Instant Pot Recipes for Beginners

The Instant Pot is a popular electric pressure cooker that has won over dedicated fans with its ability to cut long cook times in half and make hands-on meals hands-off. The gadget cooks food by building up pressure inside the pot, lowering the boiling point and cooking food faster. They’re energy efficient, quiet, and won’t heat up your kitchen since almost no steam escapes during the pressure-cooking process.

In addition to pressure cooking, the Instant Pot has a sauté setting that functions like an electric cooktop, a slow cooker setting, yogurt making setting, and a number of pre-set functions. Most recipes for the device utilize the pressure cooking function, often in conjunction with the sauté function, allowing for one pot cooking.

Since the Instant Pot utilizes a moist cooking environment, it’s best for dishes that cook in liquid or recipes that use a steaming method:

• Tough meat: The pot can effectively simulate long braises in a fraction of the time. This means tough pieces of meat that cook in a little liquid like brisket, pork shoulder, and oxtails are prime candidates for pressure cooking.
• Dried beans, grains, and soups: Dishes that call for boiling or simmering, especially with longer cook times, are also good Instant Pot dishes. Think beans, grains, stocks, soups, and stews. Note that you’ll use less liquid compared to cooking on the stovetop since almost no water evaporates.
• Eggs, fish, and cheesecake: The Instant Pot is also an expert steamer. Simply add water or other liquid to the pot and top it with the included rack to steam hearty veggies, fish, eggs, and even cheesecake. Keep a close eye on the cook time when steaming, since it can be easy to over-cook in the pot.

You simply won’t get crispy food out of the Instant Pot so adjust your expectations accordingly. While you won’t save much time making recipes with shorter cook times, like pastas and chicken, it does free up your stove and your hands for side dishes. For recipes with longer cook times, pressure cooking can cut the time in half. Tender dried beans in about an hour with no soaking required? Yes, please.

If you’re just getting started with your pot, don’t skip reading the manual and take a minute to read up on this first timers guide. Perform a water test to make sure it’s working properly and to start getting comfortable with the buttons, then try one of the easy recipes below. Dried beans, stock, and rice are all great places to start since they only use the pressure setting, while the other recipes in this list are easy enough for beginners and will open your eyes to the possibilities of the Instant Pot.