I've Pretty Much Eaten Every Single Meal Out of My Instant Pot For a Year, and Here's What I Know

Updated on 12/9/2018 at 2:00 PM

POPSUGAR Photography | Murphy Moroney

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As someone whose mom grew up making tons of soups and casseroles in a Crock-Pot, I knew as soon as the Instant Pot ($60) — a pressure cooker that supposedly cuts cooking time in half — came out that I absolutely needed one. Fortunately, my mother-in-law got me one last year for Christmas, and I've been experimenting with recipes from pork pho (pictured) to sweet potato crostinis (below) ever since.

Although this pressure cooker is a bit bulky for my small apartment kitchen, it has truly revolutionized meal prep for me. Since you can do everything from sauté to roast in the metal bowl, only one pot needs washing when you're done. (Hooray!) Another bonus? Some dishes that used to take eight-plus hours in my Crock-Pot now take an hour or less. As a person who often leaves the "what are we having for dinner?" discussion to the last possible second, this is a major win.

Despite the fact I would do anything for my Instant Pot — I practically sleep with it — using the various buttons and settings takes some getting used to. Fortunately, after a year of cooking in my beloved invention, I can finally offer up some tips for Instant Pot newbies. Here's what I've learned so far in my culinary journey.

Instant Pot

From

$60

Read the damn manual that comes with it.

I'm the last person on the planet earth to read the instructions for anything. Why? Because I'm Irish and stubborn and always assume I can just figure things out on my own. And while you can get away with it sometimes (like when you're assembling furniture), you're going to want to read the instructional packet cover to cover. Not only does it have some good recipe ideas, but it's chock-full of ways to use your Instant Pot that might not necessarily be intuitive for Crock-Pot converts. I know more than a few people who've used it without fully understanding how it works, and let's just say it was a disaster.

Make sure you're using all the buttons correctly.

One of the most overwhelming parts of breaking out your brand-new Instant Pot is figuring out what all the buttons and settings do. There are loads of options on the front of your handy device that do everything from bean/chili to meat/stew to porridge (whatever that is!). While this definitely seems straightforward in the beginning, what happens if you're making a meat chili?! Usually, recipes specifically made for Instant Pot will give you the right setting off the bat, but otherwise, I tend to lean toward the meat/stew option when I'm making a big batch of soup.

You can't go from one cook setting to another.

If you switch your pressure cooker to sauté, for example, you have to hit the OFF button before putting it on another setting. And nope, that definitely wasn't intuitive to me. It's a bit of a pain at first, but you'll eventually get used to it.

The steam is definitely a lot on your first go.

Although watching the steam escape your Instant Pot is oddly soothing, the stream is surprisingly strong. I literally thought my apartment was going to turn into a full-on sauna the first time I released the pressure knob. Try placing your Instant Pot away from any cabinets, so the moisture doesn't blast right into them. It also doesn't hurt to open a window!

Go easy on how much liquid you put in.

I cannot stress this enough! As a two-time chili competition winner, I had grown accustomed to putting extra homemade stock in when cooking on the stove top. Do not do this in your Instant Pot! It doesn't lose moisture quite like when you're cooking on the burner. I learned this the hard way after opening my Instant Pot when my fiancé said, "Next time, we shouldn't use both containers of stock! It's watery." To which I replied, "Yeah, I didn't!" Then silence. You live, you learn, right?

The cook time for certain ingredients takes some getting used to.

If you're cooking a chicken soup, the instructions often advise sautéing the meat first before even touching the vegetables. Why? Because thanks to the pressure, veggies cook insanely quickly. You know what else cooks super fast? Any type of starch. While this factoid isn't exactly groundbreaking, I made the mistake of adding rice to my soup about 10 minutes too early, only to lift the lid to discover I was left with a heaping pile of rice and vegetables with no broth in sight. The lesson? Add your carbs at the very end. Like the VERY end. They really don't need long.