Pressure Cooker Potato Leek Soup

In our house, we have potato leek soup a couple of times a month.  The facts that potatoes keep on the shelf so well, are often the last produce around before grocery shopping day, and cook relatively quickly have made this soup one of our main staples.

When I first became a Nutritarian, I really missed the creaminess of thick soups and sauces, so potato leek soup was one of my first favorites because it gives you that creaminess without any cow cream.  To make a similar recipe, but on the stovetop, refer to Katies Creamy Potato Soup recipe here.  This was a recipe I adapted from my sister-in-law that I love love!

Now-a-days, I make my potato leek soup a bit differently, and in "my precious" pressure cooker.  Quite literally, I called it "my precious" in our move last weekend while a coworker of Kevins was packing it.  Yep...  I went full-on LOTR Gollum with an appliance, but if you have one, you will know what I mean.

In the recipe I am about to share with you, I like to add lots of veggies besides potatoes and leeks.  I often throw in whatever sounds good in my fridge that needs to be used up, but this is my general recipe.  In the pressure cooker, this takes only 6 minutes at pressure with a quick release at the end!

Pressure Cooker Potato Leek Soup
Time: 10 minute prep, 6 minutes high pressure, quick release
Servings: 8-10 servings

Ingredients:
        2 lbs mixed white, red, golden potatoes - peeled if not organic and cut into 2 inch cubes
        2 leeks trimmed, washed well, and sliced including most of the green portion
        2 cloves garlic, minced
        3 medium carrots, peeled and diced
        3 medium celery stalks, diced
        1 cup mushrooms, roughly chopped, any variety
        1 Tbsp dried herb mix - see note below
        8 cups of water (boiling when added, if desired to reach high pressure faster)
        1-2 cups unsweetened plant-based milk (optional)

Instructions:
1.)  On the saute function, saute the chopped leeks and minced garlic for 3-5 minutes, adding water as needed to prevent burning.
2.)  Add in the remainder of the ingredients EXCEPT for the plant-based milk.  Lock the pressure cooker lid in place and cook at high pressure for 5-7 minutes.
3.)  After the allotted time, do a manual quick release of the pressure, or allow the pressure to come down naturally.
4.)  With an immersion blender or high-powered blender, blend the soup to your desired thickness, being cautious not to overprocess.  Potatoes can get a bit gummy if they are blended too much.
5.)  Season with salt and pepper, and serve warm topped with fresh herbs, nutritional yeast, and/or green onion.


Amys Notes:

Sometimes I substitute one leek with one yellow onion or two bunches of green onions, depending on the price of leeks during the year and my pantry stock of onions.  I find the flavor to be just as nice, and save me a bit of money as well.

For the dried herbs, I like to mix it up from batch to batch, but I generally add at least 1 Tbsp total of dried herbs.  My favorite lately is Herbs de Provence, but you could also do a mixture of thyme, rosemary, fennel seeds, basil, oregano, parsley, marjoram, sage, etc.



Health and Happiness,

Amy

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Red Beans and Rice in the Pressure Cooker

Happy Marti Gras to all!

I LOOOOVE red beans and rice.  I hadnt tried it before Kevin and I took our (belated) honeymoon vacation cruise out of Houston, TX last May.  Once we returned home, I knew I needed to make a homemade version so I could have this comforting, spicy, and delicious dish at home whenever I wanted.  I came up with my Vegan Red Beans and Rice dish back in June, but since then I have gotten my beloved Instant Pot pressure cooker and needed to adapt the recipe.

This weekend, Kevin and I took a trip to a cute nearby town called Port Townsend.  Kevin really wanted to try a Southern-inspired restaurant there, called Addie Maes Southern Kitchen, that his parents had told him about, and we thought it would be a nice day to walk around Fort Worden.  It ended being a beautiful, mostly sunny day.  We ended up getting in over 3 miles of hiking around!  We hadnt been back here since we first started dating (four years ago almost to the day), so we took a before and after picture.

Before in February 2011.  Kevin was quite beardless, and I havent aged a bit... right? ;)

After 4 years together.  The water in the background is part of the Puget Sound where our Alaskan Cruise ship will be passing through come August.  Im so excited to have another awesome vacation with this guy to look forward to!

At Addie Maes, Kevin had his chicken and waffles he had been wanting so badly, while I settled on the vegetarian red beans and rice.  Expecting something similar to what I make, it actually came with a whole lot of rice, topped with some beans and veggies.  Perhaps there are different ways to make and serve it, but I prefer my version with a whole lot of beans with some rice mixed in.  Maybe that is from 4+ years of being a Nutritarian, my brain is rewired to prefer more beans than rice!

Addie Maes version of (vegetarian) Red Beans and Rice.  I did enjoy the bigger chunks of
vegetables, although I wouldnt be able to make it like that at home and expect Kevin to eat it.
I was not a huge fan of how much rice it had.
This version used large red kidney beans, but I prefer the small red beans.
 I also needed to add quite a bit of hot sauce to it.

So, last night, in the spirit of Marti Gras (and wanting to remember how great the bean-heavy version of red beans and rice is), I decided to make my version in my Instant Pot.  Because the IP cooks so quickly, I added a bit more spices than the original stove top recipe, and because it limits evaporation, I cut the liquids down quite a bit.

Red Beans and Rice
Time: 5 minute prep, 8 minutes high pressure, natural pressure release
Servings: 6-8 servings

Ingredients:

This is what small red beans look like
before soaking.  Kevin was nice enough
 to get them soaking on his day off
(lucky teachers!) while I was at work.
He had to send me a picture to confirm
that he was picking the right ones.
You could most certainly use red
kidney beans, but you would need to
adjust the cooking time a bit.

        1 lb small red beans, soaked (quick or overnight - see note below), drained, and rinsed
        1 yellow onion, finely chopped
        1 red bell pepper, finely chopped
        3 celery stalks, finely chopped
        4 cloves garlic, minced (approximately 1 Tbsp)
        3 cups vegetable broth (boiling if possible)
        1 1/2 cups boiling water
        1.5 Tbsp chili powder
        1.5 tsp smoked paprika
        1.5 tsp dried thyme
        1 tsp dried oregano
        1 tsp dried parsley
        2 bay leaves
        1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
        Fresh ground black pepper to taste

        cooked brown rice
        green onions
        Louisiana hot sauce
        nutritional yeast

Instructions:
1.)  While you are prepping the other ingredients, bring the water and vegetable broth to a boil in a large saucepan.  Cover until you are ready to use.  In a pressure cooker, if you add boiling liquids, it will help it come up to high pressure sooner.  (See my notes below.)

2.)  In a heated pressure cooker, saute the onion, bell pepper, celery, and garlic until lightly cooked and browned, adding small amounts of water to prevent burning.

3.)  Add into the pressure cooker the beans, spices, and boiling vegetable broth and water, being careful to pour slowly as not to scald yourself.

4.)  Stir to combine well and lock the lid into place.  Set to high pressure for 8 minutes.  Once the timer is up, allow pressure to come down naturally (for the IP, warm or off setting will work).

5.)  After the pressure has come down, release the lid and stir.  Use an immersion blender, or blend a few cups of the beans and liquid in a high powered blender.  You will want the red beans to be creamy, but have chunks of beans and vegetables.

6.)  Serve hot topped with brown rice, and your favorite condiments like nutritional yeast, green onion, or Louisiana hot sauce.

Amys Notes:

To soak the beans, measure out 1 lb and pick out any stones, sticks, or damaged dried beans.  Then put them in a large bowl and cover with at least two inches of water.  Allow to soak overnight or while you are at work.  Strain the beans and rinse thoroughly before beginning the recipe.

Alternatively, you can use the quick soak method in the Instant pot.  Measure out 1 lb and pick out any stones, sticks, or damaged beans.  Add them to your pressure cooker with enough water to cover.  Lock the lid in place and set to high pressure for 1 minute.  Wait until the pressure comes down naturally, then strain the beans and rinse thoroughly before beginning the recipe.

I have had success with both of these methods, but I prefer to soak my beans during the day, because it results in less time waiting around the kitchen to start making the meal.

As I mentioned in the instructions, it is helpful to bring the vegetable broth and water to a boil before adding it to the pressure cooker.  This is not necessary for the recipe, but will make bringing the pressure cooker to high pressure that much faster.  If you are not in any sort of time crunch, no need to bother.  This can be done to any recipe to make coming to pressure that much quicker.

Health and Happiness,

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Three Bean Chili Pressure Cooker Friendly

As Im sure you guys have seen on my blog, my Facebook, and my Twitter and Instagram accounts, that I am OBSESSED with my new pressure cooker, the Instant Pot IPDUO-60.  Here are some of my favorite things about it:

It has made my kitchen cleaner.  Not only do I not require different pots and pans to saute, steam, and cook everything, but I havent had to cook separate meals for my husband because he has been enjoying a lot of what I have been making. (More about the husband in another post.)  Also, as the Instant Pot is heating up, cooking, and depressurizing, I can easily have time to clean all of my prep dishes, set the table, and set out Tupperware for any leftovers.  The Instant Pot itself is also super easy to clean!  I made oatmeal the other day with not quite enough liquid, so some stuck to the bottom.  I had it washed out in just a few minutes with soap and water.  No scrubbing!

It has made me more sane.  Not only has cooking with the Instant Pot been easier to clean, it has given me back some sanity when Im in the kitchen.  Instead of running back and forth between sauteing, chopping, and stirring, I can set my meal to go and leave it until its ready (or when Im ready, thank you warmer).  No stirring involved!  And because the Instant Pot cooks faster than other methods, I dont feel like I NEED to multi-task to get a meal on the table in a timely matter.  I have been enjoying getting all of my ingredients ready to go, then starting with the Instant Pot, rather than jumping from the cutting board, to the stove top, then sink, and back again.

It has made my kitchen quieter.  When I imagined getting a pressure cooker, I was thinking it would be loud and make noises similar to a steaming teapot.  Wrong!  The only time the Instant Pot isnt perfectly quiet is when the lid opens and closes (happy little notes), it beeps to let me know it has started and finished, if you are sauteing something (which goes really quickly because it can get so hot), and if you do a quick release of pressure rather than a natural release at the end of cooking.  Im sure Kevin would tell you (as he is trying to watch football) that my old kitchen cooking with pots and pans was much more disruptive.

It has helped me to be better organized.  Many of the recipes I have made so far include dried beans.  Because of this, I have been planning what I will be making a day or two before so that I can soak the beans while I am at work the day that I plan on using them.  I feel like I can also plan for the perfect amount of leftovers for lunch the next day for Kevin and I.  When I used to make things on the stove, I would have a difficult time estimating quantities and end up with too much food.  I would get sick of the leftovers and have to toss a lot out.

It makes meals more flavorful.  When cooking meals in the pressure cooker, you often have to add more amounts of spices, probably due to the lack of evaporation in the recipe and the reduced time in cooking.  That being said, once you do add the extra spices, your food comes out cooked perfectly and wonderfully flavorful.  I have found that I havent wanted to add salt to anything I have cooked in my Instant Pot.

It has saved and is going to save us money.  Lets do a little bean math!  Just in this last week alone, I have made recipes with the equivalent of about 15 cans of beans (Keep in mind that my husband has been eating 1.5+ cups of beans a day, and we had my parents over to visit for the weekend).  At my grocery store, a can of low sodium beans costs around $1, making our weekly bean consumption equal to $15 worth of cans.  BUT, because of the pressure cooker, I have been using dried beans in all of our meals.

15 cans = 22.5 cups of beans
1 lb dried beans = 8 cups cooked beans
1 lb dried beans = $2
22.5 cups beans = 2.8 lbs dried beans = $5.63

That saves almost $10 in one week alone!  That equates to over $500 in savings over a year.  That number alone makes the pressure cooker worth the money!

Now, on to the recipe!  I made this in my pressure cooker as adapted from Lorna Sass Black Bean Chili recipe from Great Vegetarian Cooking Under Pressure.  I started with her recipe and added in extra veggies, different beans, and different spices.  While this recipe was made in a pressure cooker, it can easily be done on the stove top or in a crock pot with pre-cooked beans (amounts in parenthesis).  Please see the instructions below for each adaptation.

Three Bean Chili
Time: 
    Pressure Cooker: 10 minutes prep, 12 minutes high pressure, 10 minute natural pressure release
    Stove top: 10 minutes prep, 30 minutes cooking (with canned beans)
    Crock pot: 10 minutes prep, 4 hours high/8 hours low (with canned beans)
Servings: 6-8

Ingredients:

    Soak:
        2/3 cup dried black beans, soaked for 8 hours (or 1 1/2 cup cooked black beans/1 can)
        2/3 cup dried pinto beans, soaked for 8 hours (or 1 1/2 cup cooked pinto beans/1 can)
        2/3 cup dried red beans, soaked for 8 hours ( or 1 1/2 cup cooked red or kidney beans/1 can)

    Saute:
        1 tsp cumin seeds
        2 cups onion, chopped
        1 Tbsp minced garlic

    Add:
        3 1/2 cups water or vegetable broth, boiling
        3/4 cup carrots, chopped, about 2 carrot sticks
        1/4 cup celery, chopped, about 1 celery stick)
        1 red bell pepper, de-seeded and chopped
        2 Tbsp mild chili powder
        1 1/2 tsp dried oregano
        1 1/2 tsp cumin
        1 tsp smoked paprika
        1/2 tsp coriander
        1/4 tsp cayenne pepper, optional

    After Pressure Cooking:
        1-14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
        1-14.5 oz can tomato sauce

    Topping Ideas:
        fresh cilantro
        fresh parsley
        cashew sour cream (recipe from Helyns Healthy Kitchen)
        green onions
        nutritional yeast
        roasted red peppers
        black olives
        favorite hot sauce
        shredded vegan cheese

Pressure Cooker Instructions:
1.)  Rinse and pick over all of the dried beans.  In a large bowl combine all of the dried beans and cover with water.  Allow to soak for at least 8 hours.  Drain and rinse after soaking.
2.)  In the pressure cooker, saute the cumin seeds, onion, and minced garlic for 5 minutes, adding vegetable broth or water to prevent burning as needed.
3.)  Add the remaining ingredients, reserving the diced tomatoes and tomato sauce for after pressure cooking.  Stir well and lock lid into place, with the venting valve closed.  Set to manual high pressure for 12 minutes.  Once 12 minutes are up, allow the pressure cooker to go into warming mode for 15 minutes.
4.)  After 15 minutes, turn the warming unit off and quick release any remaining pressure, OR allow pressure to come all the way down naturally.  Stir in the can of diced tomatoes and can of tomato sauce.  Allow to cool and thicken with the lid off if time allows.  If you find the chili isnt thick enough, blend 1-2 cups in a high speed blender and return to the pot, or use an immersion blender.
5.)  Serve hot with any of the topping ideas above.

Stove top Instructions:
1.) Drain and rinse the 3 cans of beans.
2.) In a large dutch oven, saute the cumin seeds, onion, and minced garlic on high heat for 5 minutes, adding vegetable broth or water to prevent burning as needed.
3.)  Add the remaining ingredients including the diced tomato and tomato sauce.  Stir well to incorporate.
4.)  Bring to a boil, and then lower heat.  Cover and simmer for 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally.  You may need to add more liquid as needed to achieve your desired chili consistency.  If you find the chili isnt thick enough, blend 1-2 cups in a high speed blender, or use an immersion blender.
5.)  Serve hot with any of the topping ideas above.

Crock pot Instructions:
1.) Drain and rinse the 3 cans of beans.
2.) In a frying pan on the stove top, saute the cumin seeds, onion, and garlic for 5 minutes.
3.) Add all ingredients, including the diced tomatoes and tomato sauce, to the crock pot.  Stir well to incorporate.
4.)  Cook covered in the crock pot on high for 4 hours or low for 8 hours.  You may need to add more liquid as needed to achieve your desired chili consistency.  If you find the chili isnt thick enough, blend 1-2 cups in a high speed blender, or use an immersion blender.
5.)  Serve hot with any of the topping ideas above.

Amys Notes:
I have not tried this recipe on the stove top or crock pot, but I assume the results will be deliciously similar.

With the pressure cooker method, you can decrease the cooking time even more by using canned/cooked beans.  If this is the case, I would reduce the cooking time at high pressure to 7 minutes with a natural pressure release.  Just use your best judgement as you change the recipe!

This chili is wonderfully flavorful!  I have been enjoying it on its own with some of the toppings above, but it would also be great served on any type of baked potato; with a cooked whole grain like brown rice, barley, or quinoa; or with tortilla chips on the side.  This time, I served mine with nutritional yeast, cilantro, green onions, and roasted red pepper.

Health and Happiness,

Amy

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Apple Pie Oatmeal in the Pressure Cooker

Apples.  Apples!  Apples are probably my #1 favorite fall food.  GASP!  But what about pumpkin everything!?!  I know, I know, pumpkins are great.  I love seeing pumpkin everything over the blogosphere, Instagram, and Pinterest, but apples will always have my fall heart.

Being from Washington, we have some of the best apples in the world.  I have memories as a small child bringing my dad a big apple to bite into and get started for my tiny teeth.  I remember making apple pies with my mom, and the smell that would fill the kitchen.  I remember all through high school my mom packing my lunch with an apple and peanut butter sandwich just about every day. (Ha!  I was geared towards being vegetarian before I knew it!)

It seems that every year I go apple picking or to produce stands, I find a new variety that Ive never seen before.  Golden delicious had always been my favorite as a kid, but now I have discovered Jonagolds, Ambrosias, and Pink Ladies... I just cant decide!

This recipe is to appease that fall/holiday craving for apple pie, but in a Nutritarian-friendly way.  I would suggest using a sweater apple for the recipe, but feel free to experiment with your favorites!

Apple Pie Oatmeal (Pressure Cooker)
Time: 5 minutes prep, 3 minutes High Pressure, quick release
Servings: 4 servings

Ingredients:
        2 apples, washed, cored and finely chopped
        2 cups rolled oats
        2 1/2 cups water (more if you like your oatmeal thinner)
        1/2 tsp cinnamon
        1/2 tsp vanilla extract
        1/4 tsp ground ginger
        1/4 tsp nutmeg
Topping options: plant-based milk, almonds, walnuts, raisins, craisins, banana slices, etc.

Instructions:
1.)  Cut the apples and place them first into the pressure cooker.
2.)  Sprinkle the rolled oats and spices over the apples. (This will help keep the oats from sticking and make sure the apples get thoroughly cooked.)
3.)  Add water and lock the pressure cooker.  Set to high pressure for 3 minutes, then do a quick release after cooking.
4.)  Serve hot with any of the suggested toppings.  This time I added chopped walnuts and a bit of extra cinnamon.

Amys Notes:
This recipe could easily be adapted for the stove top, but would just require more stirring and watching, and would, of course, take quite a bit longer.

Either way you make this oatmeal, be prepared for a delicious breakfast treat that reminds me of falls at home... can you tell I might be a bit homesick since our move across state?

Health and Happiness,

Amy

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To Pressure Cook or not to Pressure Cook

First off, I want to thank all of my readers... as well as those people who stop in every now and then to check out a recipe or two (and mom, I bet you look at my site most of all... love you!).  You have all helped me to slowly accumulate a little bit of revenue from advertisements on my blog.  The advertisements are generally located in the panel to the right, as well as at the bottom of every post.  For me, every time someone from my page clicks on one of these links, or if a post gets an excessive amount of traffic regardless of link-clicking, I get a couple of pennies from it.

These pennies have added up to the point where I will be getting a payment within the next month or so.  Of course, I like to dream and think well ahead of what I would like to use this money for.  I am rationalizing that since the money came from the blog, I should invest some of it into supplies for the blog.

My first thought was.... Vitamix!!!  The money could go towards one, but I would still need to invest some of my personal money into it, and with college loans and bills o be paid, we just cant do that right now.  Plus, I have a really nice KitchenAid blender that works great for what I need it for: smoothies, pureed soups, dressings, etc.  So what if it cant heat soups with excessive friction and make perfect almond butter?  (Side note, my parents have Vitamix and when they visited last weekend, I asked my mom to make some almond butter to bring to me.  She is an almond butter angel!)

My second thought was.... perhaps I could use a new camera for the blog.  I always look at other bloggers pictures and admire their ability to decorate and light things just so.  Over the last year or so, I had been using my iPad camera because my Macbook had been out of commission.  I recently fixed the problem with my laptop, and remembered that I used to take decent pictures with my husbands camera and edit them with Photoshop on my Macbook.  I will probably go back to taking and editing pictures that way rather than spending money on a new camera that I dont need.

My next thought was... cookbooks!!! Tons and tons of cookbooks!  I have had quite a few cookbooks on my Amazon wish-list for a while, so maybe I can get a few of those.  Ill probably get a few cookbooks, but I feel like I want my money to go more towards something that will contribute to new and exciting recipes to share on the blog.  The best I can do with cookbooks is to reference where I got the recipe and show you guys pictures, but seriously, what a tease!

After listening to my first Chef AJ teleconference with Wendy from Healthy Girls Kitchen last week, I remembered how Chef AJ highly recommends an electric pressure cooker for a plant-based diet.  I did some research and Instant Pot recently came out with their new model called the "Instant Pot IP-DUO60 7-in-1 Programmable Pressure Cooker".  It seems really safe, contrary to many horror stories you may have heard about pressure cookers.  It also looks like it would be EXTREMELY convenient by cooking soups, stews, dried beans, whole grains, potatoes, and fresh veggies in a matter of minutes.

Another bonus of using a pressure cooker, besides the incredible speed, is that it uses very little energy to run.  I have my BS in Environmental Science, so the environmentalist in me loves that idea.  It is also very efficient in keeping heat from dissipating from the unit, so I wont have a hot kitchen like I do most nights.  Yet another great feature is that, by locking in the steam, and cooking vegetables quick and efficiently, the nutrients remain more available for consumption.  

Win-win-win, right?

This type of pressure cooker also doubles as a slow cooker as needed.  But will that mean I get rid of my "vintage" slow cooker?  Of course not!  Ill keep that to cook some of Kevins meat dishes in. :)

Here are some of the videos Ive been watching to get a better idea of how a pressure cooker would work and what I could make with it:

The Veggie Queens demonstration

Chef AJs Red Lentil Chili

Chef AJs Mushroom Chili

What are your experiences with Pressure Cookers?  Any advice that can help sway my decision?

Health and Happiness,

Amy

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