I have a confession to make. Until yesterday, my Instant Pot went where kitchen electronics go to die. It was sitting on top of the kitchen cabinets where it couldn’t be reached without a ladder.
But Instant Pots are amazing, you say! Well, I bought one about 3 years ago and I think I tried it once? I’m not sure why I didn’t get in to using it, maybe because I was lazy and just zapped stuff in the microwave? I’m not sure, but all I read about these days are Instant Pots. “Instant Pot Recipes!” “How to make healthy food in your Instant Pot!” “I only cook using my Instant Pot!”
Ok, ok, I thought. I’ll give it another try! Lo and behold, it was pretty good. I’m still figuring out it out though. I decided to make twice baked potatoes and there was a learning curve, haha.
I sort of followed directions of a recipe here: https://www.melaniecooks.com/instant-pot-twice-baked-potatoes/18109/. But I also tweaked it to give some more protein and make it vegetarian .
You start out by pouring water in to the bottom of the pot and then put a trivet down. A trivet?? Shoot! I searched high and low all over my house I had zero trivets. If the Instant Pot had come with one, I had lost it ages ago. I had to google replacements for trivets 😂. I ended up going with metal lids. I put two down and placed my pierced potatoes on top. I pressed pressure cook and worked on my other ingredients. Time goes by and it beeps at me. Wow, has it been 20 minutes already!? I release the pressure valve using a fork standing as far away as possible. I continue to do some stuff thinking I was letting the potatoes cool down, then I look at the machine and realize there is a timer on it set to 18 minutes. Wait…What? Oops! I quickly googled the owners manual only to realize the first beep is to let me know it had pressurized and I had let out all the steam while it was cooking. I quickly close the valve and add some time to the clock. 🤦♀️
Once it beeped several times ( after 20 minutes) I took out the potatoes, cut them open and took out the inside. I mashed and mixed the potato with shredded gruyere cheese, black beans, salt, pepper, and Cholula . I stuffed everything back in to the potatoes and placed them back in to the Instant Pot this time with no incidents.
It could have been worse and it was very quick so I think I will try more with the Instant Pot, but it is certain to be a learning curve! I’m still afraid to use some of the other features ( yogurt?) so check back to see how it goes!
