Instant Pot Pressure Cooker Review – Do you really need one?

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Have you caught on to the Instant Pot pressure cooker craze yet? If you are looking to buy one, read my review to find out if you really need one.

*This post contains affiliate links

Have you caught on to the Instant Pot pressure cooker craze yet? If you are looking to buy, read my Instant Pot Pressure Cooker review to find out if you really need one.

Right around the holidays when kitchen appliances go on sale, we all feel pressured into buying  stand in mixers, high-performance blenders, and the hot favorite – Instant Pot pressure cooker.

I am very familiar with that sentiment because during one such sale (Amazon Prime day) – I succumbed and bought the Instant Pot Duo for $69 odd dollars (what a steal that was!).

I finally had the much-coveted Instant Pot on my kitchen island 🙂

As I read through the manual (highly recommended), I started to get the hang of it and realized that I could do wonders in the kitchen with this.

Instant Pot is a smart Electric Pressure Cooker that speeds up cooking by 2~6 times using up to 70% less energy and, helps you make nutritious healthy food in a convenient and consistent fashion. Perfect for busy moms!

It not only functions as a pressure cooker but also as a slow cooker, rice cooker, steamer, sauté, yogurt maker & warmer.

For me, this means that I never have to use my slow cooker ever again!

Slow cooking vs Instant Pot cooking

Most Indian meals require sauteing or frying ingredients before they can be slow-cooked. I had to saute the ingredients on the stove first and then transfer them to the slow cooker.

But with Instant Pot – welcome to the world of one-pot meals! ( and goodbye slow cooker..)

Now, you can make slow-cooked rajma (kidney bean curry), chole (chickpea curry), dals (lentil curry), chicken curry, and soups without switching utensils. Also, you do not have to wait around for the cooking to complete like traditional pressure cookers.

All that is possible as there are 14 built-in smart programs (Soup, Meat/Stew, Bean/Chili, Poultry, Sauté, Steam, Rice, Porridge, Multigrain, Slow Cook, Keep-Warm, Yogurt, Pasteurize & Fermented rice) to cook your favorite dishes with the press of a button.

Instant Pot is rated as the #1 pressure cooker for many reasons but do you really need one? Read this Instant Pot Pressure Cooker review to find out..

Other important features include

  1. Delayed cooking – A 24-hour timer allows for delayed cooking.
  2. Keep warm – Automatic keep-warm holds the temperature of the food until you serve it.
  3. Quiet operation – Instant Pot generates almost no noise and leaks no steam. I was waiting for the vent to go off and make noise. I heard nothing. Also,it traps all the aromas in the food without heating up the kitchen.
  4. Stainless steel – The 3-ply bottom stainless steel inner pot is extremely durable and leaves no health concerns of non-stick coating residual.
Instant Pot is rated as the #1 pressure cooker for many reasons but do you really need one? Read this Instant Pot Pressure Cooker review to find out..

Instant Pot Pressure Cooker – Do you need one?

Instant Pot is right for you if…

  • You like the set it and forget it feature i.e., unlike traditional cookers you don’t have to wait to switch off the gas after the vent goes off.  The cycle completes and Instant pot goes into an auto warm mode.
  • You like one-pot meals and prefer to saute, pressure cook and slow cook all in one pot which makes it ideal for Indian curries. 
  • You don’t have a lot of time to cook and clean (Not having to clean my stove every night – priceless!)
  • Don’t like using non-stick materials – Instant Pot is stainless steel – easy to clean and you don’t have to worry about non-stick residual in your food.

Instant Pot is not right for you if…

  • You are happy with the current setup – multiple traditional pressure cookers or whatever that may be.
  •  You don’t need the set it and forget it feature since you are around to switch off your stove when your traditional cooker is done cooking. 

Which Instant Pot should you buy? 

Confused about which model to buy? Read this article on which Instant Pot model to buy and what size.

Last piece of advice – If you are looking to buy a rice cooker, buy an Instant Pot during the Black Friday or the Christmas sale, it is a much better investment and you will soon realize that you got more than your money’s worth. Check out this article to get the latest scoop on Instant Pot deals this Thanksgiving.

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6 Comments

    1. Yes, I would think folks living in India can leverage it just like we do. My mum is not interested in using though :(. I hope I can convince her.

    1. I would suggest the 6qt one – It is great for every day use and you can also use it when if you have a few guests over.