Chinese Sweet Potato Soup (Chinese: 番薯糖水) is the Sweet Dessert Soups “tong sui” (Chinese: 糖水) I ate the most at home growing up. teehee~

My mom loves making this classic Hong Kong dessert because it’s so simple with just 5 ingredients and super duper easy to make!

Now, it’s made even easier & faster with the Instant Pot Pressure Cooker! Yay to no need to watch the stove!

But if you want a real good bowl of Chinese Sweet Potato Soup, it can get a little tricky.

Because when the sweet soup is not cooked enough, the sweet potatoes can be undercooked & hard, lacking flavors; or the flavors aren’t well blended; or the sweet soup tastes watery & lacking body.

And when it’s cooked for too long, the sweet potatoes can turn into a mushy mess. 🙁

What makes a good bowl of Chinese Sweet Potato Soup?

• Sweet Potatoes: fully cooked, hearty soft yet still intact – not mushy, sweet satisfying bites (not too big/small in size)
• Soup: relatively clear, light, smooth, well blended & balanced sweet-gingery-sweet potato flavors (we like the soup with a little body & texture)

The results? A delicious bowl of nourishing, filling, aromatic, & comforting sweet-gingery dessert soup!

How to Make Chinese Sweet Potato Soup

This Chinese Sweet Potato Soup is incredibly easy to make. Plus, all you need is a few simple ingredients! 🙂

Tips for Instant Pot Chinese Sweet Potato Soup

1. Brown Sugar in Pieces (Chinese: 片糖)

Brown Sugar in Pieces aka Jaggery is natural cane sugar. Try to find them in your local Asian markets as they’ll be much cheaper! 🙂

2. Ginger

Try to use old ginger for a stronger & more aromatic flavor profile. If you enjoy a more gingery spicy Sweet Potato Soup, feel free to add more ginger slices according to your preferences.

Here’s how much 3 tbsp (40g) of ginger slices roughly looks like.

3. Sweet Potatoes

It is better to use 2 large sweet potatoes instead of this mega huge sweet potato. Unfortunately, our grocery store went out of regular size sweet potatoes. :\

Roughly cut the sweet potatoes into 2″ chunks as shown in below photo.

Pressure Cook Chinese Sweet Potato Soup

Add 1 (93g) brown sugar in pieces (Chinese: 片糖), a pinch of salt, and ginger slices in Instant Pot Pressure Cooker.

Add in 2 ½ lbs (1025g) sweet potato chunks, then pour in 4 cups (1L) cold water.

Make sure the sweet potato chunks are submerged in the water.

Close lid and turn Venting Knob to Sealing position.

• Pressure Cooking Method: Pressure Cook at High Pressure for 1 minute, then 5 minutes Quick Release.

After 5 minutes, release the remaining pressure by turning the Venting Knob to the Venting position.

Remove the lid carefully.

Thicken Chinese Sweet Potato Soup

The Sweet Potato Soup will look quite watery at this point.

Bring the Chinese sweet potato soup back to a simmer by pressing the “Cancel” button, then “Saute” button.

Let it simmer. Break down the sweet potatoes slightly with a wooden spoon, then mix the soup to give it more body. This will take a few minutes.

Taste and adjust the sweetness by adding more brown sugar in pieces if necessary.

Serve Instant Pot Chinese Sweet Potato Soup

Discard the ginger slices.

You can serve this Chinese Sweet Potato Soup hot or cold.

If you are serving it cold, make sure to add a bit more sugar because your taste buds will be less sensitive.

Enjoy this Classic Hong Kong dessert Instant Pot Sweet Potato Soup~ 🙂

Tools for Instant Pot Chinese Sweet Potato Soup

• Instant Pot Electric Pressure Cooker
• Bamboo Wooden Spoons

Time to make some Classic Chinese Dessert: Instant Pot Sweet Potato Soup! 🙂

More Instant Pot Dessert Recipes You’ll Love

Instant Pot Tofu Pudding (免石膏粉豆腐花)

Instant Pot HK Egg Custard (超滑鮮奶燉蛋)

Instant Pot Red Bean Soup (陳皮紅豆沙)