Instant Pot Quinoa "Cereal"

"You KNOW I only like the squares!"

Ever since my 2 year old first discovered cereal, he's been intrigued. In his defense, it was Cinnamon Life. Everybody knows how tasty that stuff is.

My father loves it. My nephews call it Life Squares and at one point would only accept full squares and express extreme displeasure if he was given a bowl of broken pieces.(There was a meltdown where, "you know I only like the squares!" was exclaimed by one of my nephews.)

I love the stuff too. I'd eat it every morning, if that were healthy. But it's not. So, we look to other options.

quinoa after being
cooked and stirred

Recently, I decided to try a recipe in my beloved Instant Pot. And, spoiler alert. It's a keeper for sure. My almost 2.5 year old loves "quinoa cereal." So that's a win right there.

I followed this recipe from Pressure Cooking Today (yes, that's a real website) pretty much to a T the first time I made it, and, it turned out pretty well. But it needed more umph. So, I amped things up for my second attempt by doubling most of the flavorings and adjusting some of the instructions. I also shifted the instructions to be specific to the Instant Pot. Below is the resulting recipe.

This time around, the result was more flavorful, but definitely wasn't too sweet. It was a great improvement on something that was already pretty dern tasty to begin with.

Instant Pot Breakfast Quinoa

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups uncooked quinoa, well-rinsed
• 2 1/4 cups water
• 4 tbsp maple syrup (real maple syrup is best)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon 
• 1/8 tsp salt
• Optional (read: recommended) toppings:
• milk
• pecans
• fresh berries

the fixins

Directions:

1. Put your quinoa in a fine mesh strainer/sieve. Rinse the quinoa thoroughly.
2. Add quinoa, water, maple syrup, vanilla extract, cinnamon, and salt to the Instant Pot
3. Press "Manual" and make sure it is on high pressure. Adjust the time to 2 minutes (yes, you read that right...just one minute).
4. When the beep sounds, turn the Instant Pot off completely, and wait 10 minutes before releasing the remaining pressure through the Quick Release valve.
5. During these ten minutes:
1. Heat up the milk in a sauce pan on low
2. Toast the pecans on medium heat (put them in a pan with no fat - they've got enough fat in them). The key to toasting pecans is to move them around a lot (including flipping them) and not let one part of the nut get burned. 
6. When the Instant Pot is done releasing pressure, open the Instant Pot away from your face. 
7. Stir the quinoa with a fork to make sure that all flavors are fully distributed and to fluff up the quinoa grains.
8. Put quinoa in a bowl, pour some milk over the bowl (the amount is purely up to you), add some toasted pecans, and toss in some fresh berries (I'm partial to blueberries). 
9. Enjoy

The latest craze...an Instant Pot

If you haven't heard about the miraculous abilities of electric pressure cookers, you've probably been avoiding Facebook or Pinterest for the past 6-12 months at least. I'm in a Facebook mom's group, and a while back someone alerted me to the amazing thing that is called an Instant Pot. They claimed it could cook things in a fraction of the time, was super easy to use, would wash your car, do your laundry, and make your kid eat his/her vegetables. We even have a running file of all of our "mom approved" Instant Pot recipes.

Okay, the last few items were a stretch, but once I gave in and bought my Instant Pot (on Amazon's Prime Day discount), I have become obsessed as well. (Side note, they go on sale probably once a quarter, and they're seemingly always a Prime Day feature.)

And get this...the craze is spanning generations - my mother just bought one and is already enjoying experimenting with recipes.

So what IS an Instant Pot?

If you have visions of a pressure cooker squealing, shaking, and basically looking like it's going to explode on your mother's stove, get those images out of your head. This thing is state-of-the-art. (There's even one model that has a remote control, which I think is ridiculous, but #liveyourlife #youdoyou.) If you picture food coming out all one flavor/color like can sometimes happen in a slow cooker, you can also throw that concern out with the trash. I have liked, if not loved, every thing I've made in mine.

If you're concerned that it's another thing for you to learn, that's a fair concern, but one easily allayed. Yes, you need to learn how to adjust a couple things, and there are tips for how to choose the best pressure release method, but honestly, once you get those 2-3 things down (and they're not hard), you're golden.

If you're saying, "but I love my slow cooker," that's fair too. But guess what? This thing can also be a slow cooker. We haven't gotten rid of our slow cooker yet, and my husband has cooked a roast in it since we bought the Instant Pot, but I'm thinking I might need to convert him to using it instead of our slow cooker. Or not. Who knows.

And, yes, I know people who have two Instant Pots (one 8qt and one 6qt) AND a slow cooker. They're really that fabulous. Here's the one that I purchased. You can saute, slow cook, pressure cook, and more all in this one device.

So what do you make in your Instant Pot?

I'll share the recipes I'm using in future posts, but right now I've got a pretty solid rotation of items I'm cooking which include chicken (from frozen!) burrito bowls with rice and beans, spaghetti squash with meat sauce, beans (black, pinto, and soon chickpeas), salmon (from frozen!) with rice and green beans, and hard boiled eggs.

There are also a lot of cheesecake recipes out there, amazing-looking mac and cheese recipes, soups, breakfast porridge, and more. I have a feeling since we're hosting Thanksgiving this year, we'll be trying out some recipes before serving them to the whole crew.

Hold on. Hard-boiled eggs? Really? I mean, come on, they're not that hard to make on the stove.

I hear you. And you're right, but despite trying every hack in the book, I could still never get them to peel consistently. I really only like the whites of a hard-boiled egg, so when peeling them takes a chunk out of what I'm peeling it for, it's frustrating.

Hard boiling eggs in the Instant Pot has produced effortless peeling every single time. I didn't add vinegar to the water (no point, it's steaming them), I didn't have to use old eggs (another hack I've tried, which seemed...well...interesting), etc. I just put in a cup of water, added the steaming rack (that came with my Instant Pot), put a dozen eggs on the rack, pressed Manual, and set it for 12 minutes.

You're right, with the time it takes to come up to high pressure, the time it takes to cook, and the time it takes to cool (yes, you still need to put them in ice water afterwards to stop the cooking), it is not a time saver. But it takes no longer than the traditional method I had been using, so that's a wash. What is seriously the best part is the peeling. I'm thinking it's because of the steaming, but the shells come off easily in one or two pieces. It's amazing.

Okay, I'm intrigued.

So maybe you're on the fence, despite my glowing review. I get it. It took a while before I decided to buy one. So take your time, check out some of my future posts to see results and recipes, and then decide, is it worth it to you to make space in your pantry so you can cook dinner from dry rice, frozen green beans and frozen salmon fillets in about 30 mins with extremely limited prep time?

It was for me.

(Side note, I get nothing from Instant Pot for this post. I just love it that much!)