Steaming on the Stove Is Different From Steaming in an Instant Pot
Stovetop steaming is a gentle heat transfer method that turns your food into a cooked state, making it ideal for vegetables or proteins that tend to be digested if you’re not careful. If you have an Instant Pot, you might be tempted to treat the “Steam” function like you would a steamer on your stove, but that would be foolish, my friend.
As with any of the Instant Pot functions requiring the lid to be open and the valve to be sealed, this function operates under pressure in the same ranges as the Manual function. If you just hit Steam and don’t press any other buttons, the Instant Pot will cook your food under high pressure (10.2-11.6 psi) for 10 minutes, heating up the water you (hopefully) added into the insert, and steaming food in it. steamer basket. If you click “Customize” after “Steam” to change the setting to “More” this program will last 15 minutes, if you set it to “Less” it will only last three. If you want to relieve pressure, simply press Pressure and the Instant Pot will operate in the 5.8-7.2 psi range. (Except for LUX series, which only supports high pressure mode.)
What does all this mean? Firstly, it means that the only difference between the “Manual” in the Instant Pot and “Steam” function lies in the fact that the latter has a pre-programmed time, you can also configure using the buttons “+” and “-“. But when it comes to food – which is what we really care about – you know that steam cooking in the Instant Pot will cook it much faster. This is good for the more filling vegetables – in fact, it’s extremely healthy – but for the more tender green guys like broccoli or asparagus, it might not be as good.
For example, it takes about five minutes to cook broccoli on the stove until it is incredibly tender and crispy. To get broccoli that is not a full porridge in the Instant Pot you have to set the time to zero (0) minutes, and even then I found it too cooked for my taste. He also ends up taking Instant Pot more pressure than it does for me to bring a pot of water to a boil and steam on the stove, so I think my point is that there is no reason to steam broccoli (or any tender green vegetables) in your Instant Pot. (Plus, the instant pot must remain closed while cooking, which means you can’t keep an eye on the vegetables – a drawback when it comes to food that is so easy to overcook.)
However, there are many vegetables that do benefit from the pressure of Instant Pot, especially tougher samples like potatoes, carrots, and courgettes. (See this chart for cooking times and stay away from those with a recommended cooking time of less than three minutes.) Just don’t worry about broccoli; refried broccoli isn’t fun at all.