Lauren Keating - Instant Pot Cookbook for Beginners: The Essential Guide to Your Electric Pressure Cooker

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Interior and Designer: Richard Tapp
Art Producer: Sue Bischofberger
Editor: Justin Hartung
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Photography 2021 Darren Muir; food styling by Yolanda Muirc. courtesy of Lana Ortiz.

Cover: Spaghetti and Meatballs, .

ISBN: Print 978-1-64876-995-5
eBook 978-1-64876-996-2
R0

To Shawn: Thanks for always being my number-one fan and for encouraging my experiments in the kitchen.

Contents

Im going to let you in on a little secret: I dont always love cooking.

Sure, making a new recipe can be fun on a lazy Sunday afternoon when there isnt anything else going on. But on a Monday after a busy day at work? Id rather skip straight to the eating part of the night.

I think thats why I love kitchen gadgets so much. Modern kitchen appliances can help get dinner on the table faster and with less effortplus all of those buttons and lights can make cooking a little more fun when you dont really feel like doing it.

When I bought my first Instant Pot a few years ago, I was really excited about the prospect of a seemingly space-age gadget that promised to shave valuable time off the cooking process. I eagerly opened the box and then, like so many other people, I put the whole thing in the closet and didnt touch it for months.

As a cooking school graduate, I had a ton of experience cooking on the stove top and with a slow cooker. But the Instant Pot looked like it was dropped onto my counter from another planet. I had no idea where to even start. Coupled with stories of exploding stovetop pressure cookers that shot spaghetti sauce onto the ceiling, Ill admit that I was intimidated.

Im a researcher by nature, so I started reading books cover to cover and saved every article I could find about pressure cooking. I quickly learned the science of pressure cooking and was reassured that electric pressure cookers are much safer and more user-friendly than the stovetop versions our grandparents used. I also learned that, while Instant Pots look complicated, most of the buttons are just presets to help you make common items with just one touch.

I finally pulled mine back out of the closet and made chicken burrito bowls. They were ready in about a half hourless time than it would have taken me to get takeout and tastier, too! The next night, I made a spicy vegetarian curry. Then I used my Instant Pot to turn leftover roast chicken into the most delicious homemade stock I had ever tasted.

I was officially hooked.

Thats not to say everything came out perfectly right from the start. I had my fair share of recipe mishaps, most due to user error. But now using my Instant Pot is second nature, and I dont think twice before using it to make an easy and delicious meal. I included several Instant Pot recipes in my first cookbook and have shared others on my blog, Healthy-Delicious.com, as well as on other websites across the internet.

In this book, Ill walk you through the basics of using your Instant Pot so that you can avoid common mistakes and start churning out perfect recipes right away.

In the first chapter, Ill teach you everything you need to know about your new kitchen appliancefrom what all of those buttons do to how to wash it to what to do if things dont seem to be working out properly. I know its tempting to skip this chapter and dive right into the recipes, but I encourage you to read it thoroughly and refer to it often. In the long run, it might save you a lot of frustration.

Once weve tackled the basics, Ill walk you through 80 tasty recipes that I just know you and your family will love. Theyre the kind of down-home comfort food recipes that feel like a warm hug after a long day. And theyre all written with beginners in mind.

Its my hope that this book will help you use your Instant Pot confidently and will set you up for success in the kitchen.

Happy cooking!