Instant Pot: Butternut Squash Risotto with Blue Cheese,Lentil Bolognese Sauce, and Vegetarian Chili with Sweet Potatoes, Black Beans, and Quinoa
One of our favorite things about the Instant Pot is the ability to reduce long cooking time to just a few minutes. Take a pork shoulder, for instance. Three to four hours of slow braising is down to less than an hour. Not to mention not having to soak beans. Outside beans, however, we hadn’t explored many vegetarian Instant Pot recipes. Time to change that! We found a risotto that will save us from standing over the stove, giving us plenty of time to clean up the house or scroll Instagram. Or how about a lentil Bolognese that’s full of flavor and fiber? Wrapping it all up, we made a quinoa and black bean chili that might replace it’s meatier cousin. Turns out vegetarian meals and the Instant Pot are more compatible that we had hoped.
Instant Pot Butternut Squash Risotto with Blue Cheese :Instant Pot Eats
A warm bowl of risotto with butternut squash is the height of comfort food. Instant Pot Eats adds a layer of savory with a mix in of blue cheese and the crunch of walnuts at the end. Make this for a night when you’re wearing your fuzziest socks and plan to be the coziest ever.
Tips:
- Betsy chose to serve the blue cheese completely on the side. The recipe author also suggested parmesan cheese if blue cheese isn’t to your taste.
- Don’t skip the walnuts. The crunch was a nice contrast to the soft rice and squash.
- Too much risotto for one night? This reheated well but was also super as little fried rice patties. Just form into 2 inch patties and fry in a little neutral oil. Or dip the patties in a beaten egg, panko bread crumbs, and then fry. (If you’re feeling ambitious.)
Instant Pot Lentil Bolognese Sauce:Plates and Pairings
A Bolognese sauce traditionally means hours of simmering ground meat and veggies. Delicious, rich, and time-consuming, to be sure. Plates and Pairings lightens things up with lentils in place of the ground beef and trims the cooking time with the Instant Pot. Tossed with penne pasta and a little parmesan cheese, we liked it just as much.
Tips:
- Even though the Instant Pot makes for less cooking time, this recipe did involve quite a bit of chopping. Plan for at least 20-30 minutes of prep time before sealing the Instant Pot, depending on your knife skills.
- This makes plenty of bolognese sauce but freezes beautifully. Keep some sauce in your freezer for busy weeks. Kate wishes she had frozen individual servings for even quicker meals.
Instant Pot Vegetarian Chili with Sweet Potatoes, Black Beans, and Quinoa: Well Plated
Well Plated created a vegetarian chili that is chock full of goodness. We’re talking about two types of beans, sweet potatoes, quinoa, bell pepper, onions, and garlic. All that in a chili that is done and ready in about a half hour. No wonder Betsy’s family is making this their go-to chili recipe this fall.
Tips:
- Taste test your kidney beans. Sometimes they are a little undercooked in the can. If they aren’t as soft as you’d like, throw them in with the quinoa and sweet potatoes.
- Don’t have kidney beans? Two cans of black beans will work just as well.
- Top with all your favorite chili fixings like sour cream, pickled red onion, avocado, or cheese. Don’t forget some tortilla chips for dipping!
From the Smorgasbord:
We’re always listening to podcasts and found a couple to share.
Kate loved the Japanese Home Cooking (Episode 694) episode from The Splendid Table. Real life in Japan isn’t sushi but a savory quick-cooking curry.
Betsy gets a kick out of the gossipy and fun Eater Digest podcast. From their website, “Hosts Amanda Kludt, Eater’s editor-in-chief, and producer Daniel Geneen call in the biggest names in the industry and journalists from the Eater newsroom to bring you the wildest, most important stories from restaurants and kitchens around the world.”
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