Not in the habit of planning ahead? That may be a recipe for disaster when it comes to your nutrition goals. Learn the benefits of meal prep and tips on how your Instant Pot can make the process even easier.
Meal prepping helps you eat healthier, save money and spend less time figuring out what to eat during the busy work week. Meal prep is a year-round game. This is exactly where your Instant Pot comes in, which helps make meal prep much quicker and more streamlined.
Here are our favourite grains to make at home!
Organic White Quinoa
Out of all types of grains, we love to use quinoa because it is gluten free, protein-rich and very nutritious. Quinoa is a complete protein with all nine essential amino acids. It is a great source of iron and magnesium – two vital nutrients that vegans often lack!
Did you know that you can make Quinoa in 1 minute using your Instant Pot!? Our quinoa was cooked to perfection with just the push of a button. No waiting for water to come to a boil over a stove top, and no worrying about burning the quinoa at the bottom of the pan, either. You literally just push a button and walk away until it beeps that it’s done.
Place the needed amount of dry quinoa in the stainless steel insert of your Instant Pot. Add 1 cup of water to 1 cup of Quinoa with a bit of extra water to account for evaporation. Cover with lid, set the valve to “sealing” position and adjust the timer to 1 minute for high pressure cooking.
That’s it!
Organic Hulled Barley Groats
Barley Groats is the whole grain form of barley, with only the outermost hull removed. Chewy and rich in fibre, it’s the healthiest kind of barley. However, it takes longer to cook than pearl barley, about an hour or more. This is the one of the benefits of making your Barley Groats in the Instant Pot, it can be ready in 20 minutes!
Place 1 cup barley, 1 cup water, 1 tablespoon oil/butter/ghee/coconut oil, and 1 teaspoon salt into the stainless steel insert of your Instant Pot.
Secure the lid on the pot. Set the Instant Pot at High pressure for 15 minutes. When cooking time is complete, let pot release pressure naturally for 10 minutes, and then release the pressure with the quick release. Use cooked barley as you would rice or oatmeal, in salads, for breakfast, and all kinds of recipes.
Organic Buckwheat Kasha
Despite its name, buckwheat is not related to wheat and is gluten-free. It’s used in buckwheat tea or processed into groats, flour, and noodles. The grain is used in much the same way as rice, and is the main ingredient in many traditional European and Asian dishes.
If you are new to buckwheat, this preparation method is the perfect way to give it a whirl. Taking just 15 minutes, this recipe for Instant Pot Buckwheat is easy to make and comes out perfect every time.
To make this quick and easy recipe all you need is a cup of buckwheat, water, and salt. That is it! If you want to cook more or less buckwheat, this recipe still works! You just keep the ratio of water to buckwheat the same. The ratio for Instant Pot buckwheat is 1 cup to buckwheat to 1 3/4 cups of water. No need to alter the cooking time!
To make your Buckwheat with an Instant Pot, you will add the water, buckwheat, and salt. Close the lid and turn the valve to a sealing position. Press the “Manual” button and set the time to 12 minutes on High pressure. When your buckwheat is done cooking, follow up with a quick-release and give your buckwheat kasha a little fluff with a fork.
Teff Grain
This teeny-tiny grain packs a big nutritional punch! It’s most commonly used to make injera which you might be familiar with if you’ve had Ethiopian cuisine. It’s not just limited to that. In fact, this grain is quite versatile. Teff grain is gluten-free, naturally balancing for healthy hormones, high in fibre to keep digestion smooth, and provides 360% of the recommended daily value for manganese.
This is as easy as making our Quinoa, and can cook within 2 – 3 minutes! Place 1 cup Teff, 2 cups of water, 1 tablespoon oil/butter/ghee/coconut oil, and 1 teaspoon salt into the stainless steel insert of your Instant Pot. Set your Instant Pot to Manual on high pressure for 2-3 minutes. Follow up with a quick-release.
Organic Amaranth Grain
Like Quinoa, Amaranth is not technically a grain but is the seed of the Amaranth plant. One plant can produce up to 60,000 seeds. Amaranth doesn’t contain any gluten, which makes it a great choice for people who are celiac or gluten intolerant and an excellent way to boost the nutritional power of gluten-free recipes. Amaranth contains calcium, magnesium, potassium, phosphorus, and iron. One cup of uncooked amaranth has 31% of the RDA for calcium, 14% for vitamin C, and a whopping 82% for iron.
This is another quick Instant Pot recipe, it can cook within 5 minutes! Place 1 cup Amaranth, 2 cups of water or stock, 1 tablespoon oil/butter/ghee/coconut oil, and 1 teaspoon salt into the stainless steel insert of your Instant Pot. Set your Instant Pot to Manual on high pressure for 5 minutes.
Let out pressure with the quick release method and stir. Reduce any residual water by simmering and letting it steam off. You can also add butter or oil at this point to deepen the flavour of the amaranth.
Connect with us!
We would love to hear your favourite ways to cook our grains, or if you would like to share your own meal prep habits and uses for the instant pot with us on Facebook, Instagram or Pinterest and we will try and feature them in our next blog post!