Instapot? Is it the kitchen saviour it proclaims to be? ve?

[cantthinkofathing]

AIbu to think everyone has one? Should I buy one? It there anything better? Is it as amazing as everyone says???

Is Instapot better than other multi cookers? You can't get them here in Australia, and I want to know if they are very different!!!

YES.
We cooked an entire Christmas dinner in an hour.
We made a lovely Thai curry last night with chicken in 30 minutes.
A SERIOUS life changer.

It's amazing.

I find myself evangelising about and hate myself a little. It is amazing though

Meatballs in tomato sauce with spaghetti in 8 minutes!

we are a small family (2 adults one dc) is the 6 L instapot sold in the UK too big for us? That's what happened with our slowcooker...

I really want one but I'm worried it's too big!

I can make a Thai curry last night with chicken in 20 minutes, and meatballs in tomato sauce in 8minutes already, just on the stovetop, so that's not a selling point.
Can you tell me more about your Christmas dinner please huha? What dishes did you make?

Really? Your chicken is fully cooked from raw in just 20 min on the stove? and you can cook raw meatballs and pasta in 8 min on the stove?! Pasta itself takes 10!

Christmas Day we had a 2.5kg turkey breast, roast potatoes (in the air fryer), and veg. Turkey and veg took 20 min from frozen and raw to cooked. Potatoes took 25 min. DH faffing with Brussels took the longest.

It's not on the stove, it's basically an electric pressure cooker so it will reduce the time taken to cook stuff

It’s crap as a slow cooker though.

It’s crap as a slow cooker though.

Mine isn't.

Can anyone give a basic overview? Does it have separate compartments for all the components of your dinner?

It's an electric pressure cooker, it is not the second coming.

When I got mine ( over a year ago) I was worried it would be a sandwich toaster, used twice then put at the back of the cupboard. It definitely is not a sandwich toaster and is still in regular use. It is a really useful piece of kit.

It is great for anything soupy, stewy or steaming, basically anything that needs 'wet' heat. It also does really good boiled and poached eggs, cheesecakes, creme caramels.

It will not crisp your roast potatoes or turkey, you'll still need an oven or grill (dry heat) for that.

So do you just use it like a slow cooker where you stick all the ingredients in and off it goes?

How do things taste? I'm always disappointed with anything from the slow cooker. Yes it's tender but always seems bland compared to doing it the long way - is it similar?

Cookie it’s slightly more Complicated than that. I thought that at first and it kept overheating. You have to be a bit more careful about the timings you add the ingredients, dairy should be added after pressure cooking.
I love that you can sauté first in it unlike most slow cookers where you have to sauté separately in a pan.

Your chicken is fully cooked from raw in just 20 min on the stove?

Why is that so unbelievable?

We eat a lot of pulses and I love cooking them in my IP because they don't need presoaking. Dh used it to parboil the roast potatoes which freed up the jobs for other foods at Christmas.

It really depends on what you want it for, and what foods you eat. I use mine at least four times a week, sometimes twice a day. (I even bought a second pan for it so I can do a curry and rice.in one evening without scrubbing the pot)

My eldest child is very fussy with textures of food, especially anything chewy. My instant pot will cook diced beef in half an hour to the point that it's tender and starting to fall apart. Ds1 will eat it with a lot less fuss.
I like it because my favourite curry recipe takes two hours in the oven, but 30 minutes in the instant pot. I don't have to think so far ahead.
Cooks rice well, soup, mashed potato etc. Just wish it didn't tweedle when I take the lid on and off!

I hated my slow cooker. Everything tasted the same and had no depth of flavour
Love the instant pot because it improves the flavour of food. It must be the pressure. A curry cooked in 12 minutes tastes like it's been cooking for hours
I like that food can be browned
It cooks very even too. Potatoes are veryfluffy

@DoraChance If you cook something in the oven the liquids tend to evaporate so the flavours get concentrated, in a slow cooker or pressure cooker that doesn't happen so you need a different technique. Browning before you start really helps as does reducing the sauce at the end.

I couldn't get on with the instapot and don't know what the fuss is about. It's unwieldily and the lid was a bloody nightmare to get on every single time. And everything tastes the same.

Can someone link to good one they own?

Would you buy one if you already use a pressure cooker?

I decided to get an IP and then couldn't find anywhere to buy one...

It's all right. It's handy having a pressure cooker as I didn't have one before and the electric one is handier than my DM's old pressure cooker but otherwise I'm a bit meh...