Are you a perma-bachelor like me with no time or desire to cook food or clean up after yourself? How about just plain lazy? Salvation is neigh! Enter the Instant Pot, a combination of pressure cooker and crock pot. I’m lucky enough to have roommates who love cooking gadgetry, which means I get to reap the rewards of trying new things without actually owning them.
Instant Pot Review – General Info
The roommies bought the excessively large el grande 6 quart Instant Pot as they have a young child and need anything possible to lighten the burden of cooking and cleaning. The three of us have cooked probably a dozen meals in it since purchasing and have discovered that the Instapot is surprisingly easy to use and clean. The Instant Pot features a sauté setting, along with slow cooking and pressure cooking settings. These three merge together to cater to my style of “throw a bunch of stuff together and see what happens” style of cooking. (note: I suck at cooking)
What can you make in the Instant Pot?
I’m sure more capable cooks than myself will find endless usages. Since I’m more or less bereft of culinary creativity, here’s what we’ve made so far:
- Hard boiled eggs
- Brown rice
- Chicken noodle soup
- Salmon with potatoes
- Beef stroganoff
- Some other stuff that I’m forgetting
The device has a small grate that can be used for cooking various things. We cooked salmon on top of it as a test run and it turned out pretty well. The Instant Pot definitely functions well as a rice cooker and can make huge batches of rice for meal prep. The same goes for hard boiled eggs. Stroganoff was sort of a miss because we tried to just throw everything together instead of cooking in stages, but the chicken noodle soup turned out amazing. If you’re more aware of basic cooking principles than I am you’ll probably be able to make a lot of things easily.
What Are The Benefits Of The Instant Pot?
While the Instant Pot has a lot of benefits for a mediocre and lazy cook such as myself, my favorite is that you can cook a whole meal and only have to clean one pot. Boom, easy! Also with the many different settings on the device, it’s pretty “set it and forget it” like a crock pot which is awesome. It also told me when I was burning the stroganoff, which is great because I managed to salvage the food that I otherwise would’ve burnt the crap out of. Between the versatility, ease of use and ease of cleanup, the Instant Pot has a lot to offer.
It’s also a pretty strongly-built piece of equipment, so based on two weeks of ownership and (mostly) nightly usage I think it’ll last quite a while without breaking.
Any Drawbacks?
So far the Instant Pot only has one drawback – it’s pretty huge and consumes a fair amount of counter space. I placed a bottle of Frank’s Red Hot next to the Instant Pot for scale. The roommates bought the largest size, so if size is a concern, you can get a smaller version. It might be kind of hard to figure out which setting to use depending on what you’re cooking, so there’s an element of trial and error. I’m not sure if this is a “drawback” per se, but the Instant Pot isn’t much of a time saver vs what I normally cook. The benefits come mostly from saving effort in the form of cooking/cleaning, so if you’re looking to bust out meals in record time then you’re not going to find much speed here.
Conclusion
If you’re a less than stellar chef such as yours truly, the Instant Pot is a great buy. You’re saving a considerable amount of cooking and cleaning effort and meals are easy to prepare. I’m giving it 4/5 stars due to ease of use and cleanup, along with the potential meal prep possibilities. Pretty rad huh? I hope my Instant Pot review helped you get an idea of what the device can do, so click below and pick one up for yourself.
Click Here To Get An Instant Pot From Amazon
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