Adventures of a healthy-ish pseudo-foodie

  This looked like too much red onion, but it was actually not enough. I watched  this Beryl video  about meals that kids love around the world, and it said that kids in India love pav bhaji. I had doubts that my kids would be into it, but I thought it looked delicious, so I looked it up.  I used  this recipe  from Ministry of Curry. The only changes I made were 1 red bell pepper instead of half of two different peppers, snap peas instead of frozen peas because I have lots in the garden, no tomato paste because I didn't have any, a few more tomatoes to make up for that, and unbuttered untoasted brioche buns instead of buttered toasted potato buns, because that sounded better to me. When I saw Beryl's plate with all of the red onions, I didn't get it. I get it now. Lots of red onion is the way to go. One kid didn't like it and the other wasn't even willing to taste it, but I have hopes for the future. Also, it seems like it would be good just over rice with ...

  Alongside Instant Pot refried black beans . I've tried making Mexican rice many times, and I've always failed. I think it's because the tomato/moisture ratio has to be just right, to avoid a mushy mess? Anyway, I'm so happy to finally have succeeded enough to save this recipe. I think there's room for improvement, but this was great next to some refried beans. It is noteworthy that I liked the cooked carrots in it. I don't usually like cooked carrots. But the way these were cooked, in the instant pot with all of the other flavors in there, made them perfectly seasoned and delicious. I followed  this recipe  from Tastes Better From Scratch. My changes were that I increased the amount of rice and water to make a bit more, I left out the peas and I used a packet of Trader Joe's chicken stock concentrate instead of tomato bouillon. I might look for tomato bouillon for next time, though! Also, it didn't specify what type of rice to use, but I used basmati. ...

The best yogurt. I tried this when I first got an instant pot and decided it wasn't worth the effort, mainly because the amount of yogurt that I was left with after straining was the same price (or slightly more expensive) than just buying a tub of Nancy's. But I now realize that where I went wrong was that I used 2% milk instead of whole, and I probably didn't let it "set" fully, and then I had to strain it too much to get it thick. I'm better at it now, and it's totally worth it. I'm glad that quarantine led me to try again; it's been hard to find good yogurt through grocery pickup, so I've taken to just buying extra milk and making the yogurt myself. In addition to now using whole milk and making sure that it actually sets, I also follow a tip that I read somewhere: After completing the "boil" step, I take the lid off and boil the milk for an extra 5 minutes. This makes the yogurt thicker. My instant pot is a Duo M...

FINALLY, I made good french onion soup. This post comes after many attempts at making good french onion soup. I got hooked on french onion soup back when Panera was St. Louis Bread Company and their french onion soup was delicious (it's not worthwhile anymore), and in the 16 years since I left St. Louis, I've been trying to find a decent recipe. Thank you, instant pot. The recipe is from  Gimme Delicious  and I followed it exactly, except that I halved the entire recipe but kept the full quantity of garlic. It only gets pressure cooked for 5 minutes, so I don't know if the pressure cooking is the secret. I think part of the instant pot magic here is that the "saute" function is at the perfect temperature for caramelizing onions. Normally, when I do that part in a pot, I get impatient and turn up the heat too high and it doesn't work. This took just under an hour but it came out perfectly. I think it would have been quicker in a big instant p...

Looks like a brownie, tastes like a brownie, feels better than eating a brownie. As with this  farro salad , this recipe was inspired by a trip to the fabulous  Camas Country Mill .  We went for sandwiches, bought bread and a scone for a treat, and then I was lured by a cute little jar of lentil brownie bites, so we got one of those too. It was delicious, and so I came home to do some googling. The result was  this recipe from Vegan Richa , which doesn't taste exactly like the one I had at the mill, but it's nearly as delicious and perfectly easy to make. If I didn't have an Instant Pot, I don't think I would have bothered. I've never been successful cooking lentils on the stove top without it bubbling over and making a mess at some point in the cooking process, and also I wasn't excited about having to dirty two pots and a food processor. But lentils are so easy in the instant pot, and after 2 minutes of cooking, they were easy enough to mash that I d...

Not quite soup... When I noticed that I had pinned the same recipe twice on my Instant Pot Pinterest board, I decided it was time to try it. Also, it's a  Pinch of Yum recipe  that I hadn't tried yet, so it was bound to happen sooner or later. I bought the ingredients and then noticed the adamant note at the bottom of the original recipe to use actual wild rice, not wild rice blend. I didn't know anything about wild rice, but apparently wild rice blends (which is what I had purchased) are mostly brown or white rice with some wild rice mixed in. It was too late to turn back, though, so I thought I'd see what would happen. It turns out the rice breaks down too much, so the end result is a bit more like the consistency of risotto than soup. I'm definitely not complaining. I will try it again in the future with actual wild rice for comparison's sake, but this recipe is a keeper even in this halfway-between-soup-and-risotto form. The original recip...

I strongly recommend topping it with seared scallops. I really love the undertones of wine in risotto, but I'm not a big white wine drinker, so I decided to try this wine-free recipe. With fancy parmesan (from the $5 bin at the Fred Meyer cheese counter) and homemade vegetable broth and the delicious creaminess that the Instant Pot creates, I didn't miss it. This tasted like restaurant food. The scallops didn't hurt. I followed this  official Instant Pot recipe , subbing asparagus for their mushrooms and spinach, and subbing dried basil for thyme, and eliminating the crushed red pepper. Oh, and I'm sure I added more than their recommended amount of parmesan. The more the merrier. The Recipe: 2 tb olive oil for risotto plus 1 tb for asparagus 1 medium shallot, minced 1/4 tsp salt for risotto plus 1/4 tsp for asparagus 2 cloves garlic, minced 2 c vegetable broth 1 c arborio rice 1/4 tsp dried basil 1 bunch asparagus, cut into 1-inch pieces...

The weird meat-looking thing on the lower right is Indian pickle. I like my lentils best when they are broken down into mush, and I like bean/rice combination recipes, and I like when the beans and rice are mixed together so the leftovers can be stored together and maybe even cooked in one pot. And obviously, I love any excuse to try something new in the Instant Pot. And so, when I came across khichdi on Pinterest, I was pretty excited. I'm kind of surprised I've never had it before, because from my reading it sounds like it's a pretty common Indian dish. And there are lots of variations. I chose a variation that made it into a totally uniform porridge-like mush, and I used urad dal and jasmine rice because that's what I had, though I'll definitely try it with basmati rice in the future. Apparently khichdi is commonly served to people with sensitive stomachs - sick people, babies, etc. It was already in my meal plan for the week when I ended up with s...

New Year's Day Lunch This recipe comes from  Carve Your Craving , thanks to another Pinterest search for Instant Pot recipes. I am still amazed at how much better garbanzo beans are when prepared from dry beans, versus the canned version. Another thing I really like about this recipe is that you mash the chickpeas a bit and then cook it more, so the chickpeas act as a natural thickener. It gives it really good texture and heartiness. Once all of the ingredients are prepped (onions/garlic/ginger chopped, spices measured, chickpeas soaked), it's mostly hands-off. If I make this on a weeknight, I'll prep the ingredients in advance so I can just throw it together that night. Normally I prefer dishes like this served over rice, but this has such good texture that it works without the rice too. With naan of course. My only changes from the original recipe are things that the Carve Your Craving post suggests as options: omitting the chickpea flour and the green...

I'm not sure how to make refried beans look photogenic. These are delicious and easy. I made them to go in burritos, but I will likely make them again as a side dish. I will try to remember to take a picture next time, before I do something like hide them in burritos. It came from a variety of online recipes, modified to suit the ingredients we had. I would still like to experiment with this as a one-pot dish, maybe sauteeing the onion and garlic first in the instant pot, then adding the beans, and cooking it all together. But this was easy enough. The Recipe: 1c dried black beans, rinsed 1/2 onion, peeled 1 bay leaf 3 c water 1 tsp salt, plus more to taste 1 tb vegetable oil 1 onion, chopped 3 cloves garlic, minced 3 pickled jalapeno slices, minced Put the beans, 1/2 onion, bay leaf, 1/2 tsp salt, and water in the instant pot. Pressure cook for 35 minutes, then wait for it to naturally release. Discard the bay leaf and onion. Saute the onion...

I'll replace the ugly steamy picture if I remember one day. I have spent a lot of time searching Pinterest for more Instant Pot recipes, and this one came up with good reviews. The flavors are super vibrant and it's so, so healthy. And much to my surprise, it's toddler-approved! I served it alongside latkes, and he ate absolutely none of his latkes but finished his soup. Go figure. I minced all of the vegetables in the food processor to get them very very fine, because I'm opposed to having pieces of mushy vegetables in my soup. My only change to the original recipe is that I lowered the amount of salt because I used regular (not low-sodium) vegetable broth.  The Recipe (taken from  Kitchen Treaty ): 2 tb olive oil 1/2 yellow onion, minced 2 carrots, minced 1 stalk celery, minced 4 cloves garlic, minced 2 tsp cumin 1 tsp turmeric 1 tsp thyme 1/2 tsp salt, plus more to taste 1/4 tsp pepper 1c dry brown lentils, rinsed 4c vegetable...

Beauuutiful. My mother-in-law makes a really good raw cranberry relish (with apple and orange), so I haven't had cooked cranberry sauce in a few years. But I started seeing some recipes for making it in the INSTANT POT and since I had some leftover gravy to use up, I decided it was a good excuse to try another instant pot recipe. I went with this  Zen and Spice recipe  because it looked easy and because I was excited about the cinnamon. The cinnamon was a good call. It makes it feel really warm and rich, instead of just sweet and acidic like sometimes cranberry sauce is. I'll be making this again. The Recipe: (Taken from  Zen and Spice ): 12 oz fresh cranberries, rinsed 1 granny smith apple, diced 1 orange, zested and juiced 1/2 c sugar 2 tb maple syrup 1 tsp cinnamon 1/4 tsp sea salt Place cranberries, apple, orange zest, and orange juice in instant pot.  Pressure cook for 1 minute. Natural release for 7 minutes. Change to Saute setting, a...

Big globs of cheese are underneath the smooth-looking surface. The good: -It's super easy to make. I prepped the ingredients in the food processor the day before and it took minimal time and effort to make this come together in the instant pot. -It tastes good. It's rich and creamy and flavorful. -I like that it has carrots in addition to the broccoli. It's healthy, underneath all of the cheese. The less good: -Health-wise, it's a lot of cheese. -I couldn't get the cheese to incorporate. I shredded a fresh block of Tillamook cheddar, which I know melts and incorporates well in things like mac and cheese, but I ended up with clumps of cheese sinking to the bottom. Maybe I added too much at once? -Some combination of the cheese and the roux stuck to the sides and bottom of the instant pot. It wasn't cooked on or anything, but it was sticky and hard to clean. I would make it again when I'm in the mood for broccoli cheddar soup, but I...

Served over some Spanish rice that isn't worth blogging about. One of the main reasons I was excited about the Instant Pot is that it's really easy to make dried beans. This was my first venture into dried beans in the instant pot, and there will be many more. It's delicious. The texture is so much better than dried beans, and the flavor is fresher, and they're healthier and cheaper. There's no going back.  I worked from  this recipe  and I followed it exactly, except that I accidentally doubled the amount of vinegar. I corrected that mistake below, so let it be noted that if I follow the below recipe next time and it lacks some punch, I should go back to doubling the vinegar. I also used vegetable broth instead of chicken broth. I soaked the beans for about an hour, but the original recipe says this isn't necessary.  The Recipe: 1c vegetable broth 1.5c water 1c dried black beans, soaked for 1 hour 1/2 onion, chopped 2 cloves g...

Success. A short time ago, I was one of those people who didn't understand the Instant Pot fuss. I already had a crock pot, I didn't care much about pressure cooking, and it seemed like all of the other functions could just as easily be done in a pot. Then I needed a new rice cooker, and the Instant Pot Duo Mini was on sale for barely more than a cheap rice cooker, and the extra little cost was worth it to me to have a stainless steel pot (as opposed to the nonstick coating on most cheap rice cookers). So I got it as a rice cooker, and I figured maybe I'd try out some of the other functions sometime if I felt like it. Fast forward 3 days, and I've used it 4 times already. It makes amazing rice. It makes easy, quick, steel cut oats. I can now say I've made my own yogurt. But this risotto is the most exciting thing I've done with it so far.  I second the things that every instant pot risotto recipe blogger has already said: It's easy, it...

This makes me want to sing. It's possible that I should just delete my blog postings and make this URL redirect to  Pinch of Yum , because a good portion of the things I cook now are from that site. And almost all of them have become favorites.  I'm at the point now where I'm trying recipes from  Pinch of Yum  that don't initially sound that good to me, because I trust Lindsay that I will love it. She has yet to let me down. In this case, I'm not big on stew, or coconut milk, or anything with chunks of potatoes. But I was lured in by how healthy, cheap, and easy it looked to make. And guess what? It was delicious. Bonus: SO MANY LEFTOVERS. I'm more excited about going back to work now that these are waiting for me. My only change to the original is that while she uses 3 cups of vegetable broth and 1 cup of water, I used 4 cups of vegetable broth, because that's the amount in a box and I hate having ingredients left over. And I added th...