Instant Pot | Is it worth buying?

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Pressure cooking brings back memories of my grandmother’s old pressure cooker hissing and rumbling on the stove top. I still get a little scared when I hear that sound. About 9 months ago I was exploring new ways of cooking, not only to save time but to produce a tastier, healthier meal. I’m very budget conscious so making sure to get my money’s worth was important (as I’m sure is the case with all of you). Enter…pressure cooking! Not the old fashioned kind hissing on the stove, but electric pressure cooking. Did you know there was such a thing? I didn’t until I started researching. I found a few that seemed like good options, such as the Power Pressure Cooker XL and few sold at Walmart, Kohls, etc. Then I stumbled upon the Instant Pot

Oh…my…goodness!!! It had so many cooking options, I was amazed.

I got one for Christmas (anyone else’s mom still ask for a Christmas list each year even if you’re grown…because mine still does haha). I picked out the newer one called the Instant Pot. I was super excited to use it, especially since the options for cooking were endless; it even makes homemade yogurt!

Here are all the features the Instant Pot has:

• pressure cooker
• slow cooker
• rice cooker (cooks it right every, single time)
• steamer
• saute
• yogurt maker
• warmer
• stainless steel inner pot (which I love since trying to switch to non-chemical coated cookware!)

It has 14 built-in smart programs (Soup, Meat/Stew, Bean/Chili, Poultry, Sauté, Steam, Rice, Porridge, Multigrain, Slow Cook, Keep-Warm, Yogurt, Pasteurize & Jiu Niang) that cook delicious food with one button.

I have not stopped using this thing since I got it.

There are so many uses and I’m sure I haven’t even gotten to a fraction of them. My favorite uses are for chicken, beans, rice, etc. We do a meal prep day in our house, so having the Instant Pot around makes it incredibly fast to do meal prep. I really love being able to make nutritious meals from scratch, but not spend all day over a hot stove or oven.

I was super excited to try out the yogurt making function. The first time I made yogurt it turned out fairly well; if your yogurt turns out too runny just strain it through some cheesecloth and it will be more firm like Greek yogurt. However, the last few times I have tried to make yogurt, the stuff has just not turned out well at all. From what I have read online the yogurt starter you use really makes a difference and use whole milk. If you use 2% or less it will be runny as heck. I definitely want to experiment with some different starters to see what gives the best product (I will post an update when I find the best one) :).

**FYI I used mason jars to make mine in, but you could just make it all in the inner tub no jars required***

As much as I love this appliance, I would be lying if  I said it was easy to start using.

It takes a little getting used to, especially if you are used to using a slow cooker and such. I definitely read the manuals and recipe book that came with it. The recipe book is basically my Instant Pot bible; it has all the suggested cooking times for each category of food. I have only had one or two mishaps with it so far. First, I made the mistake of manually releasing the pressure too soon for some black beans. Oh man, don’t do that! I had bean juice all over my table, fan, ceiling, and wall. The man was not a happy camper, but we laugh about it now. Definitely let the Instant Pot release on it’s own.

The second mishap was a very weird one. I had cleaned the pot (inside tub and appliance) and used it to cook some rice. Well the rice didn’t cook and it had leaked water all over the place. I looked online to see if anyone else had this problem but no luck. So I cleaned it up and let it sit for week or two without use. And oddly enough, it has worked fine ever since. Not sure what happened (maybe leftover water, didn’t seal properly, who knows) but I’m glad I didn’t have to buy another or ask for a replacement.

So is it worth buying??? Absolutely 100%! It has done such wonders for the cooking in our home that I know I couldn’t live without it. So go and buy the best and last kitchen appliance you will need (you can use any of the links in this post). Happy cooking!

You can buy from the Instant Pot website directly: www.instantpot.com

or

you can buy from any of the links above or this Amazon link: www.amazon.com

 

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