Instant Pot Beef Keema Meatloaf (Whole 30)

When I ordered my 3 quart Instant Pot back in March, I also ordered a 3 quart Instant pot cookbook for 2.  It was the worst cookbook, of any kind, I have ever seen.  The ingredient lists weren’t complete, the timing of the recipes was way off, and the none of the recipes gave the kind of pressure release needed, and there were obvious typos throughout the book.  I was so disappointed.  The book was obviously written, solely,  to take advantage of the instant pot craze, not to provide cooks with good recipes.  This recipe made me incredibly sceptical of ordering cookbooks without actually having seen them personally.

So when Dr. Urvashi Pitre started taking preorders for her new Indian Instant Pot Cookbook on her blog,  Twosleevers.com, I didn’t preorder, even though, I love Indian food and my instant pot.   I won’t make that mistake again.  Dr.  Pitre’s cookbooks are awesome.  Dr. Pitre has an incredible talent for taking complicated recipes and making them simple without losing the recipe’s heart.  Dr. Pitre’s recipes are accurate, from the ingredient lists, to the cooking times, to the type of pressure release needed.  Best of all, I have never made a recipe from her cookbooks or blog that didn’t taste amazing.

If Indian food isn’t for you, try the recipes in her Keto Instant pot cookbook or her blog, Twosleevers.com.  They both have recipes for airfryers, pressure cookers, the oven and the stove.  She also has recipes for food from all over the world.  It is easy to find recipes that will become regulars in your rotation.

Originally, this recipe was for the airfryer.  I don’t have one and I don’t want one but I love Keema and the idea of making it into meat loaf.  I tried cooking the meat loaf in the pressure cooker because I didn’t have time to cook it in the oven.  It turned out very well but it didn’t have that tasty crust most meatloaves have so I put it under the broiler.  You can skip that step if you want to.

Beef Keema Meatloaf

• Difficulty: Easy
• Print

Adapted From Two Sleevers.com

1/2 lb ground beef

1 egg

1/2 cup onion, diced

2 TBS cilantro, chopped

1 1/2 tsp minced ginger

1 1/2 tsp minced garlic

1 tsp garam masala

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp turmeric

1/4 – 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1/4 tsp cinnamon

pinch cardamom

Move the rack in your oven to 5-6  inches from your broiler.  Preheat the broiler. In a medium-sized bowl, combine all the ingredients and mix well.  Spray a 5 inch spring form pan with non-stick cooking spray.  Pack the meat mixture into the spring form pan.  Smoosh it into the pan very well.  Cover the pan with a piece of foil.  Place the trivet in the bottom of the liner of your pressure cooker.  Add one cup of water to the liner.  Place the spring form pan on the trivet.  Lock the lid and cook on high for 6 minutes.  Let it natural release for 10 minutes then quick release the remaining pressure.  Remove the spring form pan from the liner and let sit a few minutes.  Remove the meat loaf from the spring form pan  and place under the broiler for 5- 10 minutes or until it crisps up and the top browns.  Serve.

Instant Pot Mini Monday Beef Stroganoff (Whole 30)

This week something amazing happened.  Well, it was amazing to me.  I was watching Christina Lane’s Instagram story when she flashed a picture of a recipe she is working on for her blog.  As with all of her recipes, it looked amazing so I jokingly asked her if I could recipe test it for her and she said YES!!!  She sent me her recipe notes and we talked about it for a while.  I am so honored! To me it indicates a high level of trust because there are still a lot of people out there who think just because it is out there on the internet it is free to take and claim as their own.  I guess those people where absent on the day their English teachers and professors talked about plagiarism.  Anyway, my feelings on that subject are a post for another day…   I am also honored Christina, a professional who makes her living on her recipes, valued my opinion on her recipe.  I am a proud home cook, not a professional.  So to have someone whose work I admire like I admire Christina’s, take what I have to say seriously was a great gift.  It means a lot to me.

Just so you know the recipe is amazing and as soon as she posts it to her blog, I will link to it for you.  In the meantime, try making Beef Stroganoff.

Instant Pot Mini Beef Stroganoff

• Difficulty: Easy
• Print

Adapted from Wholesome Delicious

3/4 lb lean beef stew meat

1/4 large onion, chopped

1 1/2 garlic cloves, minced

5 oz sliced mushrooms

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons beef broth

2 TBS coconut aminos

2 TBS red wine vinegar

1/4 tsp onion powder

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1/4 cup coconut milk or coconut cream, the stuff at the top of a can of coconut milk

1 1/2 TBS arrowroot

salt and pepper

Preheat the Instant Pot on the saute function.  When hot, add 1 tablespoon of olive oil to the pot.  When the oil is hot, saute the onions for about 2 minutes.  Add the garlic and saute 1-2 minutes more.  Cancel the saute function.  Season the beef with garlic powder and onion powder, salt and pepper, to taste.  Place the beef on the onion/garlic mixture.  In a small bowl, combine the broth, coconut aminos and apple cider vinegar.  Pour over the beef.  Add the sliced mushrooms.  Lock the lid and cook on high pressure for 15 minutes.  Natural release.  Add the coconut milk or coconut cream and stir. Dissolve the arrowroot in the water.  Add to the pot.  Bring to a boil and simmer until thickened.

Instant Pot Mini Monday — Chana Salaad

I love my pressure cooker and I love Indian food so it was inevitable I would love Dr.  Urvashi Pitre’s Indian Instant Pot cookbook.  Dr.  Pitre has an incredible talent for taking complicated recipes and simplifying them without changing the recipe’s essential flavor.

I love the way Dr. Pitre gives recipes for all the spice blends she uses in the book, except for her Chana Masala recipe.  Dr. Pitre allows us to use a store-bought blend in that recipe because the individual ingredients would be too hard for the average person to find.  Best of all, her recipes taste fantastic.

If you don’t want to buy a cookbook, although I heartily suggest that you do, or don’t have a pressure cooker, check out Dr. Pitre’s blog, Two Sleevers.  She has tons of recipes from all sorts of cuisines from all over the world, all types of cooking methods, and all types of diets.

Chana Salaad

• Difficulty: Easy
• Print

from The Indian Instant Pot Cookbook

1 cup dried chickpeas

3 bay leaves

3 cups water

1 cup finely minced red onion

1/2 cup diced tomato

1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

In the liner, combine chickpeas, bay leaves and water.  Lock the lid and cook on high 20 minutes. Allow the pressure to release 10 minutes then quick release the remaining pressure.  While the chickpeas are cooling, combine the onion, tomato and cilantro in a large bowl.  Drain the chickpeas and add them to the vegetables.  Add the salt, cayenne, and lemon juice.  Mix well, taste and adjust the seasoning as necessary.

Instant Pot Mini Monday — Onion Chopped Steak with Easy Gravy

The last few weeks I have been cooking in my Instant Pot mini almost exclusively.  Partly because I am having so much fun seeing what it can do and partly because it avoids heating up my kitchen.  Since I now have a huge pile of tried and tested IP mini recipes and I don’t want to turn A Solitary Feast into a pressure cooking blog,  I am going to make Monday my Instant Pot mini recipe day until I run out of recipes.

My first month’s recipes are all going to be adaptions of some of my all time favorite recipes.  Onion Chopped Steak with Easy Gravy is one of my all time favorite recipes.  The original recipe call for an envelope of onion soup mix and a packet of brown gravy mix.  It took a bit of tinkering but I got the same flavor without the processed ingredients.  This is one of those recipes that isn’t necessarily faster in the Instant Pot than on the stove.  I like the convience of just throwing things in the liner and letting it go until I am ready to eat.

Onion Chopped Steak with Easy Gravy

• Difficulty: Easy
• Print

Adapted From The Desperation Dinners Cookbook

½ lb ground beef
¼ cup bread crumbs
2 TBS milk
4 tsp dried onion flakes
2 tsp beef bouillon
½ tsp onion powder
½ tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp celery salt
1 1/2  cup beef, chicken or vegetable broth
2 TBS flour

In a small bowl, combine the beef, bread crumbs, milk and spices; mix well with your hands.  Form into 2 patties of roughly equal size.  Lay 2 squares of aluminum foil on the counter.  Add 1 patty to each square.  Seal each packet by folding the edges together twice.  Place each packet on the trivet in the liner.  Add the beef broth to the liner.  Lock the lid and cook 12 minutes then quick release the pressure.  Remove the hamburger packets and set aside.  Measure 3 tablespoons  of broth from the liner into a small bowl.  Add the flour and stir until a smooth paste forms.  Using the saute function, bring the broth to a boil.  Add the flour paste and whisk until the broth thickens.  Serve the gravy over the beef patties. 

Insta Pot Mini Easy Chicken and Rice

Last month my apartment was torn up for repairs and painting.  For the most part this wasn’t a big deal, I just lived around the mess.  Then the repairmen  got to my tiny kitchen and pulled out all my appliances to the middle of the kitchen, leaving me a tiny path from the door to the counter.  I couldn’t get in the kitchen to cook and it almost killed me.  I know it sounds weird but my kitchen is my happy place and the actual act of cooking relaxes me.  So not being able to get to my kitchen to cook was tough on me mentally as well as on my wallet.

After three days of eating every meal out, I knew I needed to find away to cook something.   Thank goodness, for my Insta Pot Mini.  I took it out into the living room and put it on the entertainment center.  I prepped all my veggies and meat on a cutting board set on a folding chair and did dishes in the sink in the bathroom.   Fortunately, you can do everything  in one pot with the Insta Pot.  I made every meal for the next 5 days in the Insta Pot in my living room.

To find recipes for this grand cooking adventure, I went through my blog and big, binder of recipes for one or two and picked some of my favorite recipes to adapt for the Insta Pot Mini.   The first one I tried was my favorite quick and easy Chicken and Rice.  I love this recipe when I am too tired or don’t have much time to cook.

Just a warning, this recipe comes out of the pan or the Insta Pot very beige.  It doesn’t bug me when I am cooking for myself but it looked awful in the first group of pictures I took so I stuck it under the broiler for a few minutes.  If beige food bothers you, just pre heat the broiler before you start throwing things in the pot.  When it is done pressure releasing, take the chicken out and broil it for 5 minutes or so.

• Difficulty: Easy
• Print

Adapted From How To Cook Everything

2 boneless, skinless chicken thighs

1 tsp olive oil

1/2 cup uncooked short grained white rice

1 1/2 tsp seasoning blend of your choice

1 cup chicken broth or water

1 cup onion, chopped

Salt and pepper both sides of the chicken thighs. Preheat the instant pot on the saute setting. When it is hot add the oil and onion.  Saute the onion until soft, 3-4 minutes.  Cancel the saute setting and add the rice, seasonings, chicken and water or broth.  Lock the lid.  Cook for 10 minutes.  Naturally release the pressure for 10 minutes then quick release the remaining pressure.