Instant Pot Easter Bunny Potatoes—creamy mashed yellow potatoes and carrots with sour cream, butter, salt and pepper made fast in the Instant Pot. The carrots add a bit of sweetness and color.
Note: the SLOW COOKER instructions are listed in the recipe card below

Instant Pot Easter Bunny Potatoes
Happy Easter! The Easter Bunny added a bit of color into these potatoes by adding in some carrots. The pop of sweetness that comes from the carrots makes these potatoes extra special and perfect to serve as a side dish with Easter dinner.
When Greg saw these potatoes he said, “those are April potatoes.” Not the month April, but a person named April. Our friend, April, is obsessed with adding in vegetables into EVERYthing from pancakes to macaroni and cheese. She is hilarious and we like to tease her a lot about it. One time when their family came to eat pancakes at our house the 10 year old son was shocked that we had syrup (with high fructose corn syrup in it). He was so excited that he got to eat pancakes without spinach inside them and with Mrs. Butterworth’s on top! 🤣
I loved these potatoes so much and they were so simple with only 4 ingredients (not counting salt and pepper). I think I’ll add carrots into my mashed potatoes in the future all the time!
I love using my Avokado steamer basket* to make mashed potatoes in the Instant Pot. By keeping the cubed potatoes out of the water they don’t get grainy. If you don’t have a steamer basket you can just put the potatoes directly in the pot with the water. It will still work but they’ll be a little waterlogged.
More Instant Pot Recipes with Potatoes…
Instant Pot Scalloped Potatoes and Ham
Instant Pot Paula Deen’s Hash Brown Casserole
Instant Pot Mississippi Mud Potatoes

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Instant Pot Easter Bunny Potatoes
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 8 minutes
- Total Time: 23 minutes
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
Description
Creamy mashed yellow potatoes and carrots with sour cream, butter, salt and pepper made fast in the Instant Pot. The carrots add a bit of sweetness and color.
Ingredients
- 2 pounds Yukon gold potatoes, washed and cut into cubes (peeled or unpeeled)
- 5 medium carrots, peeled and sliced in half lengthwise
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1/3 cup sour cream
- 1/4 cup melted butter
Instructions
Instant Pot Instructions:
- Place potatoes and carrots in a steamer basket*.
- Pour 1 ½ cups water into bottom of Instant Pot.
- Lower steamer basket into Instant Pot.
- Cover and lock lid into place. Make sure valve is set to sealing. Set the manual/pressure cook button to 8 minutes.
- When time is up move valve to venting to release pressure. Remove the lid.
- Remove steamer basket and set aside. Dump water out of Instant Pot. Dump the potatoes and carrots into the liner of the Instant Pot and set on the counter.
- Use a potato masher to mash the potatoes. Stir in the salt, pepper, sour cream and butter until creamy and smooth.
- Scoop onto plates and serve.
Slow Cooker Instructions:
- Place potatoes and carrots into slow cooker. Pour 1 ½ cups water into slow cooker.
- Cover and cook on low for 6 hours, or until potatoes and carrots are soft.
- Drain the water. Use a potato masher to mash the potatoes. Stir in the salt, pepper, sour cream and butter until creamy and smooth.
- Scoop onto plates and serve.
Notes
Equipment needed: Steamer Basket*
- Category: Side
- Method: Instant Pot or Slow Cooker

*Karen Petersen is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.
As a child I recall the mashed potatoes were often made with Swede added, made them slightly orangey. I cannot remember ever doing something similar myself so it must be the better part of 60 years since I had this.
Problem is, I cannot remember if I liked them or not. 🙂
★★★★★
Haha! I guess that’s good you don’t remember hating them!
I decided to make this for Easter because I had lots of baby carrots to use up. Since I’m cooking for one, I cut the recipe in half. To figure out how many baby carrots to use, I weighed one regular carrot on a scale and then tried to get an equivalent amount of baby carrots. I probably used about 3/4 of what the adjusted recipe called for and that was plenty. I only gave the recipe 3 stars because I expected a bit more flavor. When I reheated some leftovers, I added salt and some butter (I know, there was already plenty of butter.) and that was a big improvement. This was probably my least favorite recipe of yours, Karen, because I’ve made so many other fantastic ones.
★★★
I’ve added frozen peas and carrots to my mashed potatoes for many years, especially good with meatloaf.
Good idea!
I just made this – loved it. My tummy needed comfort, soothing food today. I would have never thought of this. Imagine this will be my meals for a couple of days. Thank you. Love your recipes and my Instant Pot. Only thing I have tried is a cheesecake but from boiled eggs to tea, wow!!!
★★★★★
I’m glad you tried it Sandy! We loved it as well. I’m happy you are getting such great use our of your Instant Pot 😊
This is made in Holland in winter quite often
But now I can make it in the IP
Yay! I’m glad you will be able to have it all year round!