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???

I love mine, got it from Costco in October. I use it a few times a week, especially for soups and stews. I did a whole chicken in it today, and now making broth from the bones. I love how it seals in flavours, it is like the opposite of the flavour you get from a slow cooker.

I made the most amazing stroganoff in it!

Do Costco in the UK have this?
www.instacart.com/costco/products/3081343-herdez-medium-guacamole-salsa-15-7-oz

We buy them in a three pack from Costco. DS LOVES chicken thighs and onions cooked in the IP with this salsa. Really easy meal!

There are some great Facebook groups for recipes, the best UK one I've found is sammies pressure king pro group.

Recipes for the pkp work in the instant pot too.

Ive not seen the guac in costco near me, but if you call your local warehouse they are usually good about telling me if they have things in stock

I have an Instant Pot, have had it for at least 6 months. I WANT to love it but I've never actually used it apart from doing the water test when I first got it. As well as being a little intimidated by it, I'm worried I'll fail on the first recipe and then hate it.
Much better to just not use it

I think I need some of these curry recipes mentioned on this thread! Anything I know has been tried and loved I'm willing to give a go. Help me love my pot

I think I'm going to get the Heston Sage version, I have some Lakeland vouchers to put towards it and it seems to do everything the instant pot does. 🙂

8 minute meatballs? Rubbish tbh.

I fry the meatballs separately, a separate pan for the pasta, and then it takes an hour for the sauce in the instant pot (that's including frying the veg, 40 minutes pressure cooking, plus cooling down and heating up time)

I mean it's still better than 4 hours on the hob, but 8 minute spaghetti and meatballs will be shit and I don't even now how you could do it, as it takes quite a considerable time to reach temperature (esp. as the pot is only around 1200W, which is much less than a gas hob puts out)

@SpareASquare

Go in Pinterest. TONS of ideas. We made homemade chicken soup and ugh frozen chicken breast tonight in 30 min.

8 minute meatballs is if you use readymade meatballs and a jar of sauce, then you can throw it all in together. I've done it a couple of times when I've been short of time.

Are you making a full pot of sauce? I don't think anything I've made has taken that long to come to pressure and the only thing I cook for that long is pork belly.

Instant pot on Amazon if you have £600+ to spare!

Can anyone confirm what PP said about the slow cooker settings - the manual says that the 3 settings correspond to low, medium, high. Is this not correct? So the low is actually keep warm, medium is low and high is high? I've barely used the slow cooker function as I can't figure out how to use normal slow cooker recipes and the timings

I don't have mine with me right now, but I made the most fantastic roast tomato soup in it (secret was a dash of balsamic, and roasting the toms first) and it's the only sensible way to make and kind of chinese twice-cooked pork (basically the ones that end up having you in the kitchen boiling pork for hours), or really, anything else that you generally have to leave sitting on the stove for any amount of time.

I've got a cheap copy version as I'm in NZ and I don't think you can get the instapot here. And everything is fecking overpriced

I prefer the electric pressure cooker but my whole chicken came out under cooked. Some stuff hasn't been as well flavoured as I'd like.

I joined an American facebook group which doesn't quite suit me. Can anyone recommend some more?

It make sense Acorncat I've had to do most meat on high to get it tender and occasionally had to put it up to pressure for 15 mins at the end when medium on my old slow cooker did the job.

I adore mine, it gets used daily pretty much for rice, stews, bolognaise, chilli, soups, grains, porridge, mash, lentils/grains and plenty more. I couldn't be without it. Everything tastes lovely, you just need the right amount of liquid.

Can any one recommend a vegetarian cookery book for the instant pot?

for slow cooking I only use the normal or high...the low setting is just too slow imo!

I'd say the low setting is like the first slowcookers where is was all day 12 hours to cook anything and then normal and high is more like the faster slow cookers

Normal would be happy to leave that going for 6-8 hours and high is more like fuck!! it's half two and I meant to put that chicken casserole on for tonight.......

Also iirc the time is preset to 4 hours no matter what setting you choose, but you just adjust it to what you want.

Cannot remember which way around it is, but I have both +/- and more/less buttons on mine, one does the time the other does the temperature (or pressure if you are pressuring)

For me, the great advantage of it isn't one function or another. It's the capacity to switch BETWEEN functions. So you can go from hot saute to slow cooking, or from saute to pressure. It means that you can get a lot of flavour out of a dish that is literally one pot. You can also have some serious temperature control for sous vide stuff. I am hoping to explore this in more depth this year! Right now, though, I am without a kitchen - haven't had one since October - and my instant pot has been an absolute lifesaver.

I need to learn to love my pkp.

I've made beef stews in about 40 minutes which were yummy but I've not tried anything else!

Ooh - I made soup which was lovely but I blended it in the pot which has scratched it a bit 😢

I'm doing Slimming World so quick stuff that fits plan would be good!

There's a UK group as well

I have a halogen oven, a pressure cooker which I use on my gas hob and a good microwave. Those three give me full control, fast cooking and easy washing up - also a remarkably low energy bill. They cost in total for all three - around £150

How would an Instapot be an improvement?

I've got one & I love it. The main reason we bought it as we are shit taking frozen meat out of the freezer in time to defrost for tea. We get our meat in bulk from Costco. You can cook all meats from frozen in it.

I love my IP. Veggie household, dried chickpeas to edible ones in 30 min... Has saved me so much on tins I reckon it's really justified the initial cost. Use a lot for other pulses, ratatouille, brown rice, chillis, soup, risotto, stews with things like sweet potato that take an age on the stove top, lentil ragu, do overnight porridge with apple and raisins for the kids etc etc. Occasionally done slow cooker veggie recipes in it too. I would grab it to take with me if the house was on fire. I love that it is so quiet compared to my old stove top pc and a doddle to clean.

I’ve had my Instant Pot for a couple of years. As with any gadget I have, I use it a lot, then stop, then start up again.

I’ve used it loads in the holidays - to make soups, and it is brilliant for making stock from bones.

As for timings, they are a bit longer than you think as the clock doesn’t tick down until it’s up to pressure.

I haven’t been particularly adventurous with mine, but everything I have made has been good.

Pinterest has loads of ideas.