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Scarred in my memory are the seven months of hell when my sister and I had no kitchen. What seemed like a splurge at the time — a 6 quart Instant Pot — really saved our bacon. It meant we could cook a nutritious meal at home instead of going out AND the pot’s insert could be washed in the powder room sink. It was a true lifesaver.
But what started as necessity turned into something much more. I grew to adore this appliance. It uses little energy, doesn’t heat up the kitchen in the summer, and there are things it does better than you might make in a pot on the stove (i.e. hard boiled eggs, steamed veggies, and bone broth, to name a few).
The Instant Pot has become an extremely popular device with almost a cult following. As such, there are a zillion cookbooks out there for it — but many of them, putting it gently, are not so great. (Hint: If a book promises 500 “best” Instant Pot recipes for $1.99 it is probably best to give it a pass.) Frugality being my watchword, I comb the daily sales on Amazon before buying a Kindle version of a cookbook. And I borrow cookbooks from the library before I buy. Tonight I will pass on links to some cookbooks for the Instant Pot that I really like and hope that you will share your favorites, as well.
In order not to infringe on any copyrights, I won’t copy any recipes from the books I list here — but the authors have blogs so you can look for some of their recipes there and get a sense as to whether you would like their books.
When I started looking for recipes, the first place I went to was the Instant Pot company website. There are recipes there as well as cookbook recommendations and a really useful cooking time chart that I use all the time. It was on this website that I found a reference to the first book I liked, Instant Pot Electric Pressure Cooker Cookbook: Easy Recipes for Fast & Healthy Meals by Laura Randolph. Recipes I enjoyed making include Quick Chicken Tikka Masala and Steamed Fish and Veggies. This is a pretty good starter book. But there are others I have since turned to more often.
Meredith Laurence
One author who writes good books for someone learning how to use an electric pressure cooker is the woman known as the Blue Jean Chef, Meredith Laurence. Here is her blog so you can check out some of her work. Her books for the Instant Pot include:
Comfortable Under Pressure: Pressure Cooker Meals, Instant Pot ™ Recipes, Tips, and Explanations: Pressure Cooker Meals
and
Delicious Under Pressure: Over 100 Pressure Cooker and Instant Pot ™ Recipes (The Blue Jean Chef)
If you want to learn how to make good, home-cooked favorites (such as Split Pea and Ham Soup and Classic Pot Roast), this is a good place to start. This woman can teach you how to make an excellent cheesecake in several flavors, for example. Each of those books is only $.99 for Kindle at the moment — need I say more?
Melissa Clark
Melissa Clark is a food writer for the New York Times. Here is her website. She has two books out for the electric pressure cooker and they are both superb.
Dinner in an Instant: 75 Modern Recipes for Your Pressure Cooker, Multicooker, and Instant Pot®
and
Comfort in an Instant: 75 Comfort Food Recipes for Your Pressure Cooker, Multicooker, and InstantPot®
Her recipe for Moroccan Chickpeas + Kale is amazing. The diced dried apricots in it elevate this savory vegetarian recipe to something really special. We ate off this dish for the better part of a week and it only got better every day. Ditto the Garlicky Cuban Pork. A discounted pork shoulder roast (Ann and I haunt our Safeway’s Manager’s Special area of the meat department) cooked this way fed us deliciously for days. This is not exactly plain cooking — but the directions are not difficult and man, are the dishes good. Oh, and it looks like “Dinner in an Instant” is discounted at the moment...check it out.
Urvashi Pitre
The first book I got by Urvashi Pitre is for Indian cuisine:
Indian Instant Pot® Cookbook: Traditional Indian Dishes Made Easy and Fast
I think of Indian cooking as being really complex but I could follow her recipes. I made my own paneer! Palak Paneer (spinach curry with fresh cheese) is a favorite of mine and this book made it possible to make at home. I loved the Paneer Biryani (a vegetarian rice dish with fresh cheese), too. But wait! She has another book out:
Instant Pot Fast & Easy: 100 Simple and Delicious Recipes for Your Instant Pot
This one has all sorts of international recipes in it as well as American classics — I enjoyed Creamy Mushroom Chicken and Braised Brisket. She also introduces a method I hadn’t tried before — making the stew-y main dish in the bottom of the cooker while simultaneously cooking rice in a bowl placed on a trivet above. Genius!
Here is Urvashi Pitre's blog.
Michelle Fagone
Michelle Fagone is part of the Paleo recipe scene — if you are looking to cut carbs or eat a gluten free diet, her work is a good place to look for recipes. Her blog is called "Cave-girl Cuisine". She has a number of Instant Pot books out at the moment but the only one I have is:
The I Love My Instant Pot® Recipe Book: From Trail Mix Oatmeal to Mongolian Beef BBQ, 175 Easy and Delicious Recipes
Her Hawaiian Pulled Pork is something I will make again — as are any number of her chicken recipes such as Chicken Marinara and Zucchini. I did find that her Simple Whole Chicken recipe took more time than was called for (and I was cooking a larger bird than what was called for — but it was no problem to put it back under pressure until done). It also produced the bonus of some excellent chicken broth that jellied in the fridge like aspic. Aces!
Note: The Pumpkin Cheesecake recipe in this book is really good!
Other Books of Interest that I am still checking out...
Better Homes and Gardens Fast or Slow: Delicious Meals for Slow Cookers, Pressure Cookers, or Multi Cookers (Better Homes and Gardens Cooking)
This looks to be just plain dependable, as you would expect a Better Homes and Gardens book to be. It was on sale the day I bought it so it was a no brainer acquisition.
Currently, I am exploring a new book by a nutritionist:
The Fresh and Healthy Instant Pot Cookbook: 75 Easy Recipes for Light Meals to Make in Your Electric Pressure Cooker by Megan Gilmore. All I can say so far is that the Orange Chicken & Vegetables was absolutely wonderful. It bodes well for the rest of the book...
And now, a recipe of my own:
Sara’s Steel Cut Oatmeal
1 cup steel cut oatmeal
1.75 cups water
1 apple or pear, peeled, cored, and chopped
a handful of slivered almonds (or other nuts of your choice)
a handful of raisins or dried cranberries
salt to taste (let’s face it, oatmeal without any salt is just gross. I use about ¼ tsp.)
a generous shake of cinnamon over it all (If I am using pear rather than apple I also include a pinch of cardamom)
Close the Instant Pot. Bring to high pressure for 10 minutes. Quick release the pressure, stir, and enjoy!
I make this two or three times a week, Ann and I like it so much. Leftovers are easily microwaved.
Please share your recipe discoveries for this marvelous machine! And come in, be comfortable, and chat with friends. Share your day, your weekend plans, your menus! This is an open thread.