All About Your Instant Pot: How To Use All The Buttons

PorridgeThe default setting here (20 minutes at High Pressure) is for rice porridge (congee), but you can also use this setting for things like steel-cut oats. With this setting, you want to always use natural release for the steam valve. If you use quick release, the porridge can splatter out through the steam release vent. And we wouldn’t want to deal with that kind of mess!Steam

This setting allows you to use the Instant Pot like you would a steamer on the stovetop. You can steam pretty much any vegetable or even seafood. You just put the wire rack into the bottom of pot, pour 1-2 cups of water in and place your ingredients in a metal steaming basket on top of the wire rack.

For this mode, you use the “+” or “-” buttons to adjust the time according to what you’re steaming. I love to steam artichokes in the Instant Pot, they take about 10 minutes, whereas broccoli only takes 2-3 minutes. In this mode, you want to use quick release; the natural release can make your veggies mushy and soggy since they keep cooking a bit as pressure releases.

Well, there you go folks! That’s all of the buttons on the Instant Pot. I sure hope this guide was helpful. It really is a pretty intuitive appliance; don’t be afraid to play around with it. Now go get cooking!