What Exactly Is the Instant Pot?
The Instant Pot is a 7-in-one, or 9-or-10-in-one, multi-cooker that does the job of a slow cooker, electric pressure cooker, rice cooker, steamer, yogurt maker, sauté and browning pan, and warming pot, a kitchen appliance that is designed to consolidate the cooking and preparing of food to one device.
Depending on the model you choose, you can use an app on your smartphone to programme your Instant Pot, or forego the model that makes Greek yogurt, or purchase the 10-in-1 Ultra model that steams without pressure — a godsend for al dente veggie enthusiasts — and has the ability to customize and memorize settings for each user … or not. Instant Pot beginners may simple choose a programme setting and press the “Start” button without any further tinkering, while more seasoned chefs can spin and punch their way through several additional options.
Want to know a bit more about the history of the Instant Pot? Watch this CBC News video that aired last November, just prior to Black Friday …
VanRamblings purchased the Instant Pot because we wanted to shake up our eating habits, to try new recipes, to prepare healthier meals, with more fresh veggies and more vegan items in our diet, as well as more soups — particularly in the cooler autumn and winter seasons.
VanRamblings also enjoys farm-fed, free-run, organic chicken, and thought it was well past time to come up with a few new recipes to complement our tried-and-true favourites, such as this delicious chicken stew, which we had for dinner last evening, along with fresh asparagus, and an organic carrot, apple and raisin salad, with a creamy, vegan homemade dressing.
For many — including VanRamblings — the Instant Pot is a life-changing kitchen device. We intend to prepare at least one new Instant Pot recipe each day over the course of our first year of ownership of this amazing device. Did we mention we prepared perfect poached eggs, in 2 minutes, in the Instant Pot, this morning? Really easy to prepare, no fuss and no muss.
A couple of Sundays back, a friend was over for an Instant Pot Umami pot roast dinner — he said it was the best dinner that he’d had in ages.
In the coming weeks, VanRamblings will set about to make creme brulée in our new Instant Pot, as well as potato salad for the upcoming David Eby picnic. We’ve already enjoyed incredibly delicious BBQ chicken wings prepared in our Instant Pot, as well as perfect basmati rice, garlic mashed potatoes, beets, broccoli with garlic, and apple sauce — as well as a myriad of vegetarian and vegan dishes.
We will also set about to make several different Indian recipes, with Aloo Baingan Masala set for dinner with a friend mid-week, next week.
Almost all of the recipes above may be found in Amy + Jackie’s 47 easy Instant Pot recipes for the newbie. Worth clicking on the link, we’d say.
Heard enough? We’ve only just begun (we’re only kiddin’ … sort of).
You’ll want to read these Instant Pot testimonials and reviews, like this review by Kevin Roose in the New York Times.
There are five Instant Pot Facebook groups that we’ve joined, each with tens (or, even hundreds) of thousands of members. We’ve already signed up to all of the Facebook Instant Pot groups listed below, and not a day goes by when we don’t find some new and delicious Instant Pot recipe.
As Claire Lower, with the Skillet division of Lifehacker.com writes, you should have no problem joining any one of the following popular Instant Pot Facebook groups that have taken social media by storm …
- Instant Pot Beginner Recipes and Tips: This group is great for crowd-sourcing recipes, getting a grip on all those buttons and soothing your newbie jitters.
- Instant Pot Vegan Recipes. Everyone should eat more vegetables, and you don’t have to be vegan to enjoy all of the creative plant-based recipes offered in this group.
- Instant Pot Vietnamese Food Recipes: Quick, flavourful pho is the only reason you need to join this group, but be sure not to sleep on the Bo Kho, sticky rice, and milk tea.
- “Dump and Push Start” Easy Instant Pot Recipes: This group features only the easiest “fix-and-forget” recipes for unfussy, single-appliance meal making.
- Instant Pot for Indian Food: The Instant Pot makes short work of grains, legumes, and intensely-flavored sauces, lending itself extremely well to Indian cuisine. As someone who wishes to wean herself off of takeout, I find this group extremely exciting, says Ms. Lower.
- Instant Pot Vegan Recipes. Everyone should eat more vegetables, and you don’t have to be vegan to enjoy all of the creative plant-based recipes offered in this group.
Okay, okay — we know you’re busy. We’re close to wrapping this up.
Our favourite Instant Pot recipe so far? Hands down, it’s the Vegan Penne Rigate, where you pretty much just throw everything into the pot, give things a stir when it’s done (about 20 minutes, including de-pressurizing time), scoop it out of the pot and onto a plate … and mmmmm, delicious, you’ve never eaten a tastier pasta dish in your entire life.
Who’da thunk that penne, extra virgin olive oil, chopped onions, shallots, garlic, mushrooms and zucchini squash, when combined with a touch of sherry wine, a pinch of oregano and basil, a cup of vegetable broth with 2 cups of water, light soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce and fish sauce (omit these two items if your preparing the vegetarian or vegan version of this dish), and a pinch of kosher salt and black pepper, topped with a 5.5 ounce can of tomato paste just plopped right on top of everything … would together constitute a little taste of heaven on Earth?
Not to mention, the best galldarn thing you’ll ever eat!
Mmmm, scrumptious and delicious cheesecake prepared entirely in the Instant Pot
Now, we could go on extolling the many virtues of the Instant Pot, how preparation and clean-up is a snap (cuz, pretty much, everything just gets thrown into the pot, you can use the sauté function to soften onions or brown meat), how the Instant Pot not only helps you to make incredibly wonderful dishes in no time at all, or that the Instant Pot is not only a runaway international success, it’s a runaway Canadian international success, how no kitchen should be without one, and more, so much more.
But as VanRamblings is going to suggest in our Sunday column, sometimes you just have to put in the work yourself. Top 5 Instant Pot Hacks and Tips, 9 Instant Pot Don’ts, or A Beginner’s Guide to Using Your New Instant Pot — videos on all of these topics may be found on YouTube, along with a video for Starbucks Sous Vide Bacon Eggs Bites, and so very much more.
Once you’ve become aware that the Instant Pot exists, and you actually set about to purchase one (we like the 6-quart, 7-in-1 version which is, by far, the most popular model), you’ll begin to see references to the Instant Pot wherever you go; it’s sort of like a cult.
But a rare instance of a good, self-motivating, healthy for your body and for your mind, norm-challenging, community-building, Canada-supporting and vegan-friendly cult — and when you start to prepare your first Instant Pot recipes, you’ll come to find in short order that your new Instant Pot, sitting there on your counter, is an insanely easy kitchen device to employ on your new culinary road to a comestible bliss you didn’t know was even possible and so easily accessible to you, requiring surprisingly little of your time, with deliciously appetizing results that are just short of out of this world!
