Slow cook or oven cook or Instant Pot… Which one wins? If you ask us, or anyone in the know, Instant Pot wins every time.
Why?
Created by renowned inventor Dr. Wang in 2009 Instant Pot allows you to supercharge cooking time and taste. It does this by allowing you to use a number of functions such as pressure cook, sauté, rice, cake, and even soup/broth.
In doing so it saves on time, electricity costs, mess, and mistakes and makes busy parents or self-confessed bad cooks into Michelin Star chefs in mere minutes.
To help you get to grips with this revolutionary piece of kit we’ve put together a quick guide to help you convert your favourite recipes to Instant Pot. Armed with this you’ll be creating incredible healthy meals from scratch with your Instant Pot in no time!
#1 Instant Pot Cooking Modes
To kick off, there are a number of pre-set cooking functions on Instant Pot. We won’t cover all of them but the key thing to remember is If your oven, fryer, or slow cooker can do it, the Instant Pot can do it better.
A manual or pressure cook is the most popular function. By using thermodynamics and pressurization it perfects dishes in half the time a slow cooker or oven normally would.
The sauté function acts like a conventional stovetop fryer by perfecting steaks or browning meat before it's pressured cooked. A great feature is the ability to adapt temperature so you never under or over saute your beef.
Other great functions include rice, steam, bean chili, porridge, yogurt, egg, cake, and more. What this means is you can cook almost anything from this cost and time efficient mean machine. We recommend checking out this Instant Pot beef recipe from Corrie Cooks and much more to give you that sprinkling of inspiration you need.
#2 Timings
A common dilemma first-timers face is trying to convert traditional recipe timings for Instant Pot. As a rule of thumb, Instant Pot can be twice or 50% quicker than oven baking. Similarly, slow cooking can be up to three quarters of 75% quicker using Instant Pot.
A game changer here is the Delay Start or Keep Warm function which allows you to tailor your dish to your desired serving time according to the recipe you decide to use.
#3 Water
Instant Pot uses water to create pressurized steam inside your sealed pot, which is what enables the appliance to cook the food. It also turbocharges cooking times and reduces electricity costs by using extreme science. But that steam pressure is the reason that you need to add liquid or water to almost all Instant Pot recipes.
Typically, most dishes would require only one cup of water. However, for bigger or more absorbent foods one and a half or two cups is normally ample.
The thing we love about Instant Pot is, almost every recipe has to date been converted by cooking pioneers which means all the hard work is done for you if you know where to look.
#4 Dairy
The high heat and steam produced by Instant Pot makes adding dairy at the start a bad idea. Why? It will curdle and curdle quickly it will.
The exceptions to the rule are of course obvious when using the yogurt or cake functions. Our top tip is to add cream to the dish when Instant Pot is finished to give your dish that rich creamy taste it deserves.
#5 Pressure Release
The pressure of choosing the correct pressure release method can be just too much pressure for most people.
The good news is, great recipes exist that let you know all you need to know to make sure you get the setting right on time every time depending on what you're cooking.
There are, however, two types of pressure release; one quick and the other natural. The natural method is the best one for foamy or high starch foods, while the quick release method is best for cooking delicate foods and to prevent overcooking.
#6 Recipes You Shouldn’t Try
Let’s get one thing straight. Your Instant Pot is not a deep fat fryer. What's more, it is not adapted to cook crispy food like fried chicken, and doing so could create a burnt mess.
Pasta can also be overcooked pretty quickly in the Pot. So, before you get straight into converting your favourite recipes for the Instant Pot, just be sure that no element of the dish needs that crispy finish. If it does, you could always try the air fryer accessory available for Instant Pot instead.
#7 Don’t Over Fill
A key takeaway to remember is don’t overfill your Instant Pot. Not only can overfilling clog the venting knob but it can knock off flavour consistency and seriously mess up the texture of your dish.
On the inner pot, you’ll see a fill line. It’s there for a reason! So be sure to pay attention to it.
Conclusion
We recommend that you dig out your favorite recipe and convert them to Instant Pot today. With these tips, you’ll soon be cooking your tried and tested dishes faster and more simply, with a lot less mess and fuss. Trust us, you’ll never look back.