(Inside: A lot of people are totally in love with their Instant Pot–and I now know why. These 6 Instant Pot Hacks are the key to making the Instant Pot your favorite appliance–and making you favorite meals, faster, funner, and less messy.)
First, let me say, that after I found these 6 Instant Pot Hacks, I kind of felt like a cooking genius.
I mean, who doesn’t love to dissect the best way to make stuff and be the most efficient home-chef ever?!
Yeah, I know–my nerd is showing.
But that’s ok.
Because these 6 Instant Pot Hacks are totally worth nerding-out over and really enjoying the fact that you can, indeed, have a “favorite appliance” in your kitchen.
6 Instant Pot Hacks
Double Down
It’s so easy to make a larger batch when it comes to cooking with the instant pot.
Try making a double batch of your soup, your Pot Roast or even your Beef Broccoli, and freeze the rest for later meals.
This is particularly easy with the 8-quart Instant Pot…all that extra room to make bigger batches makes for freezer-meal-nirvana.
Convert the Recipe
Using a few simple tactics like adding liquid and adjusting for the evaporation, it’s really simple to convert recipes.
Use all your favorite soup recipes that are generally cooked in your slow cooker or the stove top and cut down on the time by a lot just by converting them to cook in your instant pot.
If you need a little help, check out this 8 Hacks for Converting Slow Cooker Recipes to Instant Pot Recipes ebook.
Gluten Free, Schmuten Free
It’s so easy to make recipes gluten free.
This is especially true for soups.
I pulled together a list of 25 Gluten-Free Instant Pot Soup recipes the other day and talk about mouthwatering.
But, no, really, making gluten-free in your Instant Pot is super easy.
Just leave out the flour–most recipes don’t call for it anyway.
And if you want a thickener, use corn starch.
Go Fresh
Why not use herbs and vegetable you already have growing in your garden?
No really.
The Instant Pot is perfect for making large batches of whatever–then freezing.
So, if you’ve got all those goodies from the garden (0r if you’re like me, from the neighbor’s garden), you just cook ’em right up and throw them in the freezer, if there’s too much…that way you just warm those carrots up…
You’ll save some money in the process and be able to make a fresh soup in the Instant Pot.
Instant pots are perfect for cooking fresh veggies so make sure to use this feature to make your life easier.
Foil Packets for the Win
Yeah, this is my favorite of these 6 Instant Pot Hacks.
You know you don’t have to just use the main pot, right?
It’s totally easy to make your own using foil–or use a cake tin that fits in the pot, but even then…don’t forget to make a foil basket to help you pull the cake tin out.
I love foil packets–you can make individual meals with them, or you can make each of your sides in the packet.
So cool.
Use Your Noodle(s)
When using noodles–because Instant Pot cooking is awesome for those long-time sauces that then need delectable noodles to top them off–make sure to add them when you near the end of your cooking time.
You don’t want mushy noodles in your delicious sauce that tastes like you took hours to make it.
Ew.
Does that not make the best sense?
Yeah, I know?! I totally wish I’d thought of these before.
But, at least we know them now, right?
So, on to the cooking, friend.
And, so you don’t forget these amazing 6 Instant Pot Hacks, you just feel free to go ahead and pin them. I sure appreciate it.
