To evangelise about my new Instantpot

[NorthStarGrassman]

I know I am, because there have definitely been other threads doing the same thing, but DH and the kids are just looking at me blankly and I am so excited I want to tell people about it!

I’ve had it three days. First day just got it out of the box, admired its shininess, did the water test and spent hours googling incomprehensible American recipes.

Day 2 made pasta and meatballs. Stuck meatballs, pasta, water and few other bits in pot. Turned it on. 10mins later - delicious pasta dinner!

Today I had to go out for 20mins or so at tea time to pick up dd. Put sausages in oven, carrots and potatoes (separated with steamer basket) in Instant pot. Turned it on. Came back to cooked potatoes and carrots! And I don’t know if it was the steaming but they were the best mashed potatoes I’ve ever made.

I’m constantly running around depositing and collecting children at inconvenient times and having to feed them quickly. This is going to CHANGE MY LIFE. I have already spent too much money buying exciting accessories for it.

Anyone else want to come and discuss the general fabulousness of an Instant pot with me?!

My interest is growing.. Can I just take any meat out the freezer, and pop it in? With other ingredients?
How about if I make a chicken pasta bake, with frozen raw chicken? Won't the pasta be really soggy, having cooked for the same amount as the poultry?

What recipes have you all made?

I love mine!

MN made me buy it. I'm such a sheep.

Got mine a few years ago in Black Friday sale for £69.99

There's a tonne of instant pot recipes out there but I've found it's best to use your usual recipe ( but less liquids and extra spices if using ) and just google similar recipes for timings. I was on the Facebook group but it was mainly American recipes and just no...I already have diabetes and those recipes were going to give me Double Diabetes! The uk group is much much smaller but the recipes are better.

I don’t think you could chuck the frozen chicken and pasta on together, because as you say the cooking times will be very different, but you could start cooking the chicken, then open up the pot and add the other ingredients.

Or it might work with small chunks of frozen chicken - I overcooked a whole (not frozen) chicken breast in 5mins, and my pasta took 6mins. The pot takes longer to come up to pressure when it has cold things in it so that could affect timings too.

Oh I'm interested in those too. Had read about them on here and then saw one in Costco but didn't buy it. Have been kicking myself as they seem to always be oos. What make/model does everyone have? Which one would you recommend? Thank you!

I absolutely LOVE mine. Honestly I don't know how I lived without it. I highly recommend you visit twosleevers.com for amazing recipes. The woman who created it is named Urvashi Litre and she has also written two cookbooks for the Instant Pot. I own both and use them all the time. Her Now and Later Butter Chicken is soooo easy and delicious.

Just to add, follow TwoSleevers on Instagram. Urvashi is always posting great recipes.

I have a Duo. I've only used sauté and high pressure so the Lux would probably do me just as well. The Lux doesn't have a low pressure setting and no yoghurt setting (people are obsessed about instant pot yoghurt!)

Mine is the 6L Duo, also a Black Friday bargain from a couple of years ago.

The yogurt is SO easy, I make it in jam jars so no mess unless you want to strain it to make it really thick like Greek yogurt.

Tooold - the egg obsession was one of the reasons I stopped following the FB group. I think a pan of boiling water is easier.

I have Toooled. It is very weird, I mean how many boiled eggs can you eat?

Don't ignore the American recipes, a set of cups and they are all easy to follow, and lots have caloric info if you're worried about accidental diabetes.

*Tooold! Sorry!

OP perfect pasta in 10 minutes high pressure (quick release) EVERY TIME.

I have a different brand pressure cooker but so amazing! Follow feisty tapas on Facebook! She's awesome. My fav thing to do is a whole chicken in 30 mins 😍😍

Perfect rice, every time. Beans that don't boil over and no stir risotto. I have made cheesecake and no stir lemon curd but I've never boiled an egg in mine. I can see it would be useful if you wanted to do two dozen but for two I'm not going to bother (and I don't care how easy they are to peel afterwards)

I love mine too!

Use our one most days (sometimes just as a rice cooker/potato boiler for dinner) but it makes fantastic quick and healthy vegetarian curries (they have a whole Facebook group dedicated to curries too), risotto, ribs (although I put them under the grill after to crisp them up), lentil soup, etc.

Accessories - get an extra inner pot and a slow cooker lid plus some American measuring cups.

A lot of the American recipes add crazy amounts of sugar/honey but I usually just ignore this and reduce it by a lot. If you try the Mongolian beef then this a recipe where the sugar is freakishly high but it's fine to alter it.

I've had mine 18 months and love it. You did very well to do the water test on the first day-a lot of people on FB seem to have sat looking at the box for months before opening it! Toold, have you tried the zero minute chicken? It comes out super juicy. You set the time for zero, and leave it to NPR and on keep warm for 18,20 or 22 minutes depending on weight.