30-day Instant Pot Challenge: Week 1

Let me start by apologizing.

My first week of my Instant Pot challenge was extremely boring. Because I started my challenge on a Tuesday, I had already prepped my food for the week. Hello steamed broccoli, chickpeas and rice.

I wasn’t prepared to make new dishes during the week. I went with the basic rice plus whatever vegetable or bean was lurking in the refrigerator. I also snacked on cooked chickpeas with a dash of nutritional yeast. (Honestly do not knock it until you try it. So good!) 

I ate Instant Pot steel cooked oats every day for breakfast. I made a huge pot one night that lasted the week. I used powdered peanut butter, and I topped up with fruit and hemp sides. 

To make this challenge a tad bit easier, I asked the Instant Pot Vegan Recipes membership for their favourite recipes. I was thrilled with the response. (It’s a closed book so I am unable to post the responses.) Gosh I have enough to recipes to try for the next couple of months! 

I invited a friend over on Saturday to try my dishes. The plan was to make two but I got carried away and made four (two as sides) dishes. 

Aloo Palak Dal

My first main was Instant Pot Aloo Palak Dal – Spiced Potato Spinach Lentils. (Thank you to Annette for recommending this one.) I recently stocked up on brown lentils at Bulk Barn so I was excited to try this one. What I liked about it was that I had just about everything on hand – tomatoes, potatoes and spinach including most of the spices. 

I LOVED this dish. I tried to follow the recipe precisely but I had run out of cardamom. I don’t think it made a difference. Perfect for a cold winter day. Warm and comforting. This is definitely going into my Instant Pot rotation. Next time I would serve it over rice or eat it again on its own. I sent my friend home with the leftovers. 

Thai Peanut Noodles

Thank you Claire for recommending Cook with Manali’s Instant Pot Thai Peanut Noodles. I served it as a cold noodle dish as opposed to piping hot. I was really excited about this one because I love satay and anything peanut butter. I don’t usually eat spaghetti noodles so I had to shop around to find vegan noodles. Who knew pasta contained eggs? (OK don’t answer that. I didn’t know.) 

We agreed this recipe needed a little more … spice or something. The recipe notes suggested adding more sriracha if spice is your thing. Next time. Also I didn’t feel there was enough of a peanut butter or satay flavour. That’s enough to fix with a little tweak here and there. I thought this recipe was a good starting point. Next time I would add more vegetables to make it more hearty, and crank up the peanut butter. 

Sticky Sesame Cauliflower Bites

By Saturday, I had enough of steamed cauliflower. A quick Google search and I am In Johnna’s Kitchen whipping up cauliflower bites. My guest really LOVED these bites. I thought they were good too but I would have liked a little more spice. (Are you sensing a pattern here?) But they were super easy to make and again I had everything on hand. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Crystal Rhyno (@crystalrhyno)

I served them “microwave hot” because my Instant Pot was in use. I think the sauce would have been better had I served the cauliflower straight out of the pot. Don’t get me wrong, we both quite enjoyed the cauliflower. While I used it as a side dish, the author served it over a bed of rice. That would have been tasty too.  I have a huge supply of Korean Gochujang (spicy red pepper paste). Usually I make gochujang cauliflower “wings” in the oven. Before the month is over, I will modify my oven-recipe for the Instant pot. 

Bombay potatoes

I had a handful of baby potatoes left so I thought I would make some spicy potatoes as my second side dish. I’ve made this recipe about three times now. I am still trying to get the water right. (See more of this in tomorrow’s post). I adapted the recipe from My Food Story. An old co-worker brought in the potatoes at a lunch potluck at work, and I was completely hooked.

I’ve made the spicy potatoes on the stove several times and they were AMAZING. The trick with these beauties is using the dehydrated mango powder. I have used it with just lime juice and it was not the same. Mango adds just the right amount of punch. If you love spicy potatoes, I highly recommend making this part of your rotation. 

Up next 

I am combing through the recipes for this coming week from the recommendations on the Facebook group. I already have my eye on the portobello pot roast recipe. My plan is to make at least four (or more) this week. On Sunday I made a huge batch of black beans (using vegetable stock) and rice for my lunches for the week. I was in the kitchen for a good part of Saturday so I didn’t really feel like any major prep on Sunday. Besides I had a football game to watch. 

Next I will share with you what I have learned so far about using an Instant Pot. There are lots to learn but at the same time it’s so easy. 

In case you missed it:

Instant Pot challenge

What I learned on a 30-day raw food diet

I’m back to running