Instant pot might just save winter!

Instant pot recently launched in South Africa (it’s about time) and everyone is raving about it!

It’s the world’s no. 1 smart cooker which does the work of 7 appliances in 1. 

It’s a …

• Pressure cooker
• Slow cooker,
• Steamer,
• Rice maker,
• Yogurt maker and can also sauté and keep food warm.

Beware of the fakes. Instant Pot is the only smart cooker with a stainless-steel inner pot and accessories (much healthier, more durable).

The other smart cookers available all use the non-stick coatings which can peel, flake and leech chemicals over time.

Instant Pot has the highest number of safety features (10) and it also comes with a thorough starter manual and massive online recipe inspiration and support.

I was lucky enough to receive one directly from the company to review.

Honestly, it wasn’t love at first sight for me.

I had always heard that the Instant pot could do wonders in the kitchen, and was keen to try it out. My first experience however made me nervous and taught me a lesson, or maybe two.

First impressions of the Instant pot:

• The packaging got me excited because it showed all the awesome things that I could do with my instant pot.
• When I opened the box, I was a bit shocked at the way that I had underestimated its size. It is quite big, and I kept thinking about storage space, as I have a tiny kitchen.
• The setup was straightforward which is good.
• It has a booklet that comes with a few recipes to show how versatile the instant pot is. I think Pinterest might be better for the more adventurous mom because it has a huge Instant pot tribe on the platform.
• I think that the manual could’ve been written better.

I felt quite confident at this stage and told myself – it couldn’t be that hard to use right? I just have to press a few buttons and the magic will happen.

Wrong. Don’t be overconfident on your first attempt.

Using a pressure cooker can be tricky. It is important to always read the instructions carefully, research if you must – then start with something easy, in order to get used to how it works.

First attempt to cook something was a disaster.

I decided to make a chicken soup. I highly suggest starting with something simple like rice, follow an Instant Pot specific recipe and work your way up from there.

Using the Instant pot was quite straightforward however I may have gone a little over the capacity and that’s when things kind of went wrong. I had liquid sputtering everywhere! It wasn’t fun to clean up.

It took me a while to get over that incident before I decided to use the Instant pot again.

Things you need to know:

1. Start with the easy recipes – I’m sure I mentioned this already. 😛
2. Use a recipe that’s meant for Instant Pot, don’t adapt your own.
3. The cooking time can be a little off because of the time it takes to build pressure
4. Make use of the sauté feature – it does wonders to the dish.
5. There are 2 types of venting – get familiar with them and which one to use for certain dishes.
6. It’s not good at making food crispy or crunchy or crusty.
7. You can’t check your food from time to time as you do on the stove – you have to trust the recipe – luckily there are plenty out there.

If you are wondering, my soup did survive but it was lacking flavour and got a little over done (there is a safety feature which would kick in and put up a Burn message which stops anything actually burning…) at the bottom.

Now I’m not telling you this story not to bash Instant pot because I honestly think that it is an amazing product however, I do feel as if you need to teach yourself how to use it properly. I am still learning! The best part is they have a huge community to support you!

I know that there are many people who get used to it immediately and have success on their first attempt, making some amazing dishes. If you are not a great chef like me, then I highly suggest spending a day watching videos and reading recipes on the Instant pot.

The Instant pot is a show off.

There’s just so much that you can cook in it! You could make eggs, pasta or even bake a cake in it!

It’s perfect if you don’t have lots of time to spend in the kitchen and I honestly think it just might save winter for me this year. 😛

After spending more time getting to know the product, I can confidently say it is worth the purchase.

Instant Pot is available at all @Home stores, takealot and Yuppiechef, priced from R1,999.