Winter One Pot Lentils & Rice + Ultimate Vegan Instant Pot Cookbook review

I am starting to  look at food in a different way now that we’re starting to feed our baby. I’ve been using my Instant Pot to cook lots of vegetables before I blitz them into purees. At first, we started with simple, single ingredients. Then we moved to combinations and eventually I started making our own meals without salt and then throwing them into the blender for a new puree. Lentils, rice and rutabaga with some spices sounds like an awesome baby puree!

Turns out he loved it! Win!

It was also a very simple meal for his parents. We didn’t eat it as a puree though. I will be honest that I wasn’t sure it would work. Lentils take 6-8 minutes in a pressure cooker but this recipe said to keep them under pressure for 23 minutes. Since all the recipes in the cookbook were designed with the Instant Pot, and I trust Kathy’s recipes, I went for it. The rice and lentils were perfectly finished with rutabaga that was cooked to perfection as well. Spiced with thyme and rosemary, this was a comforting bowl of winter fare.

Backing up a bit, this recipe came Kathy Hester’s latest cookbook all for the Instant Pot. The highest pressure setting on electric pressure cookers is different than the stovetop ones, so it is lovely to have a cookbook that has recipes specific to electric pressure cookers. Recipe development still eludes me with the pressure cooker, so it is lovely to have more recipes to cook.

All recipes are vegan, mostly gluten-free, optional oil-free and she adds salt to taste usually. I don’t normally cook without salt and oil (salting my onions is a ritual in nearly all my recipes), but since we’re looking to share our meals with the baby, this has turned out to be a nice bonus.

Beans, whole grains and vegetables. Yes, you can have fun with a pressure cooker as a vegan. I look forward to trying some of the more complicated recipes where Kathy has multiple components all cook at the same time, in separate containers, in one pressure cooker. Crazy!! I am drawn to the Southern Breakfast: grits and tofu scramble, each made at the same time in the pressure cooker. I didn’t want my delayed kitchen adventures to keep you from hearing about the cookbook, so here we are. If you make it before me, let me know how it goes!

Recipes from The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook for Your Instant Pot spotted elsewhere:

Asian Steamed Dumplings
Indo-Chinese Corn Soup
CSA Layered Indian Dinner
Tomatillo-Poblano White Beans
Smoky Pecan Brussels Sprouts

Winter One-Pot Lentils and Rice
From The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook for Your Instant Pot, reprinted with permission

SAUTÉ INGREDIENTS

1 tbsp (15 ml) oil (or *dry sauté or add a little water/vegetable broth)
½ cup (80 g) chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, minced

PRESSURE COOKER INGREDIENTS

3½ cups (820 ml) water
1½ cups (278 g) brown rice
1 cup (192 g) brown lentils
1 cup (160 g) peeled and diced rutabaga (or turnip or potato)
2″ (5-cm) sprig fresh rosemary
1 tbsp (2 g) dried marjoram (or thyme)
Salt and pepper, to taste

1. For the sauté, use the sauté setting over normal, or medium heat, and heat the oil or broth. Add the onion and sauté until transparent, 5 minutes. Then add the garlic and sauté a minute more. For the pressure cooker, add the water, brown rice, lentils, rutabaga, rosemary and marjoram to the onion mixture and stir to combine. Put the lid on and make sure that the vent is sealed. Cook on manual setting at high pressure and set for 23 minutes. Let the pressure release naturally. Season with salt and pepper before serving and add more marjoram and ground rosemary as needed.

Serves 4.

From The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook for Your Instant Pot by Kathy Hester. Printed with permission from Page St. Publishing.