Instant Pot Review
I hemmed and hawed before buying an Instant Pot a few months ago. The selling point was a vision I had of coming home from work with arms full and a full night of baby wrangling ahead of me. I could dump, set and forget dinner, play with C, and be rewarded with a delicious healthy meal 15-20 minutes later.
The result has… not been that.
There’s a decent learning curve that I’ll admit I’m not fully past yet. First time pressure cooking is scary and the directions are in depth and detailed. This also means my secondary goal of purchase--having Ben use it to easily cook some fast family meals--was not a great option.
Recipes are also very specific, from cook time to steam release method. Similar to a slow cooker, but even more so, I feel like I have to follow a recipe exactly and have no confidence in creating my own. This takes more of my time because the meal prepping and measuring involved is more than I usually do in my regular cooking.
Also, where are those dump, set and forget recipes? They may exist but the recipes I’ve been attracted to aren’t that. Recipes can involve a sauté step, pressure cook step, open and dump more stuff in then close and cook more step, special directions for timed steam release step. All of this you can do in the Instant Pot, mind you, but a total hands off option this is not.
Then there’s the time factor. I assumed pressure cooking would drastically speed up meal making but even recipes that boast short cook times don’t clarify it takes 5-10 minutes for the pot to warm up to temp plus your cook time and sometimes 10+ minutes for a slow steam release. Long grain rice (more to come on that) takes 42 minutes in the pot, which is too similar to stove top cooking timing to be a valued time saver.
I’ve also found many recipes are the same color as slow cooker recipes--Casserole-y Beige. Maybe this is a weird complaint to add but my beef (hey-o pun!) with that is creamy, brown colored meals are full of creamy and brown colored ingredients, often not veggies.
So that’s a whole lotta negative Instant Pot talk. How about some good things?
It makes rice and quinoa like a damn champion. It’s fluffy as all get out, and these are simple dump, set and forget recipes. No simmering, stirring, pot overflow, burning, etc. I love making a big batch of brown rice on the weekend for lunches or dinners throughout the week.
I made a chili garlic noodle meal once that was good but not amazing. I’ve made a realllllly good Indian butter chicken type recipe that Ben and I gobbled up and will keep on repeat. I have a few Casserole-y Brown things saved on Pinterest that have piqued my interest. I’m thinking this Fall I may be more into the heavier and longer cooking beef and soup recipes.
The Instant Pot is not the game changer I was looking for. I’d buy it again if I were in the market for a rice cooker, electric stove option, if I were cooking averse or more of a recipe follower vs impromptu creator. Had I known what I know now, though, I would have pulled out my slower cooker, hunted for some new recipes and dusted off my 8-hour at work prayer my house won't be on fire when I return home.
The result has… not been that.
There’s a decent learning curve that I’ll admit I’m not fully past yet. First time pressure cooking is scary and the directions are in depth and detailed. This also means my secondary goal of purchase--having Ben use it to easily cook some fast family meals--was not a great option.
Recipes are also very specific, from cook time to steam release method. Similar to a slow cooker, but even more so, I feel like I have to follow a recipe exactly and have no confidence in creating my own. This takes more of my time because the meal prepping and measuring involved is more than I usually do in my regular cooking.
Also, where are those dump, set and forget recipes? They may exist but the recipes I’ve been attracted to aren’t that. Recipes can involve a sauté step, pressure cook step, open and dump more stuff in then close and cook more step, special directions for timed steam release step. All of this you can do in the Instant Pot, mind you, but a total hands off option this is not.
Then there’s the time factor. I assumed pressure cooking would drastically speed up meal making but even recipes that boast short cook times don’t clarify it takes 5-10 minutes for the pot to warm up to temp plus your cook time and sometimes 10+ minutes for a slow steam release. Long grain rice (more to come on that) takes 42 minutes in the pot, which is too similar to stove top cooking timing to be a valued time saver.
I’ve also found many recipes are the same color as slow cooker recipes--Casserole-y Beige. Maybe this is a weird complaint to add but my beef (hey-o pun!) with that is creamy, brown colored meals are full of creamy and brown colored ingredients, often not veggies.
So that’s a whole lotta negative Instant Pot talk. How about some good things?
It makes rice and quinoa like a damn champion. It’s fluffy as all get out, and these are simple dump, set and forget recipes. No simmering, stirring, pot overflow, burning, etc. I love making a big batch of brown rice on the weekend for lunches or dinners throughout the week.
I made a chili garlic noodle meal once that was good but not amazing. I’ve made a realllllly good Indian butter chicken type recipe that Ben and I gobbled up and will keep on repeat. I have a few Casserole-y Brown things saved on Pinterest that have piqued my interest. I’m thinking this Fall I may be more into the heavier and longer cooking beef and soup recipes.
The Instant Pot is not the game changer I was looking for. I’d buy it again if I were in the market for a rice cooker, electric stove option, if I were cooking averse or more of a recipe follower vs impromptu creator. Had I known what I know now, though, I would have pulled out my slower cooker, hunted for some new recipes and dusted off my 8-hour at work prayer my house won't be on fire when I return home.