#thingsnutritionistslike – The Instant Pot
Our Favourite Things – Instant Pot
September is in full swing, which means back to school, back to work, back to meal planning. My rule of thumb is to make dinners as easy and delicious as possible AND to not spend a lot of time cooking during the week. I recently purchased a new item for my kitchen. It’s bigger than a gadget but smaller than an appliance. Faster than a crockpot but just as convenient. Able to cook a 6-pound bottom blade roast in under 70 minutes and an entire chicken in 25 minutes. It is a pressure cooker, a slow cooker and a yogurt maker (though I have not tried to make yogurt yet). My new favourite thing…..The Instant Pot!
I remember growing up, my mom had a pressure cooker and used it all the time to cook things like soups, stewed beef and lamb. Dinner was always ready and delicious. I have no idea why it has taken me years to buy this amazing appliance. There are a lot more bells and whistles and safety features now, which is probably a good thing. The manual is also quite comprehensive and comes with a flow chart to help guide you through the main features. My engineer hubby was extremely helpful in figuring out all the features and explaining them to me (with his own flowchart).
Since my purchase, I have used it mainly as a pressure cooker and experimented with a few different meals. A personal favourite of ours is making steel cut oats in the morning. They cook in 8 minutes (after pressurization is reached) and are a great start to a cold day! Another delicious meal was our 6-pound roast which cooked in 70 m inutes. It was tender, flavourful and delicious. Recently I made coconut rice in 8 minutes and had time to spare and used the Instant Pot again and made a Thai chicken recipe from their website.
It doesn’t replace my crockpot, or my stove or oven…but it is great to have options and variety in what and how we cook. It really is an amazing addition to our kitchen and to our family!
www.instantpot.com