[Product Review] Why you need to buy the Instant Pot

Before I begin, this is not a sponsored post but I would love to be the Instant Pot brand ambassador because I truly love it.

I had my Instant Pot for a year now, and the electric pressure has been life changing. My Instant Pot is still in pristine condition and is a kitchen appliance I use every single week (read about my first impressions). Recently, it seems like more and more people I know want one, or are starting to hear about it. Even several of my family members now have one! I feel a little intimidated using a stove top pressure cooker, but I feel otherwise with the Instant Pot.

So what makes the appliance “a must have” in every household? I narrowed it down to 5 main reasons:

1. Convenience! I use my Instant Pot most often for stock. I can throw a bunch of ingredients in the pressure cooker, set the pressure level and time on the machine, and forget about it until it is ready.

2. Saves time! According to Instantpot.com, “It speeds up cooking by 2~6 times using up to 70% less energy…“. While the food is cooking inside, my hands are free to cook another dish. I can make pasta with a marinara sauce in less than 20 minutes without pre-cooking the pasta first. Many of my stews take less than an hour to cook, rather than hours on the stove top.

3. Flavours of the food! Nutrients are preserved and flavours are maximized. There were lots of nutritious meals made in my household with the help of the Instant Pot.

4. Makes selective foods better and quicker than using other kitchen appliances. Okay, my Instant Pot isn’t going to replace my cast iron pan, wok, grill or oven, but I prefer to use my Instant Pot for cooking selective dishes or ingredients including:

Risotto: I can get creamy risotto in 20 minutes rather than more than double the time on the stove top.
Potatoes: It makes perfect “just done” potatoes in 7 minutes under high pressure that I like to use for potato salads.
Beets: Whole beets become soft in about 30 mins.
Brown rice: I have cooked brown rice in my rice cooker and the stove top, and the Instant Pot cooked it best in less time. It came out fluffy .
Stocks and stews: Most of the time I cook the stocks or stews in about an hour, rather than several hours on the stove top.
Beans: Dried beans and lentils do not need to be pre-soaked before cooking them.

5. It is reasonably priced! In Canada, the Instant Pot can be purchased from Best Buy or Amazon.ca or Amazon.com. The Instant Pot IP-DUO60 7-in-1 Programmable Pressure Cooker, 6qt/1000W is typically less than $200 Canadian including tax. If you can wait to buy it during Amazon’s prime days as a prime member, I have seen the same model for less than $100 Canadian.

Plus, the Instant Pot is Canadian created from an Ottawa engineer named Robert Wang, who is the CEO of Double Insight, the company that created Instant Pot.

With a community of Instant Pot users on the internet, there are tons of recipes at your fingertips and support.

Brown rice congee with pork

Here are my top favourite recipes using the Instant Pot:

Pressure cooker fish stock

Simple Fish Stock

Cantonese beef stew

Cantonese beef stew

Risotto with spot prawns

Risotto with spot prawns

One of the challenges is knowing how much time to cook everything for. I haven’t used my Instant Pot as a slow cooker, and typically use the manual mode.

Here is my timing guide for selective ingredients:

* The timing is based on the Instant Pot Recipe Book (2nd edition)

Red kidney beans: 25-30 mins (dry), 20-25 mins (soaked)
Green lentils: 15-20 mins
Oxtail : 40-50 mins
Pork ribs: 20-25 mins
Chicken whole: 25-30 mins
Beets large whole: 20-25 mins
Carrots whole: 2-3 mins
Potatoes in cubes: 7-9 mins
Butternut squash chunks: 8-10 mins
Sweet potato (whole) small: 10-12 mins
Apples whole: 3-4 mins

And last, I leave you with the Instant Pot buying guide. This infographic will explain all major features of Instant Pot to guide you to buy the right one for yourself. I know the stats are based on the US, but it is great to hear its popularity south of the border.

If you ever have questions about the Instant Pot or want to share one of your recipes with me, I would love to hear from you. Head to my work with me section.