I got a free Instapot from someone in the neighborhood. They had melted a few inches of the cord. Older model that does not have a removable cord. I like to experiment with various tools and this is one people have talked about a lot. So as I am still at homebase for a few months I asked for it and received it and then mended the cord. They did not mention that their dog had chewed on the rubbery plastic part of the pressure valve cover, but at least that very important part still worked OK.
I had to go online to get the instruction manual as just starting at the controls selections did not implant the way they worked into my brain. But it also took looking at a a small segment of an overly long video to get to the information I needed to get the thing to working. Easy to do once you know which things to push when and how long it takes after pushing them for something noticeable to actually start happening.
I wanted to make some soup with fresh veggies and some of the T-day turkey meat I had put into the freezer. Why bother with a recipe when you can just toss a bunch of stuff into a pot and have a real adventure instead of following behind everyone else.
So into the pot went some turkey, did not measure it.
into the pot went a few scoops of uncooked rice
some chicken bone broth stock
a can of diced tomatoes for extra liquid and flavor
a little extra water so that there was enough liquid to cover all the ingredients
a finely chopped jalapeno pepper
a diced red bell pepper
a couple of stalks of chopped celery
a parsnip
some baby carrots
fresh cilantro
the bone broth carton listed concentrated onion juice on the label so I did not add any onion
several shakes of ground chipoltle
a tablespoon or so of chili powder
black pepper
I held off on adding salt until after it cooked because there was salt in the tomatoes and bone broth
a good size splash of lime juice and about a tablespoon or so of balsamic vinegar
I wanted a bit of heat but not blast your mouth hot, a taste of Mexico but not something that tasted like a pot of chili, more like the flavor of tortilla soup. You need the acid of the lime and vinegar to achieve that as well as the jalepeno and cilantro.
I set the pressure to medium and the timer to 12 minutes. I allowed the pressure come down on its own for close to 10 minutes but it smelled to good so I had to release the last of the pressure and get it open because my stomach was growling at me.
I have leftover soup for 4 meals and I am not in the least going to be bored by eating this soup for 4 more days. Served with warmed flour tortillas, but cornbread would also be good so maybe I will make a batch of that in the Instapot just to see how it goes.
Yes I really did like the convenience of the Instapot versus trying to get the burner heat set just right and then keep an eye on a stove top pressure cooker instead of getting to go off to do other stuff while it cooked.
I will not be taking it on the road. It is much too large and heavy to take in my tiny travel trailer that is pulled by my 4 cylinder car.
But if I had a big van with a big engine and lots of batteries and solar panels then I would strongly consider taking it along especially if I also had a freezer to store batches of cooking in. But I don't have those things so it will get re-gifted when I head out on the road. In the meantime I will enjoy having it around. I plan to put some bean soups into my mouth and into the freezer later this week.
I had to go online to get the instruction manual as just starting at the controls selections did not implant the way they worked into my brain. But it also took looking at a a small segment of an overly long video to get to the information I needed to get the thing to working. Easy to do once you know which things to push when and how long it takes after pushing them for something noticeable to actually start happening.
I wanted to make some soup with fresh veggies and some of the T-day turkey meat I had put into the freezer. Why bother with a recipe when you can just toss a bunch of stuff into a pot and have a real adventure instead of following behind everyone else.
So into the pot went some turkey, did not measure it.
into the pot went a few scoops of uncooked rice
some chicken bone broth stock
a can of diced tomatoes for extra liquid and flavor
a little extra water so that there was enough liquid to cover all the ingredients
a finely chopped jalapeno pepper
a diced red bell pepper
a couple of stalks of chopped celery
a parsnip
some baby carrots
fresh cilantro
the bone broth carton listed concentrated onion juice on the label so I did not add any onion
several shakes of ground chipoltle
a tablespoon or so of chili powder
black pepper
I held off on adding salt until after it cooked because there was salt in the tomatoes and bone broth
a good size splash of lime juice and about a tablespoon or so of balsamic vinegar
I wanted a bit of heat but not blast your mouth hot, a taste of Mexico but not something that tasted like a pot of chili, more like the flavor of tortilla soup. You need the acid of the lime and vinegar to achieve that as well as the jalepeno and cilantro.
I set the pressure to medium and the timer to 12 minutes. I allowed the pressure come down on its own for close to 10 minutes but it smelled to good so I had to release the last of the pressure and get it open because my stomach was growling at me.
I have leftover soup for 4 meals and I am not in the least going to be bored by eating this soup for 4 more days. Served with warmed flour tortillas, but cornbread would also be good so maybe I will make a batch of that in the Instapot just to see how it goes.
Yes I really did like the convenience of the Instapot versus trying to get the burner heat set just right and then keep an eye on a stove top pressure cooker instead of getting to go off to do other stuff while it cooked.
I will not be taking it on the road. It is much too large and heavy to take in my tiny travel trailer that is pulled by my 4 cylinder car.
But if I had a big van with a big engine and lots of batteries and solar panels then I would strongly consider taking it along especially if I also had a freezer to store batches of cooking in. But I don't have those things so it will get re-gifted when I head out on the road. In the meantime I will enjoy having it around. I plan to put some bean soups into my mouth and into the freezer later this week.
