Maximize the use of your Instant Pot by using it to its full potential. Here are 9 Clever Ways to Use Your Instant Pot!
9 Clever Ways to Use Your Instant Pot
#1: Proof Bread
If you have a yogurt function on your Instant Pot you can use your IP to proof dough (raise dough) faster. It works so well. All you do is oil the pot so that the dough doesn’t stick. Place the dough in the bottom of your pot. Then select the yogurt button. Use the adjust button to cycle through until the light is on the “less.” My pot says 24 hours on the display. Then cover the pot with a glass lid or a plate. DO NOT use the normal Instant Pot lid. If you do the dough might raise so high that it pushes the valve up and indicates to the pot that there is pressure. You won’t be able to open the pot and the lid will be stuck. Let the dough double in size (or follow the instructions in your recipe). My dough only took 30 minutes to raise as opposed to the normal hour it would have taken sitting on the counter.
Here are some yeast breads that I’ve made with the help of my Instant Pot (click on the caption to get the recipe)…
#2: Jams
Homemade jam tastes amazing on toast, biscuits, crepes, pancakes, waffles, french toast and more. My Instant Pot strawberry jam is tart and sweet and addictive!
More Instant Pot jam recipes:
#3: Yogurt
Homemade yogurt takes some time (mostly all hands off) but tastes great and is very inexpensive. It lasts for 4 weeks in the fridge and can be used it all sorts of recipes (think as a substitute for sour cream!). You only need a gallon of milk and 2 tablespoons of yogurt to make this recipe.
Related: How to make yogurt in the Instant Pot without the yogurt button
#4: Soup and Chili
Soups, stews and chilis and the Instant Pot are a match made in heaven! The Instant Pot can cook potato chowders, rice soups, noodles soups, beef stews and bean chilis in a fraction of the time they would take on the stove.
Here are a few of my favorite Instant Pot soups (click on the caption to get the recipe)…
#5: Casseroles
There’s just something about casseroles that remind me of childhood. They are comforting and an all in one pot meal. Try some of my favorite Instant Pot casserole recipes.
#6: Cheesecake and Pie
Try Instant Pot Key Lime Pie for a tart, sweet and creamy dessert! Or maybe you’d like Instant Pot Turtle Cheesecake or Mini Oreo Cheesecakes. All delicious and fun to make in your Instant Pot.
Click on the caption to get the recipe…
Related: Instant Pot Pumpkin Pie
#7: Steam Vegetables
Steaming vegetables in the Instant Pot is so easy and some vegetables only require a ZERO minute pressure cooking time! Here is a video where I demonstrate how to steam veggies in the Instant Pot:
Related: Instant Pot Homestyle Vegetables
#8: Rice Cooker
I love making all sorts of rice recipes in my Instant Pot. Here are some of my favorites. Click on the caption to get the recipe…
#9: Egg Cooker
Whether you prefer copycat Starbucks egg bites or hard boiled eggs the Instant Pot is your BFF. Try some of these fun egg recipes. Click on the caption to get the recipe…
If you need a bunch of chopped boiled eggs for a recipe I have a great trick for you. Some people call this “egg loaf.” Basically you crack as many eggs in a dish that you need and then cook them very quickly in your Instant Pot. Once the eggs are cooked you can cut them up easily on a cutting board. This saves so much time because there is NO PEELING!!! I like to use these eggs for cobb salad, avocado egg salad, egg salad or potato salad. Watch the video below to find out how!
What is your favorite way to use your Instant Pot???
*Karen Petersen is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.
Well Karen, I must tell you! Instantpot WOW!
I love to cook and am now retired with nothing but time on my hands.
The main reason for buying a new Instantpot was because of your recipes, after all how could things go wrong if I have the same appliance as you! Everything I have tried has turned out spot on!
Thanks for sharing you love of cooking and making it fun and easy
My only concern is deciding what to make next! 😊😊😊
I’m so glad you got an Instant Pot! And how fun that you are using your time to learn a new skill and have fun in the kitchen! Thanks for following along!
Hi Karen
First of all “thank you”for all of your great recipes. Just to let you know, I am a gadget queen. My husband wanted to buy me one when the IP first came out. I read the reviews and saw that people were negative about the time not being done in the time it said. So I decided not to get one. Welllll, he died 5 years ago and one day I read more about the IP. New reviews were that people were not allowing for pressure time. So I got one. I love it so much that I got a second one to have on hand when this one goes bad. NEVER want to be without one. Wish my husband would have been here to taste all of the great recipes that I have tried. I know we wouldn’t have been going out to eat as much because this thing is so fast and easy. Thank you again.
I’m glad you finally got one! And I’m sorry to hear about your husband. 🙁
Karen ~ I am nearing 80 years old and I bought an Instant Pot 4 years ago. I was told to put it on the counter so I would use it. It sat for over 2 years without being used because none of the recipes I saw told me specifically HOW to use it. Then I found you! I’ve probably clipped and cooked over a hundred of your recipes, most of them many times. I eventually ended up making a separate Instant Pot recipe box. My husband and I loved them. He has since passed away but I continue to use your recipes by either halving them or freezing the leftovers in meal-sized containers. Thank you so much! You’ve taught an old dog new tricks!
ahhh this is so nice to hear. I am sorry to hear about your husband. Keep up the good work on Instant-potting!!
I am 63 years old. Our daughters gave us an Instant Pot for Christmas 3 years ago. It sat for a year. After moving I got it out of the box and onto the counter. During Covid I had lots of time on my hands and learned how to use it! I love my Instant Pot and I love Karen’s recipes. And so does my husband. I print out the ones I like and keep them in a binder. Thank you for sharing, Nancy. And thank you Karen!!!!! I’m another older dog who has enjoyed learning new tricks!
Have you done any Sous Vide in the Instant Pot? I just did my first, 1/2” boneless pork loin. It came out so juicy and tasty. I’d love to see your take on it.
No I haven’t! I really need to though!
I have the instant pot mini. There are only 2 of us & at the moment only use it for soups & veggies. Would love to experiment a bit more but unsure if I need to adapt the timings when I’m looking at recipes designed for the bigger pots.
This may help you Christine: https://www.365daysofcrockpot.com/how-to-halve-instant-pot-recipes/
Thank you. I have printed this so that I can have it to hand when cooking
I have a 3 qt mini and would like to make cheesecake.
Re: your raspberry jam. Could the jars of jam be frozen?
P.S. I love your recipes and thoughts.
Yes that’s what I do with them! I freeze them.
Good article!
I make eggs in it every week (4-4-4), I make rice in it all the time, and discovered that by using my extra non-stick liner pot for my 8-qt., clean up is a breeze. Pot-in-pot for rice also works really well too. Veggies on ZERO pressure – fantastic! We have also made several cheesecakes which always turn out great. So easy that I taught my 11-yr. old daughter how to make them. Soup and chili, you bet! All the time!!
Another good thing we use it for is a dump cake dessert. Pour a can of pie filling in the bottom of a pot (like a pot-in-pot with a lid), dump a 1/2 box of white or yellow cake mix over the filling and spread it out (or whatever cake mix you have), a stick of butter cut into pieces and spread out over cake mix. Cover the pot and put it into the IP liner with 1 cup of water, cook on HP for 25 min. You can finish it off under the broiler for a couple of minutes to crisp up the top if you want. Serve with ice cream! YUM!!
The one thing I haven’t tried yet is yogurt, as we just don’t eat that much of it, but one of these days, I will give it a go.
Tony, I love all your ideas. I will definitely try the dump cake idea! Do you cover the pot in pot with foil?
I just did 14 hard boiled eggs to be used as I need them…in whatever form. I set the pot to working, went and did an email to a friend on another continent, came back to the eggs, sitting there quietly…waiting for me, without any dry pan, overflowing pan, exploded eggs….nothing evil at all!! I didn’t have to babysit them, and they peeled beautifully…in about 90 seconds! WIN – WIN – WIN- WIN !!! A few days ago I did potato salad using the potato/egg in one pot recipe! Such freedom from fear with this one appliance! Yaay! lol.
I have a hard time cooking any other way now because I’m so used to the freedom it gives me!
wonderful to see all these suggestions in one spot! I have done chili recently and your instant pot bierocks. I didn’t proof the bread in the pot but should have as my normal method of proofing in a closed microwave with a cup of heated water had the dough overflowing my 8 cup measure! LOL, it looked like a thwarted mushroom at the top. Keep ’em coming, Karen and thank you.
Haha! I actually really like that microwave idea. I’ll have to try it!