What do you use a pressure cooker for?

[lolalotta]

Just read something about how they cook pulses/ beans a bit quicker and was wondering of it would be any use for me ad I'm a veggie...

we use it for chilli, stews, soups, etc when we dont have much time/have forgotten to prep for the slow cooker!

We use ours for cooking dried pulses. It saves a lot of time.

I'm a bean-loving n

Sorry - I'm a bean-loving meat eater.

If we didn't eat meat I imagine we'd use it a lot.

It's great for dhal.

We are veggie and we use our pressure cooker to cook dried pulses. It really is amazing. We just soak the pulses for one hour in hot water and then cook at high pressure for around 20 mins. I then batch freeze the pulses so have some handy whenever needed. Cheaper than cans and quicker than cooking normally (used to take 1 hour plus overnight soaking). I'm yet to do other things but my mother in law uses hers all the time to cook everything!

I use mine for things like pasta sauces, beef stew, soups and chicken stock.

I have just discovered these. Amazing for stews and pulses, and give a much better texture than a slow cooker.

So how long would a beef stew take then? I only use mine for veg and soup I never thought of making stew in it.
It has two weights 10 and 15 and I never know why...! Can you tell I lost the book?

Dried pulses are much nicer than tinned too.

Thanks for the one-hour soak

Thanks for the one-hour soak tip, Driady :)

I cook lentils in mine, to make tarka dhal. And braised red cabbage done in 1/3 the time. And rice pudding and steamed sponge pudding. Mmm, pudding.

i made Delia Smith's pork belly cubes in soy sauce and it was lovely,
beef stew otherwise.

Can anyone reccomend a pressure cooker? There are 2 adults and a teenager, and we are vegetarian.

I can second the pulses, I use mine for all beans, soups and stews and I'm vegan. The best part is I can have three pots of soup made, portioned and ready to freeze in a couple of hours. I take soup every day for lunch as does 14yr old son (great way to get veggies into him). Most vegggie soups will cook on pressure in 20 minutes. I use a prestige pressure cooker, the big size think that may be 6 litres. It has lasted years but you do need to replace the rubber seal from time to time.

Mine's a WMF pressure cooker. Easy to use. Not needed to replace the seal yet as only had it a couple of years and don't use it every week.

I've got a WMF as well. Really solid and easy to use with no scary wobbly weights and hissing valves like the old types. BTW... (apologies to the veggies) stewing steak takes about 25 minutes once it's at pressure.

Thank you so much for your replies everyone!!! Are pressure cookers as scary as they sound to use? Can they explode? Gulp!

Thanks polter, how do you let the pressure drop naturally then?