Instant Pot. Beyond eggs and yogurt.

debrakgoogins

What are your favorite meals to make in the Instant Pot? I am new to it. In fact, I have made exactly two meals - Mississippi Pot Roast and Meatloaf with sweet potatoes. Both turned out great but I am wondering what others are making besides eggs and yogurt (a quick search revealed plenty of posts about that).

janejellyroll

I use mine a lot for cooking rice or dried beans. It's also great for curries.

I made this last night: https://www.veganricha.com/2018/03/instant-pot-tomato-soup-tofu-croutons.html

It was really tasty.

debrakgoogins

Thanks! Do you personal your beans or use the dry method?

RenaTX

I use mine frequently to make rice and beans.

Recipe wise I make many recipes which requires moist cooking.

Baby Back Pork Ribs

Chicken with 40 garlic cloves. Takes 15 minutes in the IP or 1 hour + in the oven.

Jackfruit pulled pork. Takes about 15 minutes IP where traditional cooking is like 45 minutes.

Syracuse Salt Potatoes


There is a lot of recipes you can do. There is a Facebook group called Instant Pot community for inspiration if you are on FB.

jflongo

I do Corned Beef in ours 3 - 4 / month. Basically Corned Beef / Cabbage / Carrots / Veg or Chicken Broth. Cook the Corned Beef with broth for 85 - 90 minutes, pull it out, put the veggies back in for about 5 minutes, then shred the corned beef. I'm sure the recipe is online somewhere.

zilkah

I made Amy and Jacky's chili recipe last night ,super good. I do oats or shredded chicken . Bone broth and other soups .

debrakgoogins

debrakgoogins wrote: »

Thanks! Do you personal your beans or use the dry method?

So, just reread this and that is supposed to say pre-soak. The woo was justified on this one. I have been using my instant pot regularly since my initial post but have yet to try dry beans. What is your experience with pre-soaking and cooking from dry in the IP? Side note, I like my IP so much I bought the Ultra model ($99 on Amazon right now) so I could have one at camp too.

amgreenwell

I make a lot of soups in it. I also make pasta at least once a week. Gives me time to hang with the kids while the pot does its thing instead of me standing over a hot stove.
Pasta is super easy: 1/2 lb lean ground beef, 1/2 onion chopped, 2 cloves garlic minced set IP to sauté and cook until brown and crumbly (drain if you'd like) turn IP off, then put 8 oz of pasta (1/2 a 16 oz box), a 24 oz jar of pasta sauce and then 12 oz of water. Stir well. then set to manual for 5 minutes. Delicious pasta. Add cheese as desired and serve.

debrakgoogins

amgreenwell wrote: »

Delicious pasta.

Is the pasta good? I keep picturing the water my pasta has cooked in and that doesn't seem tasty or appealing to me. Doesn't it make the sauce too thin and starchiy?

JKolb17

I use a lot of greek yogurt and I now make it in my instant pot. Cost savings and I know what goes into my yogurt.

http://youmakeitsimple.com/2016/12/greek-yogurt-in-the-instant-pot-thick-creamy/

r3488

Barbecue pulled chicken. You throw in your chicken and favorite barbecue sauce. I have my own sauce recipe, so I throw in the chicken and all of the ingredients (no mixing necessary). When done, I pull out and shred the chicken then add it back into the sauce. Yum!

astronaught

I love making chicken and dumplings from a whole chicken, which I doubt I would have ever done if I didn't have an instant pot. I use the following recipe but substitute dumplings for the noodles, and add in more of all the vegetables.

https://www.number-2-pencil.com/instant-pot-chicken-noodle-soup/

I also like making Jambalaya from a super easy recipe I found online but can't find any more.

2 boxes Zatarans
6 cups water
1 kielbasa sliced
1lb cooked hot ground sausage
1lb frozen large de-tailed shrimp
brown hot sausage on sauté mode then add all the other ingredients.
20 minutes, then quick release

debrakgoogins

JKolb17 wrote: »

I use a lot of greek yogurt and I now make it in my instant pot. Cost savings and I know what goes into my yogurt.

http://youmakeitsimple.com/2016/12/greek-yogurt-in-the-instant-pot-thick-creamy/

I make yogurt too and I use it for hard boiled eggs. It works great for both of those. Now, I am branching out and trying all kinds of different recipes.

r3488 wrote: »

Barbecue pulled chicken. You throw in your chicken and favorite barbecue sauce. I have my own sauce recipe, so I throw in the chicken and all of the ingredients (no mixing necessary). When done, I pull out and shred the chicken then add it back into the sauce. Yum!

That is one of my husband's go to recipes for the IP. We love it!

debrakgoogins

@astronaught Your jambalya recipe sounds great. I will definitely give that one a try.

I make a chicken soup as well but dumplings would be devine. I had issues with the chicken falling apart so I did some research on how to fix that issue. Now, I use mesh produce bags I found on Amazon. I put the chicken into the bag then put that into the pot. I can just lift it out. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005E2QRPG/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

amgreenwell

debrakgoogins wrote: »

amgreenwell wrote: »

Delicious pasta.

Is the pasta good? I keep picturing the water my pasta has cooked in and that doesn't seem tasty or appealing to me. Doesn't it make the sauce too thin and starchiy?

@debrakgoogins NOT AT ALL. The water is all absorbed into the pasta during pressure cooking. Once you do a quick release and open the lid then you stir it all up and it is saucy and yummy. Believe me, my hubby or kids wouldn't eat no watered down pasta

debrakgoogins

@amgreenwell I'll have to give it a try then. Maybe next week.

happytree923

Not a meal but I love making chicken broth in mine. I save up chicken bones (legs and wings especially), add water, seasonings, and cook on high for 1 hour-1.5 hours. Let it cool in the fridge, scrape the fat off the top, divide into containers and freeze. I've saved so much money doing this.

astronaught

debrakgoogins wrote: »

@astronaught Your jambalya recipe sounds great. I will definitely give that one a try.

I make a chicken soup as well but dumplings would be devine. I had issues with the chicken falling apart so I did some research on how to fix that issue. Now, I use mesh produce bags I found on Amazon. I put the chicken into the bag then put that into the pot. I can just lift it out. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005E2QRPG/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Good idea with the bags. I'll have to try that out. My chicken hasn't fallen apart, but a lot of the onions end up in the body cavity. Also sometimes there will be a couple of pieces of skin in the final product, which is pretty gross, but that could be me doing a poor job of separating the chicken before putting it back in.

hesn92

Well now I have my menu set for next week

jflongo

I made corned beef and cabbage last night, that is an easy go to recipe. I also made Rice for the first time a few days ago, super easy, and turned out great.

25lbsorbust

I use mine often for slow cooker refried beans (delish) and white rice (1c white rice, 1c water, 1 min on high pressure, natural release for 20 minutes).

It's basically a convenience machine because it's not saving me any time but I no longer wind up with burned rice or opaque rice water all over my stove, so I'm happy.

I tried making a pressure cooker chicken broth recipe I found in it and it tasted like dirty dish water, even after reducing it. Nothing compared to stove-simmered.

I should be more adventurous but most of the time I just eat pasta or rice, or I'm cooking out of a recipe book that isn't pressure cooker oriented so...

hesn92

25lbsorbust wrote: »

I use mine often for slow cooker refried beans (delish) and white rice (1c white rice, 1c water, 1 min on high pressure, natural release for 20 minutes).

It's basically a convenience machine because it's not saving me any time but I no longer wind up with burned rice or opaque rice water all over my stove, so I'm happy.

I tried making a pressure cooker chicken broth recipe I found in it and it tasted like dirty dish water, even after reducing it. Nothing compared to stove-simmered.

I should be more adventurous but most of the time I just eat pasta or rice, or I'm cooking out of a recipe book that isn't pressure cooker oriented so...

I’m right there with you. We got a pressure cooker as a gift back in August and I’ve only used it maybe 4 times most things that I like to eat are not slow cooker/pressure cooker type meals, idk... I just haven’t found much use of it. But I am going to start trying some things!

WilmaValley

These are GREAT ideas!!!!

plythacur

I make beans from dried without the pre-soak in mine all the time. They take about an hour to cook, and this generally works better with darker beans (pinto or black). White beans tend to get a little gummy and need rinsing (like canned) and chickpeas don’t have the best texture when cooked this way, so I only cook them from dry with no pre-soak if they are going into hummus. I can also get a full, thick, lots of broken down gelatin bone broth made in about 70-80 minutes, and I've never had any off flavors, but I pack it full of aromatics (garlic/onion/celery/bay leaves). I usually freeze my broth in 1/2 cup measurements to use in place of canned chicken broth in recipes.

debrakgoogins

So, I am now a little more than a month in on owning an instant pot. We use it several times a week. BBQ pulled chicken, beef stew, chicken noodle soup, chicken for prep meals, Mississippi Pot Roast, beef stroganoff, and yogurt (never buying it again - seriously that good) are our favorites. We make a big batch of rice to use in recipes. I haven't ventured into beans yet but I will soon.

hesn92

astronaught wrote: »

I love making chicken and dumplings from a whole chicken, which I doubt I would have ever done if I didn't have an instant pot. I use the following recipe but substitute dumplings for the noodles, and add in more of all the vegetables.

https://www.number-2-pencil.com/instant-pot-chicken-noodle-soup/

I also like making Jambalaya from a super easy recipe I found online but can't find any more.

2 boxes Zatarans
6 cups water
1 kielbasa sliced
1lb cooked hot ground sausage
1lb frozen large de-tailed shrimp
brown hot sausage on sauté mode then add all the other ingredients.
20 minutes, then quick release

I made this chicken and dumplings recipe and it was good. I was a bit sceptical bc of the soy sauce but it’s good