Disclaimer: I did receive my Instant Pot at a reduced price in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own. I also include links to products I recommend from companies I have a referral relationship with. I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links.
Are you wondering how to use the instant pot?
Are you sitting in your kitchen looking at a slow cooker, pressure cooker, rice cooke and steamer?
Then you may have too many small appliances in your kitchen.
Instant pots handle the tasks of all those appliances plus the tasks of a sautée pan.
Instant pots give you the ideal all-in-one cooking option for you and your family allowing you to get rid of some of those small appliance and declutter your kitchen.
After all, extra countertop and cabinet space in a kitchen is always a plus!
If you have heard about people making the switch to an instant pot, but aren’t sure if this small appliance is right for you, then consider the points in this beginners guide.
PSI Conversion
One of the questions many pressure cooker users have about the instant pots is if you can truly convert psi recipes to your instant pot.
The answer is yes.
You can convert those recipes easily and create an ideal alternative to larger pressure cookers.
This is ideal if you have children in the house and are concerned about having a pressure cooker.
PSI conversion is fairly easy.
The typical pressure cooker works at 15 psi and so do many instant pots.
In the event you end up with an instant pot that only has 11 PSI, simply cook the recipes for 5 to 10 extra minutes.
Of course the time depends on if the recipe contains meat.
Be sure to check the internal temperature of the meat before eating it to make sure it is throughly cooked, especially if you are just learning how to use the instant pot or trying a brand new recipe.
Cook Multiple Ingredients In One Pot
In addition to the multiple appliances the instant pot replaces, it also cooks multiple types of food.
You can cook meats, stews, soups, rice, make homemade broth and even saute vegetables in the instant pot.
This means that you truly have a one pot meal that tastes like you cooked it in a traditional way.
In most cases, you will not have to clean between adding ingredients either.
This means you can start off with sautéing vegetables, add meat to brown, and then add the rice or pasta.
Everything has a setting so you don’t even have to worry about standing over your instant pot and timing each step.
Some recipes do require a longer cooking time thus you might have to program the instant pot several times during the cooking process but this is super easy.
Freezer Cooking Is Still Possible
There are a lot of people that use freezer cooking methods to cut down food costs and to make cooking easier.
If you do this, you might wonder how you will convert that from slow cooker and pressure cooker options to the instant pot.
This is also an easy adjustment.
All you will need to do is freeze items individually instead of premixed like you would for a Crockpot or slow cooker.
So freeze the meat, the sauce, the vegetables all in separate bags and then add them at the appropriate point in the cooking process.
While this might seem more time consuming, you can add all the individual ingredients to one large freezer bag so they do not get separated in the freezer.
A real advantage to doing this is if you need extra ingredients for another meal you can easily separate what you need, then add it back to the original meal plan later on.
This is just a quick beginner’s guide to having an instant pot.
There are many other points that you need to learn about the instant pot before you start using it.
Once you get the hang of it, you will find that it can be the ultimate multipurpose option for your kitchen and your cooking habits.
I highly recommend the following articles:
- Instant Pot Pressure Cooker Bone Broth Recipe
- Instant Pot Spaghetti Sauce
- Instant Pot Recipes
- Slow Cooker Ham with Orange Honey Sauce
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