Nathan Livni

On Buying an Instant Pot

Hey there Suzie Friends,

Congrats on your purchase of an instant pot. My instant pot arrived in the mail on the day my daughter was born, about three and a half years ago. It was a new father’s gift to myself because I would be cooking most of the meals. But that’s not when I began cooking. It actually began a few years earlier when my wife and I crunched the numbers and realized that to avoid crushing debt we’d need to make some changes in how we spent money. The main change was that we stopped eating out. Also, we tried to make what we could at home from basic ingredients. Over the next few months we ended up cutting our monthly expenses in half. I can proudly say that we graduated from 7 years of grad school completely debt free (we had paid off our undergrad debt during that time). In that time we’ve eaten out a handful of times. I’m including lunches out, etc. The saved money was, in large part, due to eating at home. Many years later I can tell you that while eating at home can save you money, it potentially takes up a more valuable resource: your time. Cooking became my hobby. I don’t really expect anyone to take the path we did (I haven’t met anyone else yet) but I can definitely share a few instant pot tips that I’ve learned over the years.

  1. RECIPES ARE ONLY GOING TO GET YOU SO FAR They’re not magical, they’re just a list of things. Once you start cooking, everything is 100% your own. Your tastes are your own so the “100% best chocolate chip cookies” may be fine for the average person, but your tastes are unique. A great technique is to to “average” recipes. I don’t look for a recipe, I look for a few recipes. Then I take the commonalities. Those are the important parts. For example, let’s say I want to cook some lentils. Here’s the google search: https://www.google.com/search?ei=YfWvXdjzFZXS-gSgt6GYCw&q=lentil+soup+instant+pot First result: https://www.wellplated.com/instant-pot-lentil-soup/ Second result: https://www.delish.com/cooking/recipe-ideas/a25240121/instant-pot-lentil-soup/ Third result: https://www.kitchentreaty.com/instant-pot-vegan-golden-lentil-spinach-soup/

So for example, some of the recipes start with sauteing the veggies before bringing to pressure, some don’t. We’ve learned two things: 1) you can saute veggies prior to pressure cooking them in the instant pot and, maybe more importantly, 2) it’s optional. Optional? Yep. You can just skip that step in the recipe and you may not notice a difference. Or maybe you will. Try both. After all, it’s optional. You know because some recipes do it and some don’t. All these optional steps are little levers you can tweak as you want.

  1. YOU CAN INCREASE FLAVOR BY USING TWO COOKING METHODS That’s why the sauteing works. It REALLY ups your game but isn’t necessary. For example, about 3 nights a week I throw chopped potatoes into the instant pot for 4-5 minutes. Then I put them in the oven to roast with a little olive oil. I do 475 degrees because it makes them crispy (they’re cooked after the instant pot, the oven is just for crispiness). I used only the instant pot they’d be a bit drab. I could do mashed potatoes I guess. I could do just the oven but then they’d be more dry inside. By cooking them in the instant pot and then crisping them, I get the best of both worlds and…

  2. OPTIMIZING YOUR WORKFLOW If you get in practice, you can start to optimize your workflow. I have a 3 year old so I have about a 30 minute turnaround on a “from scratch” dinner. So let’s say you want lentil soup with crispy potatoes. Here’s how your workflow would go:

  3. Put some water in the instant pot and start it so that it’ll be ready to go when I’m done cutting the potatoes.

  4. Cut the potatoes, I do about 1 inch but you’ll find the right size for you :)

  5. Throw them in the pot and preheat the oven.

  6. Start cutting the veggies. Watch some videos on improving your knife skills if you’re not good with that. Maybe invest in a quality but affordable knife. We’ve had this one for about 6 years and it’s awesome. https://www.amazon.com/Victorinox-Fibrox-Chefs-Knife-8-Inch

  7. Potatoes finish. Quick release. Put some oil on a baking pan. Put the potatoes on it. Put a little more oil on them (we’re talking enough to coat, they shouldn’t be sitting in oil. But try it however you like. They go in the oven. Probably for 25 minutes.

  8. Now your instant pot is ready for the lentils. Cause I’m on a time crunch, I’d add any liquids first to bring up to heat as I’m continuing to cut and prep. Then throw it in and… relax until all the timers go off.

  9. IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT EATING A GOOD MEAL TONIGHT Cooking your own food every day isn’t going to feel the same as going out. It will probably taste worse. Partly because you’re out of practice. And partially because restaurants “cheat”. They use large amounts of salt, sugar, and fat that you never see go into it. Likely you’ll think twice about putting a stick of butter into the enchaladas (or maybe not?) but that’s not the kind of thing they worry about at a restaurant. Trust me, if you practice, you’ll get better and also your tastes will change. Don’t feel like you need to skimp on ingredients, get something fancy to elevate your dinner. After all, you’re saving money just by not going out! So if you’re making pasta with a nice rich sauce, what would be nice to go with it? Maybe a nice bottle of wine (which would be $50 in a restaurant but you can get for $7 at Trader Joe’s). Or some lovely cheeses for dessert (Clearly, I like trader Joe’s). You get the idea.

But more than that, it’s not just about the single meal, it’s about creating a habit and rewarding yourself for it. You won’t get good at a meal by cooking a different meal every night, you’ll just get exhausted. Try to focus on creating some favorites. Especially favorites which have leftovers that feed into each other. For example, we had a stir fry yesterday and I made extra rice (we use brown rice) and tonight we used the rice to make fried rice. Yum num! Or I cook a whole chicken and make broth, then make a soup. That’s 4 meals we eat every week in our house. It may seem unimaginative but each of those meals can be tweaked and changed. And I’m actually really good at them because I’ve been making them for years. We round out the week with mexi-potatoes (the crispy potatoes with beans, corn, and other toppings on them). But we can tweak that too. Potatoes can become sweet potatoes. We can change the type of beans, the type of salsa, etc. And we have what seems like a whole new dish. Just like a restaurant!

So those are some small tips that I’ve discovered over the years. I do wish you congratulations on your instant pot. I love it and use it daily. But it occurs to me that I should add that not only do we not have a microwave, but I have never owned a microwave. So maybe I’m just easily pleased because I believe that’s a great tool too!

Please always feel free to reach out and ask me any questions.

Best, Nathan

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