Welcome to my Instant Pot 7 In 1 Pressure Cooker Review. I have owned my 7 in 1 Instant Pot electric pressure cooker for just short of a month now, have tried and tested several Instant Pot recipes and now I am ready to tell you everything that you wanted to know!
As I write this it is 5 days before Christmas and I have used my Instant Pot everyday since it arrived on Black Friday.
I had wanted one for ages but had been waiting for a sale for them to drop in price. That time came in the week of Black Friday deals and I picked one up at a bargain price from Amazon Germany.
I live in Portugal and want them on the same 2 pin plug so avoided the UK and got them on the continent.
We paid 97€ for it instead of the regular 200€ so we were really pleased with the bargain that we had got.
Obviously you pay a lot less for it in America but we have a lot of VAT on things, so I tried not to cry too much when I saw it went down over there to as much as 50€ L
The day the Instant Pot arrived it was my daughters 2nd birthday. My mum and dad were visiting to do the cake cutting and to give her the presents.
The box remained on the floor as we were busy and later that night it was soon on and doing its business.
Table of Contents
Our First Instant Pot Recipes
The first thing we did was conquering our broccoli, salmon and potatoes recipe that we always have for lunch during the week.
It is something we always eat so we wanted to make sure our Instant Pot could do the trick for us.
We then followed it up with the following recipes:
- Asparagus Wrapped In Bacon
- Corn On The Cob
- Jacket Potatoes
- Mashed Potatoes
- Chicken Wings
- Cheese Burger Soup
- Potato & Bacon Soup
- Bean & Bacon Soup
- Eggs
- Pork Roast
- Pork Ribs
- Pulled Pork
- Meatloaf
- Chorizo Sausage & Potato Hash
We did a lot more than this but these were the biggest highlights. These are the ones that we enjoyed making the most and the ones that we would gladly make again and again.
But first unless you are in on it and already have one you’re probably shouting at the screen or into your mobile or tablet and asking the following question:
What Is An Instant Pot?
Okay so I am going on and talking about how amazing the latest kitchen gadget is that we have on Recipe This, but unless you are in on the Instant Pot hype you’re probably wondering what on earth I am talking about.
Well…..the Instant Pot in quick introductions is an electric pressure cooker. The Instant Pot to the electric pressure cooker is like what the Crockpot is to the Slow Cooker.
It does a lot more than what you get with a regular electric pressure cooker and the infographic below explains in a lot more detail about what the Instant Pot is and how it can help you in YOUR kitchen:
What We Thought Of The Instant Pot
Okay so you know we love all our other kitchen gadgets that we share on here regularly.
We love our Airfryer, we cherish our slow cooker, we would save our soup maker first if the kitchen was on fire and we would be lost without our Dutch Oven. So where does the Instant Pot 7 in 1 fit into this?
Well it ticks all the boxes of the other things we are missing. It provides us with a steamer without having to own a separate steamer, it sautes our soup rather than just throwing everything in and best of all it keeps our food warm.
When we are cooking we are often cooking multiple things at once and will often be left without space for everything to cook.
Christmas is a great example of this. It will be Christmas Day and we will be cooking our Christmas Dinner.
Like most families we will be having turkey with all the trimmings. Well our oven is a typical average sized two shelf one.
If we keep our mash warm then there is not enough room for our veggie bake or our pigs in blankets. So we have this balancing act that we have to do.
But thanks the Instant Pot we can now keep a big dish warm in there without fear that it will burn because of the roast potatoes or roasted parsnips.
Or if we forget we can quickly cook the Brussel sprouts at the last minute without having to worry that we don’t have time to cook them.
Instant Pot = Perfect For Families
I am a mum of three. With two of my kids being under three and the other one being a teenage boy that needs feeding a lot and never stops eating.
Therefore I need something quick and simple for dinner when I am in a rush and don’t want to spend hours in the kitchen doing the washing up afterwards.
I love my other kitchen gadgets but this fills that missing gap. The idea that something special that was missing from my kitchen.
I have been cooking with the Instant Pot everyday (sometimes 2-3 times a day) since I got it and I am in love with it. Last summer when we went on holiday I took my soup maker with me, but this coming summer it will be the Instant Pot that travels with us.
We also find that the Instant Pot is perfect for both the beginner cook that wants to cook healthier as well as the advanced cook like Dominic.
I am privledged because with Dominic working as a chef for a decade it comes very natural to him and he had the hang of it and all its functions within 10 minutes.
Compare this to someone without catering experience and it could take you a few weeks to get going.
But either way, its worth doing the learning curve with your Instant Pot so that you can make fantastic home cooked meals day in day out.
We also found that because many newcomers to cooking use it, there can be a few negative reviews that certain functions don’t work, but we have had no such issues with this.
But if you are one of these that struggles with it I suggest you keep at it and soon you will be a lot better with it then you had originally thought!
Dominic’s advice to newbies in the kitchen is to:
- Make sure that what you are cooking has enough liquid so that it cooks well, but not too much so that the meal ends up like dishwasher liquid.
- The sauté setting operates on a high temperature and unlike the hob where you can turn down to a simmer you can’t on the Instant Pot so don’t leave it and stir it regularly.
- When testing timings start off with less and add time as needed. As it is easy to put your food back on if it is undercooked rather than if it is overcooked.
- The Instant Pot is there to make your life easier or taste better. Don’t feel like you have to cook everything in the Instant Pot as not everything will work out in there.
Buy The Instant Pot
You can buy (or find out more) about the Instant Pot on the banner below:
Instant Pot For Beginners PDF Cookbook
If you would like to get all the recipes mentioned above, along with all the extra tutorials, then click on the image above or click here.
We have put it together after many, many requests for a PDF version of all the recipes we have featured, that can act as your bible for getting used to your Instant Pot.
