We at Whole Food Mommies love trying new healthy recipes and are always happy to share these with you. After spending some time in my kitchen this week- and using one of my favorite appliances…I thought I would share somthing a little different this week.
Maintenance Mommy and Newbie Mommy referred me to this product…and I am so happy they did.
It is the Cuisinart Electric Pressure Cooker.
At first glance, this appliance looks great…but the determining factor- what made me purchase it- was it’s abilitiy to cook DRY BEANS. If you are at all familiar with our DIET, you know BEANS make up a HUGE part. I do stock up on canned beans in my food storage, but I also have many, many pounds of DRY BEANS.
To use my dry beans, in the past I have spent many hours in the kitchen pressure cooking my them into mason jars. I use a large pressure cooker over my stove-top. I have no regrets doing this, and I will probably continue to do it more and more.
But…once I purchased my electric pressure cooker, my bean cooking techniques have drastically changed. For most of my recipes where BEANS are part of a hot dish, I use this appliance.
To cook black beans, it only takes 30 minutes to cook 1 cup of beans…and you don’t even have to SOAK THEM!!! If you cook dry beans over the stove, it calls for soaking…and cooking about an hour or more. This appliance drops the time more than half.
But I use this appliance for more than beans. My family loves new potatoes with garlic and parsley- a recipe I make by thowing all the ingredients into the cooker…and in 10 minutes they are done. I also love cooking brown rice and veggies in the same manner.
Here is a recipe I recently shared with you- but below I adjusted it to show you how to make it in this appliance. I hope you enjoy!
If you are interested in this appliance, we purchased it at Coscto for $85. I have been using this at least once a week for the past few months.
Lentil Taco “Meat”
Ingredients
1 medium yellow onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 bell pepper, chopped (optional)
1 cup diced mushrooms
1 cup diced carrots
1 cup diced celery
1/4 cup taco seasoning (I used 1 1/2 packages of McCormick Seasoning)
1 cup lentils (rinsed)
1 1/2 cups water
2 tsp Better Than Bouillon vegetable base
DIRECTIONS
Place all ingredients into pressure cooker, except the 1 1/2 cups water and bouillon. Do add a little water (about 1/8 cup) to saute all the ingredients for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Continue sauting until the onion is slightly tender. Add the 1 1/2 cups water and bouillon, close the lid and cook on high pressure for 8 minutes, then do quick pressure release.
Transfer to a blender or food processor and pulse a few times–until a crumbly texture is achieved.
Source: WFM 1-10