INTRODUCTION
About the Recipes
I’ve developed all of the recipes in this book with optimum nutrition, flavor, and speed in mind. They call for easy-to-find, real-food ingredients that maximize your vitamin and mineral intake, while also taking calories into account, in case weight loss is one of your goals, too.
To make each meal as healthy as possible, I’ve included a generous serving of vegetables in every recipe. If you or someone you’re cooking for isn’t a vegetable lover (yet), the Instant Pot actually offers an advantage. Because pressure cooking tends to turn vegetables to mush if you cook them for too long, it’s easy to sneak vegetables into your meals in unexpected ways. For example, rather than using a lot of heavy cream and an expensive blender to make a cream sauce, you can totally dissolve a head of cauliflower to create a creamy mac ’n’ cheese sauce. And when you cook sweet potatoes in the same pot as the chocolate cake, the potatoes become a soft and creamy base for a rich, chocolate frosting to top the cake. Vegetables have never tasted so good!
If you have special dietary needs beyond just wanting to eat healthier, this book arms you with plenty of options. I’ve included gluten-free options for every single recipe that contains gluten, without the need for special gluten-free flour mixes, and all recipes are naturally sweetened (meaning there’s no refined sugar) to help keep your blood sugar levels balanced, too.
If you follow a vegan or vegetarian diet, almost every recipe that calls for meat or fish also has a tested vegan substitute so you won’t miss out on any delicious flavors. Nearly every sauce in the book is already vegan, so you can easily swap the protein to suit your needs, or use up any ingredients that you have on hand. If you
do eat meat, try one of the meatless variations every now and then. It adds variety to your diet and helps you cut back on your weekly grocery bills.
Since dairy products can cause digestive issues for many people, I’ve also limited the use of dairy in these recipes. If you’re in this camp, feel free to omit cheese when it is called for in a recipe, or use the vegan variations for a totally dairy-free dish.
No matter what your dietary needs are, you’ll find plenty of healthy recipes to enjoy in this collection. To help you get started, I’ve included a list of my favorite pantry staples and kitchen tools to make shopping and cooking easier. If some of the ingredients in these recipes are unfamiliar, take a look at the ingredients and substitutions section for some simple swaps. And if you’ve never used an Instant Pot before, check out my easy reference guide. It walks you through the operation of your pressure cooker and helps you troubleshoot the most common problems.
Let’s get started!
Copyright © 2018 by Megan Gilmore. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
