The Pressure is On

My pressure cooker is my new best friend. Especially when I’m not in the mood for cooking, I can toss a few ingredients in, lock the lid down and come back to a healthy, nutritious supper in just a few minutes.

Unfortunately I couldn’t find a pressure cooker cookbook up to my standards. All of the ones I checked out from the library, even those newly published, seemed stuck in the 1950s tuna noodle casserole era, when pressure cooking was last popular. Thankfully, a friend sent us a copy of Pressure Cooking for Everyone by Rick Rogers and Arlene Ward. The recipes are simple and I’m especially fond of the squash risotto and vegetarian chili.

Speaking of vegetarian, the recipes in this book are on the meaty side (Kelly is a “fishatarian” and I simply don’t buy supermarket meat). Someone does need to do a good vegetarian pressure cooker cookbook as the only one I could find was stuck in a kind of brown rice and bean sprouts 1970s style vegetarian groove.

Pressure cooking saves energy, a real plus during tough economic times. And with this cookbook our great recession era meals need not be bland.

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14 Comments

  1. Have you looked at Cynthia Lair’s book Feeding the Whole Family or her website, Cookus Interruptus? Many of her recipes provide pressure cooker instructions, and everything I’ve tried has been great.

  2. I was blessed to find an All American Presser Canner @ Aunt Sally’s for $20 7 or 8 years ago. After sitting on my pantry shelf next to home canned applesauce I worked my courage up to put it in use both for canning and cooking.
    Interesting cookbook.

  3. We like ‘Cooking Under Pressure’ by Lorna Sass. I’m not sure we use that many recipes from it, but the risotto recipes alone make it worth buying the book. 6 minutes for some fantastic risotto instead of 45 minutes of stirring in 1/4 cup of liquid at a time.

    It does have a chapter on Meat and Chicken, but more than half the book is veggie – including chapters for Vegetables, Beans, Rice and Risotto, Grains, and Desserts.

  4. While it’s not a cookbook, I have seen a bunch of pressure cooker recipes over at http://fatfreevegan.com! I don’t have one so I can’t testify to how good the recipes are, but they look tasty enough and the author seems to really enjoy using the pressure cooker.

  5. Thanks all for the suggestions. I’ve also been looking for an Indian cookbook with pressure cooker directions (many home cooks in India use pressure cookers).

  6. Lorna Sass actually has a vegetarian book, too. Great Vegetarian Cooking Under Pressure. I have been cooking out of that book for over a decade and it is one of my all time favorites.

  7. totally agreed on the lack of veggie-friendly pressure cooker (and slow cooker for that matter) recipe books.
    They are both perfect for bean dishes but when you are just beginning its nice to have some recipe ideas to start with.

  8. we’ve also just discovered the joys of a pressure cooker, and all i can think of is “where have you been all my life!?!” we love it and i just can’t get over how quick it is to cook something. recipes which used to stew all day in a slow cooker i can produce in less than an hour. how great is that? i’ve been thinking i needed a cookbook to get some new ideas. so, we will take that cookbook and thank you very much!

  9. 1/4 head cabbage, or 1/2 cut into 2 pieces
    1 potato, large, cut in half (or new potatoes)
    brocolli
    carrots
    dash of salt
    onion, celery,green pepper, all just enough for flavor
    In the middle of the pressure cooker, put 1/4 cup of brown rice and 1/8 cup of water in a cup or bowl.

    Pressure at 10 lbs for 12 minutes. I depended on the three seasonings instead of salt.

    That is a favorite meal of mine. Of course, you can put in whatever you like. Pressure the food at the lbs and time for the thing in the pressure cooker that takes the longest.

    I never read anything, had no recipes, just did it. Well, I did read pounds of pressure and time to cook each food item that went into this. At times, I changed up what I put into the pressure cooker according to what I had or wanted. If you want a whole onion, put it in. The same goes for pepper and celery.

    Take what you have and put it in the pressure cooker. I lost 46 lbs in 3 months eating this meal about three times each week. I added a Tbsp of butter, ONLY, to the whole plate full of food after pressuring. Of course, other nights I had meat. Maybe during the day I had eaten meat. I am by no means a vegetarian. But, not all meals include meat. Almost every day includes meat.

    There are many recipes on the internet. Did your pressure cooker come with a book. Usually those manuals have a few recipes.

  10. Haha! I could have written that line about “old” dusty recipes from the 50’s! That’s why I started to write my own, friends asking had me put them on a website that now has it’s own life! And a Veg. category – I don’t specifically write vegetarian recipes (I know you have specific dietary requirements to bulk-up protein) but I do label the ones that naturally happen to be, so:

    http://www.hippressurecooking.com/search/label/vegetarian

    Now aren’t you glad you wrote that?!? Tons of more resources from your readers to explore!

    Ciao,

    L

  11. I too love mine, I use the crockpot if I have time to prep in the morning and the pressure cooker if I am short of time in the evening.

    I tend to make up my own recipes but have done a few from the fat free vegan site recommened above.

  12. I love my pressure cooker too but I’ve heard conflicting results with using frozen foods. So I tend to use my crockpot more often because I usually don’t plan ahead enough to defrost stuff. I guess I should just try it & see what happens. What’s the consensus on frozen here?

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