You Got an Instant Pot! Now What? A Beginner’s Guide to Getting Started

So did you finally get an Instant Pot?

It will become your new best friend 🙂

In my house, I gave in a year and a half ago and jumped on the Instant Pot band wagon. My road there may have been a bit different but I'm still singing about the goodness of this machine like every other blogger! I had a couple of friends who dove in just recently and thought I would help them out by putting together a post of how I use this beauty and where I find the recipes I like to use.

My Instant Pot Story

I had actually never heard of an Instant Pot at first.

My husband, daughter and I like to watch a few cooking show competitions.

We noticed that the contestants were constantly using this electric pressure cooker. They would whip out these amazing recipes in record time. Make sauces to die for in minutes.

We were intrigued! We had always wanted a pressure cooker but were a little leery because of the accidents of the past.

Then one day as I was browsing through my Instagram feed someone posted their yummy looking dinner next to their Instant Pot. What's this? It looked like the same pressure cooker we saw on the cooking shows. So we thought hmmm…..I did a bit more research and discovered it was!

It got added to our list to buy.

We make lists of things we would like to purchase and as we put money aside for them we also start keeping our eyes open for a good opportunity aka good deal.

Then Amazon had their prime days and another blogger I follow had her nice post of how the Instant Pot was on sale for about 1/2 off. I needed no more nudging.

So my baby (aka Instant Pot) came a couple of days later and my kitchen has never been the same!

Purchasing your Instant Pot

I have the DUO60 and I found the best deal on Amazon. Actually I didn't do much research before buying but I did after (isn't that awful!) and found it was the best deal.

First Time Using Your Instant Pot

Clean it first. Of course you want to clean your machine before putting it to use. Here's a great article on cleaning all the pieces of your pot.

Find some recipes you want to try. Try not to get overwhelmed and just pick one or two recipes that have been on your mind since you knew you wanted this thing.

Did you think of some? Now you can just do a basic search online for taht recipe and the words Instant Pot.

I knew the first thing I wanted to make was bone broth.  I also eventually wanted to make soups and braised meats.  The only recipe I've used from the included book are the rice tips.

Purchase some extra parts? You may be able to wait on this. Purchase only what you will be using. Off the bat you want an extra ring, because your original will catch odors. And some 6qt bowls to freeze your meals in.

Don't plan on putting your Instant Pot away. I keep our Instant Pot on the counter because I use it several times a week. For soups, stews, rice, roasts, steaming veggies. It's great!

My Favorite Instant Pot Recipes

Okay this is really why I wrote this post so I could have a place to keep my favorite Instant Pot recipes.

These are the main recipes I put in my machine. I also use it to cook the bulk of my freezer meals from My Freeze Easy  which is a service I HIGHLY recommend for the busy homemaker (you can read my review about MyFreezeEasy here). In a nutshell make 10 freezer meals in an hour! (drop the mic).

• Salsa Verde Chicken
• Minestrone Soup (see my Instagram Photo. Mine is not Gluten Free)
• Spaghetti Bolognese
• Bone Broth
• Asian Sticky Wings (I use Coconut Aminos in place of soy sauce)

I know that's not a lot but I also use the Instant Pot pressure cooking setting for cooking items that were supposed to be slow cooked but I got side tracked and they are still in solid form. Oops! But that's one of the beautiful things about this machine.

More Help for Your Instant Pot

If you're still struggling getting familiar with your Instant Pot Katie from Kitchenstewardship has a few articles that can help.

• Instant Pot Basics
• Cheap and Easy Instant Pot Dinners
• How to cook frozen beef in the Instant Pot