1. It’s good for a procrastinator like me. You may think that because I cooked in my slow cooker every day for a year I was good about planning meals ahead of time. You’re wrong. I’m so bad at it. I’ve never gotten into a good pattern of meal planning or grocery shopping. I am the kind of person who flies by the seat of her pants most days. This does not bode well for dinner time. Oh crap it’s 5:30 pm, what should we have for dinner?! Because I have so many slow cooker recipes in my back pocket that I love I am able to transform them into Instant Pot recipes. Instead of waiting for 4-8 hours for them to be done I can be eating dinner in less than an hour. That’s good for a person like me who doesn’t think ahead. If you’re like me and don’t love meal planning check out my Instant Pot/Slow Cooker Meal Plan for a Month.
2. The saute function. When I first started using my slow cooker I was totally annoyed when I read a recipe that called for browning or sauteing. Oh, the extra step and the extra pan would just put me over the edge. Consequently I would usually skip the step and add the raw onion straight to the crock instead of sauteing it first. This sometimes worked out okay but more often than not the meal would be mediocre and not have the depth of flavor that it could have had. Now with the Instant Pot I can easily turn on the saute function and melt a little butter and saute some chopped onion without getting an extra pan dirty. It’s so convenient for so many recipes! For example I used the saute function to brown the ground turkey in this Instant Pot Creamy Turkey Penne recipe.
3. It’s a set-it-and-forget-it method of cooking. The reason I love my slow cooker so much is that it is an easy, hands off method of cooking. I am not fond of standing around the stove babysitting a pan or a pot. I am fond of throwing stuff in a pot and walking away. So the Instant Pot can provide that for me. I love putting everything in the pot and then cleaning up dishes, setting the table, throwing some laundry in the washing machine and then coming back to a cooked dinner. It’s a blessing! If you’re like me you’ll probably like these 20 Dump and Go Instant Pot/Slow Cooker Recipes.
4. You can use it for more than just dinner. I use my Instant Pot* almost weekly to make yogurt. I am in love with making greek yogurt at home. I can make a huge amount of yogurt for only $2.00. It’s so worth it for me since a large carton of Greek yogurt is $6 these days! I have also used it to make grains for breakfast. Like steel cut oatmeal or even regular oatmealand 1 minute quinoa is made weekly at our house. I’ve even had luck making a breakfast casserole in it. Oh and don’t forget the most popular hard boiled eggs!
5. You can cook from frozen. If you read #1 above you know that I’m a procrastinator/not a planner. Therefore I usually have not thawed my meat. Don’t worry there are many ways you can use meat straight out of your freezer in the Instant Pot. For example, I cooked this frozen whole chicken in my Instant Pot.If you’re like me you might also like these 3 ingredient lime chicken tacos from frozen chicken breastsor this forgot-to-defrost Doritos taco salad or this 5-Ingredient Pot Roast from frozen.
What other reasons do you love your Instant Pot? I’d love to know how you use it. Don’t have an Instant Pot? You can buy one easily on Amazon* and have it shipped straight to your home. Before you start using it you may want to print off this step by step guide to getting started and 10 Instant Pot Recipes for Beginners. Good luck!!!
You might also like…
5 Ways to Use Your Instant Pot Today to Save Time All Week
5 Things Not To Do With Your Instant Pot
What Pressure Cooker Do You Use?
I use a 6 quartInstant Pot Duo 60 7 in 1*. I love this Instant Pot because it has the yogurt making function which I use almost weekly. It has two pressure settings (high and low), and there are also little slots in the handles so that you can rest the lid there instead of putting it down on your counter-top.
Want tried and true Instant Pot recipes?
The 365 Days of Slow and Pressure Cooking website has 3-4 new Instant Pot recipes a week! If you sign up for my emails (fill out the form below) you’ll receive an email each time something new is on the site. You can also join the 365 Days of Instant Pot Recipes Facebook group which is run by my husband Greg and myself. If you’re a visual learner consider subscribing to my YouTube channel where I share Instant Pot stuff with you weekly.
*Karen Petersen is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.
Time: The pressure cooking function of the Instant Pot allows it to cook food much faster than a slow cooker. For instance, a pork shoulder in a slow cooker takes at least 6 hours on high to become shreddable. In an Instant Pot, you can have pulled pork in an hour.
Time: The pressure cooking function of the Instant Pot allows it to cook food much faster than a slow cooker. For instance, a pork shoulder in a slow cooker takes at least 6 hours on high to become shreddable. In an Instant Pot, you can have pulled pork in an hour.
Slow cookers can take less fashionable cuts of meat and really make something special. They offer the advantage of adding extra depth to your cooking. Adding red wine, herbs & spices to the slow cooker can take your dish to another level. Slow cookers are energy efficient.
The main differences between a traditional pressure cooker and an Instant Pot is that of usability, technology and safety. While pressure cookers pose a risk of an explosion, causing a mess and even injury, Instant Pots come with advanced safety features that make them much safer to use and far more user-friendly.
You can do everything in it — As the Instant Pot is an all-in-one appliance, you can pretty much do all your cooking in one pot. While most cookers require you to sauté or brown in a separate pan, the Instant Pot gives you the option to sauté your onions or brown your meat in the pot to save you time.
Is cooking in a pressure cooker healthy? Yes, cooking in a pressure cooker is healthy. Unlike a slow cooker, which cooks foods for a long time at a lower temperature, pressure cookers do use high heat when cooking - but not for a long time. This means that most of the nutrients won't be lost.
Slow cookers are much better for cooking root vegetables and tough cuts of meat because the long, low-temperature cooking process is great for adding moisture and breaking down fat. Pressure cookers can get hot enough for meats and vegetables to brown in them when cooking, but slow cookers can't.
If you want your corned beef in a fraction of the time it normally takes, I highly recommend cooking it in the Instant Pot or pressure cooker. A 3 1/2 – 4 1/2 corned beef will be perfectly tender in just 60 – 90 minutes as opposed to several hours in the slow cooker or on the stove top.
More From Good Housekeeping. Taste: For overall taste, the pressure cooker was the hands-down winner. Beef, carrots, and potatoes all retained their rich flavors. After 8 hours in the slow cooker, they emerged bland and seemed to need salt.
Can you overcook something in a slow cooker? Slow cookers are specially designed to cook food for long periods of time, but yes, you can still overcook in a slow cooker if something is left on the wrong setting for longer than it's supposed to be.
Con– It is an electronic appliance and depending on which model you have there can be “tech” problems and error messages not to mention venting issues, sealing issues, delayed timer issues and liquids spewing up out of the steam vent forcefully enough to hit the ceiling.
With stovetop cookers there's still a small risk of pushing the pressure too high and blowing the thing up, but the Instant Pot doesn't have that danger. And it also has different pressure modes, so you can set it at low pressure for things like soup and high pressure when you're in a hurry.
“Instant pot recipes are absolutely healthy as long as what you put in the recipe is healthy,” she says. The shorter cooking time may also result in the greater preservation of vitamins and minerals when compared to other longer types of cooking.
As NPR reported, sales of “electronic multicooker devices” (a large chunk of which are Instant Pots) hit $758 million in 2020. But those numbers weren't tenable. Sales in the category dropped by half by 2022, and in the first quarter of 2023, Instant Brands' sales dropped 22 percent compared to last year.
Slow cookers use less energy than a standard electric oven. The slow cooker won't heat the kitchen up the way a large oven will, a real plus on a hot summer day. A slow cooker travels well. Take it from your kitchen to the office or party.
Delivers maximum flavour through the long and slow cooking process. Tenderises meat and other ingredients and keeps the dish deliciously succulent. Easy to use, add your ingredients, set the required temperature and time, and that's it!
However, starchy foods may form acrylamide, a harmful chemical, when pressure cooked. Consumption of this chemical on a regular basis may lead to health issues like cancer, infertility, and neurological disorders.
Introduction: My name is Kimberely Baumbach CPA, I am a gorgeous, bright, charming, encouraging, zealous, lively, good person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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