Did you know that I started a monthly newsletter this year?! It’s been an excellent way for me to connect with my readers and others who want to keep up with me and get some of my top health and fitness tips delivered to their inbox (this is content that won’t normally be shared on my blog). The post below is from my first ever newsletter which I sent out in February. If you aren’t already on my list and want to be, use this link to join! My next newsletter goes out Monday so please sign up before then if you can. This month’s newsletter topic is meal prep and I’m doing a special giveaway too!
Is The Instant Pot Really Worth It?
The Instant Pot. I pulled it out of it’s Amazon delivery box giddily. As I placed it on the counter and looked at the giant user manual and the foreign buttons on it’s face, I got a little worried. It was already 5:45 PM and I was about to take on my first Instant Pot meal. But, what could go wrong? This thing makes quinoa in 1 minute, so I should have dinner on the table in 30 right?
Wrong.
Very wrong. I’ll admit, I am not a big researcher for stuff like this. I didn’t do any extensive research on the Instant Pot before I purchased (even though it’s quite an investment) – I basically asked the audience (aka my Facebook friends) what they thought and after a lot of “It’s amazing!” responses and pinned a few recipes, I pulled the trigger. Which one did I get exactly? The Instant Pot 6 Qt 9-in-1.
2 1/2 hours later, dinner was ready. I was starving, my husband was starving. Curse words were used. And honestly the dinner itself was pretty mediocre. I considered returning the thing the next day, but if you know me, I don’t give up easily. Now that I’ve had about a month to experiment with my new toy, I wanted to share five things I’ve learned about the Instant Pot that I would have liked to know before buying.
1. The cook time advertised does not equal the total time. The Instant Pot itself needs to warm up first – and the warm up time depends on what setting you put it on so it won’t be the same every time. For example, you the cook time is 25 minutes on high pressure. You set the thing for 25 minutes and it could take up to even 30 minutes to simply build up pressure (it depends on how full it is and how much liquid is inside). Only THEN will it cook for 25 minutes. At the end, you’ll also need to release the pressure – some recipes call for natural release which, you guessed it, takes another 10+ minutes. So that 25 minute recipe really took 60+ minutes.
I hope I didn’t scare you away with that one.
2. The Instant Pot’s value is in the walk away feature. Not only can you pre-set the Instant Pot to cook at a later time, once you start it, you’re done it’s dinnertime. Rarely does a recipe call for much work after the fact. This is a great feature for someone who may get home from work at 5 PM, prep their food, turn on a workout and then want to eat at 6:30 PM. It’s not as great for someone who wants to come home at 8 PM and have a meal on their plate in 15 minutes. I haven’t found many recipes that will be ready that fast.
3. The Instant Pot’s slow cooker feature is great! I made one of my go-to crock pot recipes in the Instant Pot and enjoyed it more for a couple reasons. First, I was able to sauté the ground turkey in the Instant Pot first using sauce mode and then I added my remaining ingredients, saving me a pan to wash. Second, I prepped all the food in advance and was able to set it to start at a later time (I do know that some crock pots have a timer but mine doesn’t). Third, the dish itself was more flavorful – I could taste the individual ingredients a lot better than I could when I make the same recipe in the crock pot.
4. Choose all-in-one recipes for the most time saving. My big mistake that first night was that I made a vegan curry dish which called to be served over “cooked rice.” Well, I decided to make my rice in the Instant Pot first as a trial, and THEN cook my curry. With the instruction-reading time, pressurizing time, cook time, and release time, my brown rice took nearly an hour. THEN I had to make the curry. Big Mistake. My favorite recipe so far in the Instant Pot is this All In One Instant Pot Brown Rice and Chicken (this time the brown rice cooked along with the chicken and veggies). I rarely cook chicken because it turns out dry and this chicken was perfectly cooked!
5. If you’re a vegetarian, I’m not sure the Instant Pot would be worth the investment. Most Instant Pot recipes I found included meat (and feedback I’ve received is that is what it’s best at making) and like I said, my vegan curry wasn’t great. The veggies were a little overcooked which could have been prevented had I made it myself on the stove top in 1/4 the time.
I’m still a novice Instant Pot user but this is what I’ve learned so far. Tell me, do you have an Instant Pot? What is your favorite thing to make in it?
Looking for Instant Pot recipes? Here’s my Pinterest board with plenty.
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I love cooking frozen chicken in it (plain chicken, salsa chicken, etc). Easy to set and then grab it out and be done! I love cooking baked potatoes in it because they’re pretty fast and they don’t dry out! My #1 thing I use it for is cooking dried beans. I soak them earlier in the day or the night before if I remember and then they cook wonderfully in the instant pot. One way to get the instant pot to pressure faster is use a warm liquid or turn it on saute whole you’re dumping ingredients before setting your manual mode or whichever. This way it warms up the bottom of the pan/gets things warm. Do I use my instant pot for full blown meals like others, no. But I have found it convenient for those things and it keeps me from standing over a hot stove!
I completely agree with all of your points in this post. I’ve had my instant pot for about 18 months and it has been perfect for my situation.
I get home from work at 6 and my kids (toddlers) are all OMG-I’m-starving-the-nanny-doesn’t-feed-us dramatic, so their timeframe for dinner on the table is microwave speed. My husband doesn’t get home until later, so I pull portioned out leftovers from yesterday’s dinner from the fridge, heat, and serve to the little ones. While their dinner is heating, I pull out pre-prepped ingredients for my instant pot meal for my husband and myself, throw it in the pot, set and forget it. The fact that most meals take an hour+ of cook time is ideal for me because I can sit with the kids while they eat, and get them bathed and ready for bed with no dinner stress. While I put the kids to bed my husband prepares any non-instant pot side dishes and plates dinner. It’s like I had a mother’s helper come over and make dinner while I spent time with my kids!
I also have found it great for weekend meal prep since it can prepare all meals we might eat in a week in one afternoon. It does take time and some dedication to really figure out how to make it work for you, but it has been worth it for me!
I like this perspective!! We generally eat with our daughter but now that we’re about to have 3 that may change and I like the idea of starting the food and then doing bedtime and then eating!
It sounds like a great tool but not somwthing we wouod use unless it was good for vegan meals. I also just don’t want another appliance in my house. Our microwave died 6 months ago and we haven’t replaced it yetand are getting by surprisingly well without it.
Great practical points! I’m not the cook in the family, but I like the speed of it all. Now that our kids are out of the house though, I can’t see using it that often.
I have heard both great and bad things about the Instant Pot, but part of me still really wants to purchase one. Thanks for your honest and thoughtful review!
I totally 100% agree with everything you said. I had NO IDEA it would take so long to make something that cooks for 4 minutes… AND I haven’t made one vegetarian dish in it yet. I use my slow cooker or stove top for those recipes. I tried making a quinoa chili in it — no good. Oh wait, I’ve made mac and cheese a few times. It was delicious. I guess that counts as vegetarian.
Anway — I absolutely agree with the walk away feature. If it weren’t for that fact alone, I would have sent my IP back. Great review!
I’ve heard so much buzz about the Instant Pot! Thanks for sharing your review – very helpful!
You crack me up! This is totally something I would do. And I’d be tossing obscenities the whole time and ordering take-out in frustration. I’ll remember this should I ever get bit by the Insta-pot bug.
I have been on the fence, and think I’m not gonna give in to all the hype. It sounds like a lot of work to me LOL I realize, like everything, there is a learning curve, but I’m not willing to invest that kind of time into something I don’t know if I’d use that much. Thanks for all the info!
I bought an instant pot a year ago. I’m slightly embarrassed to say that I haven’t taken it out of the box yet, lol. I think it’s precisely for the reasons you mentioned – if I’m going to take 30-60 min to make dinner, I’ll just cook something normally. I get that it’s nice to walk away but I do enjoy cooking, so it’s really the time saving factor that initially drew me in – until I realized your first point here.
Thank you for the review. I don’t see any benefits to my household from the Instant Pot, so I don’t think I’ll be adding it to my gadgets.
Interesting. The instapot is very popular in my MRTT group, but I have not taken the plunge because my husband is not a fan of one-pot meals — except maybe chili. I would like the brown/cook feature but I’m not sure that justifies another appliance.
I just can’t get into the Instant Pot. It reminds me of when my grandmother used to cook “boiled dinner” in the pressure cooker, and it was the most bland, soggy, waterlogged combination of Boston butt, cabbage and potatoes you could ever imagine.
To be honest, we don’t even use the crockpot all that much – I have a few tried and true favorites, but it’s just not what we prefer.
I’ve been on the fence about this one for a while now. My sister actually has one but hasn’t used it once and it’s been months since she bought it. I’ve heard mixed reviews, but I know there are tons and tons of recipes out there for it! I’ll have to consider it for a little longer, but this definitely helped! 🙂
Have a great day Nicole!!
interesting! I see all kinds of OMG IT’S AMAZING posts and I tend to take those things with a grain of salt. I do not think it’s available here in the Netherlands anyway! If it was though, I’m not sure I would go for it. I have a crock pot I NEVER use and a very tiny kitchen with limited counter and storage space. It is just too big. Most things we make are vegetarian, but sometimes, yes we use chicken in our dishes. A lot of curries are made – and usually by the time the rice is done in the rice cooker, the meal is ready anyway!
good that you tried and that you aren’t giving up! hopefully you can make it work for you!
I love my Instant Pot for meat dishes, but you are so right about the time to cook is not the “real time”. I found that out the first time I used it as it took about 30 minutes for the pressure to build!!
I feel like I am the only one these day without an instapot.
I do appreciate your review. I may get one someday, but not till I clear some more items out of my kitchen. I don’t have room for another appliance right now. Haha