I originally wrote this post a number of years ago but the information on the Instant Pot still rings true but some of the facts don’t:
- I have been using an Instant Pot for many more than a couple of years. Definitely more than 10.
- Sadly, Bobby Anderson no longer driving a truck or talking about the Instant Pot but I do hope that he is still eating well.
- Since the original post, I wrote my cookbook Vegan Under Pressure which many in the whole food plant-based world, call their Instant Pot Bible. It contains cooking charts similar to those in the New Fast Food and the cooking directions have been simplified to use easily with the Instant Pot or any other electric pressure cooker like the Mealthy or Zavor.
I have been using the Instant Pot for more than a decade now. It’s a wonderful electric pressure cooker. You can create beautiful dishes like this one for black beans in almost no time. How about 6 minutes at pressure for soaked black beans? Wow.
The Instant Pot received a lot of press when Plant-Fueled Trucker Bobby Andersen Plant-Fueled Trucker Bobby Andersen was on the Today Show. Bobby has been using my book The New Fast Food (which comes in paperback and a downloadable ebook) for quite some time. I am thrilled that he is spreading the plant-based message. As I say, “If trucker Bobby Andersen can eat healthfully while on the road, you have no excuses.” (You can still make them up but the won’t stick for me.)
Over the years the Instant Pot has grown in popularity and is now a common appliance in many kitchens but it can be a little overwhelming. The Instant Pot can cook so many things but the timing may be different than you are used to with other cooking tools.
The timing charts in my book The New Fast Food are just right for the Instant Pot even though the book was written for the stove top cooker. So they offer a great place to get started. And, of course, Vegan Under Pressure has timing charts, too.
If you are on Facebook and want to learn more, please join my group Instant Pot Beginners Veg Support. We love to help people. (I must thank my wonderful admins Toni Kulma, LaJuana Dunn and Linda Schmid Geigle.)
If you would like a complete review of how to cook beans from scratch, you can purchase this video download. Or you can check out my You Tube videos.
In this video, I am using the Instant Pot to make an easy beans and greens dish.
Need more information about the Instant Pot?
Over the years I have become an expert on using the Instant Pot and have lots of resources to help you feel confident in your kitchen. Here are some of my favorites:
Time Saving Tips and Tricks for the Instant Pot
Adjusting Pressure Cooker Times
Instant Pot Liquid Myth
When Your Instant Pot Reads On
Also, be sure to check out my books:
The New Fast Food
Vegan Under Pressure
And visit my YouTube channel.
Join me on Facebook at Instant Pot Beginners Veg Support. We love to help you.
I believe in using a pressure cooker for making great tasting food fast. I hope that you will join me as we move forward to improve our health and the health of the planet by using a sustainable method of cooking.L
Thank you so much.
I got my instant pot recently and have started experimenting with it. Got a lot of tips from your blog and YouTube videos before I started cooking with it. Most of the stuff I cooked turned out really delicious and no major disasters so far. Thanks for your help and guidance with all the useful info.
I am always happy to help Samantha. Keep on cooking.
We saw you at Seven Springs Mother Earth News Fair yesterday. I made beans stacked with polenta in my Instant pot. My husband, who is a real meat lover, loved this meatless dish. It was so good and easy, too.
Thank you so much for letting me know this Kathy.
I hope that you continue to make many great meat-free meals for your meat loving husband.
I appreciate your coming to see me in Seven Springs.
Just got my INstant Pot a few weeks ago and it’s been going non-stop. Love it. I am a long-time pressure cooker person (Kuhn Rikon) but that’s been sitting on the shelf since the IP arrives, and will probably languish there.
Somewhere, probably on this site, I saw directions and times for cooking left-over vegetable scraps to make veg. broth. Do you have the specs that give a non-bitter or too strong veg. broth to use in other recipes?
Thanks.
Judith,
I am so happy to hear that you, too, have fallen in love with cooking in your Instant Pot.
I have some posts of making stock but you might be talking about my You Tube video which is here
I leave out cruciferous vegetables as they tend to make stock stinky and bitter. I usually use onions, celery, carrots, garlic, leeks, and many other vegetable scraps and herb stems.
I hope that this helps.
Jill,
Thanks for your reply. My experience has been that it’s not the cruciferous vegetables that cause the bitterness, but 1) using too many veg. scraps for the amount of water (i.e., too concentrated), boiling too hard and too long, and allowing the vegetables to remain too long in the broth before straining. I guess all of these boil down to an overly-concentrated broth. In the regular pot cooked broth, I find it best to bring the cold pot to a boil, turn off everything, and let it steep 10 minutes before straining. In the Instant Pot, I put it on Manual (valve closed of course), high pressure, for 1 minute. Let pressure come down manually, open and strain out vegetables. The presence or absence of brussel sprout leaves/ends, broccoli stalks etc, does not create a bitter taste. Due to individual taste sensitivities, of course, others could have a different opinion.
I think that issues are mostly due to taste. 5 minutes at pressure is a short time.
Thank you.
I want to know hnow to make soups and main dishes besides salad that are vegetarian, high density nutrition, low densitycalories and good tasting. I have duo60 Fagor multi cooker and FIssler vita 10.6 stovetop pressur cooker. Please give me ideas
Wayne,
Look in my book under soups and choose those with lots of veggies. All dishes with many vegetables will work.
Also, take a look a my You Tube videos for the ones such as curried cauliflower which is very low in calories.
Good luck on your journey.