I used to own an instant pot. Those are great. I gave it away when I moved and now I just have a regular pressure cooker, which is also really great.
My quickest and easiest, but still yummy thing to make is chickpeas. I soak them overnight. Pick out the ugly ones. Drain the water. Barely cover them with fresh water (since they’ve already soaked, they don’t need tons of water). Then I heat the pot on high until I hear the pressure noise, switch it to low heat, and let it cook for 15-20 minutes. Then I turn off the heat and let the pressure out naturally.
Once they’re done I sometimes just eat a bowl of them with nothing more than olive oil and salt. Yum.
One of my other favorite dishes is a bit more elaborate but still simple and healthy: split pea soup. I don’t soak the peas but I do rinse them. I put them in the pressure cooker with a bay leaf, chopped garlic and onions, diced potatoes and carrots, and I’ll cover the whole thing with a decent amount of water. Then, like the chick peas, I’ll let the pressure hiss, then put it on low heat for 15-20 minutes. I let the pressure naturally release.
Sometimes I’ll sautée even more onions and garlic in a separate pan with avocado oil on low heat for a while, until they look like they’re getting caramelized (fucking yum).
When the soup is done, I’ll remove the bay leaf, add the extra onions and garlic (if I did that step), add some salt, then use an immersion blender. It’s SUPER IMPORTANT to remove the bay leaf if you use an immersion blender.
Then when I eat it, I put a decent amount of olive oil and make sure the salt level is tasty. Even better if I have spicy olive oil around :)
When I don’t feel like proper cooking but want a half-decent(-ish) meal:
I begin frying sausages in a pan. As they’re frying, I chop them up with the egg flip. Before they get actually cooked, I throw on a tin of tomatoes. Then I add basil, salt, pepper, curry powder… whatever’s available and fits the mood. When the sausages are cooked (basically braised), I throw it onto a plate and eat it. Very quick and easy, fairly healthy (you can tweak it to make it healthier if that’s your thing), and (when I get it right) tasty.
Brussel sprouts, cut in half. Olive oil/butter, salt pepper garlic. Roast or fry. The best part is how they long they last in the fridge. Both cooked and uncooked.
Pho Ga (using chicken thighs), with various toppings and vermicelli rice noodles. Takes about 45 all in, if you’re efficient, whilst being delicious and healthy.
I haven’t done it, bit I believe that with a pressure cooker you don’t need to soak the chickpeas.
Beans and rice!
Oatmeal, add just water or use milk and add fruits.
If you boil rice, just check some veg on top so it steams, then add seasoning when it’s done. Bish bash bosh.
I have a 5 liter pot. I’ll make a big batch of chili/stew/soup and freeze it in pint size containers. Right now I have portions of lentil soup and chili sitting in the freezer. It takes me five minutes to microwave.
Pan-fried broccoli and almonds with a little bit of oil.
Garden peas / Petit pois. Stick em in a pot, add some vegetable stock, dump a can of chopped tomatoes in there, boil for 30 mins. Add maybe some rice and lentils.
I could eat that all day.
Bell peppers & beef is my current favorite. It’s as simple as browning some beef, putting rice in the ricecooker, and making a simple sauce to cook the peppers in.
I’ve been making overnight oats with chia seeds. Oats, oat milk, chia seeds, a little sugar. Stick it in the fridge for 2-12 hours. Chop up some bananas, blueberries, strawberries, really whatever fruit you want. Add sunflower seeds or some ground up pistachios and a bit of Greek yogurt. It’s so freaking good, and so fast, and I can grab it whenever and eat while I study
I’m assuming you’re vegan?
If what you’re looking for is a quick vegan dish, here’s something I learnt in Japan - baked avocado.
Open a ripe avocado lengthwise and remove the seed. Take a sharp knife and cut a grid-like pattern into the avocado, going as deep as possible (careful not to puncture the skin!).
Now, pour some soy sauce of your liking (ideally not a thickened one, and with a moderate saltiness level) into the cavity. You don’t want to fill it completely, that would be overpowering. Maybe about 1/3 of the depth, just enough to allow it to seep into every crevice when baking.
For the baking process itself, crumble up some tinfoil to make a stand for the avocado halves, you want them to remain as level as possible. Bake them on 350F / 175C for about 20-25 min, you want them to be soft but not burned.
Once done, decorate with sesame seeds and either spoon them out directly (that’s the Japanese way) or spread on a toasted sourdough bread, sprinkle some smoked paprika and chopped chives & coriander over it, and enjoy.
Vegetarian option: Crack an egg into the cavity (on top of the soy sauce) 5 min into the bake. You want about 15 min left for solid eggwhites with a still semi-runny yolk. Mix it up and spread on bread.
Omnivore option: Fry some bacon beyond crispy, crumble it up completely, and drizzle the bacon bits on top.
This sounds amazing.
This sounds fucking incredible, and I will be trying this as soon as I have avocados again.
Wow my mouth is watering now…will try this when I get avocados. Thanks for enlightening me!
Enjoy! It’s really good stuff, hope you like it!
someone mentioned rice and beans but im going to specifically say rice and lentils. dry lentils will cook up with rice in a rice cooker along with the rice with no extra steps. just rinse the rice and dry lentils (or don’t but uh, modern food can have some nasty chemicals) put in the cooker with the usual two cups of water for each cup of solids. Add anything handy you can for flavor be it seasoning or veg or sauces or whatever. Literally cannot think of a simpler meal to make and its ingredients don’t need canning or refrigeration necessarily. Just need the rice cooker for convenience.
Soondubu, doenjang jigae (I add gochujang for some spice). Both Korean soups.