20 Best Instant Pot Dump Dinner Recipes {Easy & Fast!} The Holy Mess (2024)

FAQs

Why do instant pot recipes say do not stir? ›

As explained by Kitchn, stirring the pasta with the liquid before locking the appliance and setting it to pressure cook will cause the dish to go sticky and gummy as it cooks, due to the way pasta releases starch under pressure.

If you're unfamiliar, dump dinners are exactly what they sound like: Dump all of the ingredients into a casserole dish, slow cooker, sheet pan or pot, and dinner is just about done.

They're super-versatile, so you can mix and match ingredients as you prep lunches and dinners throughout the week: salads, sandwiches, stir-fries, grain bowls, and so on.

When it comes to breaking your Instant Pot in, it's a good idea to start with some basic foods and simple meals you're already familiar with, then slowly expand your Instant Pot repertoire from there. Try making staples like eggs, sweet potatoes, rice, or lentils using just the pressure cooker function.

In fact, there are a handful of foods that just shouldn't be pressure-cooked. Among them are dairy and fried foods, as well as burgers and steaks.

In general, seafood such as fish, oysters, shrimp, muscles and clams are just too delicate for pressure cooking and slow cooking modes. They are foods that are meant to be cooked quickly at just the right temperature, which is hard to do with an Instant Pot.

Blue Apron is a fresh ingredient and recipe delivery service that helps chefs of all levels cook incredible meals at home.

Battered fish, chips and lemon is the standard beige dinner. No vegetables, no 'exotic' foods. Just beige.

One way to think of zero-waste cooking is in terms of the old dictum “reduce, reuse, recycle.” It involves the following: Reduce. Use less of — or do without — unnecessary ingredients. Cook smaller portions to avoid excessive leftovers. Reuse.

Soups, stews, and chili are the ideal meal prep because they last a little longer than most meals (up to five or six days) AND they're extremely freezer-friendly. If you're new to meal prep and are nervous about how foods taste after a few days, I recommend starting with a soup, stew, or chili.

What food can last me a week? ›

They are most commonly used in industrial settings to quickly prepare meat or stocks. However, in most scenarios, Elite Chefs avoid using pressure cookers because they provide less control over the final dish. Chefs often prefer slow cooking techniques that accentuate and pull out the flavors of the food.

The 5-5-5 method involves the following: 5-minute cook time. 5-minute natural pressure release. 5-minute ice bath.

Yes, it is safe to cook frozen food in a pressure cooker or an electric pressure cooker like an Instant Pot. However, if you only have the slow cooker version of the Instant Pot, then it is not safe to cook frozen food in it.

Yes, you can overcook stew meat in the Instant Pot if you're not careful.

You cant stir it when it's cooking under pressure. It's sealed shut. There is no need to stir.

Due to the nature of a slow cooker, there is no need to stir the food unless it specifically says to in your recipe. In fact, taking the lid off to stir food causes the slow cooker to lose a significant amount of heat, extending the cooking time required. Therefore, it is best not to remove the lid for stirring.

Unfortunately, once you overcook a piece of meat in the pressure cooker, there's no going back. You'll be left with a pile of dry, crunchy, tasteless fibers and no amount of additional pressure cooking is going to put that moisture back into the meat. Earlier, I explained how ingredient size affects the cooking time.

If you are interested primarily in slow cooking, you should buy a dedicated slow cooker. They're more reliable with a range of slow-cooker recipes than an Instant Pot. We found Instant Pot multicookers specifically could not successfully slow-cook dense, high-volume recipes such as beef stew or pot roast.