How To Steam In Instant Pot Without Steamer Basket

Use A Plate & Some Foil

This one is fun to make, and makes cleaning easier as you can keep the food on the plate when you serve it. First you need to find a plate that is oven safe, and slightly smaller than your pot.

Image by James Ransom/Food52

Then make three large, solid balls out of aluminum foil and place them in the bottom of your pot. Add water, and place the plate on top of the aluminum foil balls, and you’ve got a steamer that’s good to go.

Steaming Carrots In The Instant Pot :

Steaming carrots is a great way to preserve nutrients, flavor, and texture. It also keeps the carrots a bright, vibrant orange. The Instant Pot uses steam under high pressure to practically flash cook the vegetables. It will take anywhere from less than 1 minute to 3 minutes for your carrots to steam.

You do have to wait for the water to boil before the Instant Pot builds up pressure. But you also have to wait for the water to boil when you steam your carrots on the stovetop. This method is:

• Fast.
• Easily customizable with glazes and spices.
• Excellent for freezing and meal prep.

Carrots are naturally sweet and they go with a lot of flavors. Try our honey sage carrots, mustard dill carrots, or our cilantro lime carrots for some great flavor inspiration.

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Learn how to use the Instant Pot trivet with this handy guide-post. From making cakes to steaming vegetables to pot-in-pot cooking, we show you 7 different ways for how to utilize this accessory for cooking delicious food with a pressure cooker.

When you first unbox your Instant Pot, youll find a few additional items that come with it. One of those key accessories is the trivet or the metal insert with collapsible sides. In the example of the Instant Pot, it is designed to keep ingredients out of the water.

Here are some of our favourite ways to utilise the Instant Pot trivet that will inspire you to cook more and step outside of the box.

What Is A Steamer

Steamers come in a few different shapes and sizes. One type is a collapsible metal steamer basket. They have an almost accordion shape, flaring out into a bowl in which to place the food you are steaming. Another type of steamer is a steamer pot, which is a two-in-one set of saucepans that stack on top of each other. The bottom saucepan, which is for the water, looks like any other saucepan in your cabinet. The top saucepan holds the food and has holes in the bottom to allow the steam to seep into the food. There are also bamboo steamer baskets, which can be placed inside a saucepan with water to cook anything from fish, to chicken, to dumplings and Chinese steamed cakes.

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Whole Head Steamed Cauliflower

If desired, spritz with olive oil, salt, and pepper and place it under the broiler for 30 seconds to a minute to give it that charred taste and texture.

• Category:healthy, instant pot, keto friendly, vegetarian
• Cuisine:healthy, keto friendly, vegetarian

Grab your favorite pressure cooker and whip up healthy and delicious steamed cauliflower in just one minute under pressure! Enjoy this low carb healthy vegetable made in no time!

• 1 whole head of cauliflower, leaves removed and cut into florets
• 1 cup of water

Instant Pot Green Beans No Steamer Basket

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Instant Pot Green Beans no steamer basket an easy nutritious, low carb side dish that easily picks up the flavors of your favorite seasonings.. Learn how to cook green beans in the Instant Pot with the detailed guide and cooking times. The post will help you cook fresh, frozen and canned green beans in your Instant Pot.

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Tips For Perfectly Cooked Instant Pot Vegetables

Where Can I Buy An Instant Pot Steamer Basket

Amazon has got various choices of the steamer basket. Here are some of few steamer basket instant pot

You can buy from kohls similar to the one I have Instant pot steamer basket

The base has holes that help in steaming. If you are going steam directly please use the trivet else the water will get into the steamer. This steamer with partition is definitely a perfect accessory with the instant pot. Because of the separator food is not getting mixed up.

Im cooking my rice, lentil, and 3 different vegetables together at the same time. The layering inside the pot I do is base with rice then the lentil and then the steamer so the water from the vegetables will go into the lentil and its not wasted.

If you are beginner check this post below you might find useful.

How to make yogurt culture in the instant pot

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But If I Can’t See The Food As It’s Steaming How Do I Know How Long To Cook Or Steam It For

When it comes to using the Steam function, it’s best to have done some research on cook times, especially when it comes to delicate vegetables and seafood.

A lot of your experience with an Instant Pot, or pressure cooker in general, will require experimentation. Don’t be intimidated! It’s a kitchen tool, like everything else, and takes some time to master it.

If you use the “Steam” button, it’s essentially going to be pressure steaming, not just regular steaming.

Fortunately, the Instant Pot company knows that it can be a bit overwhelming, so it’s provided some useful cooking timetables on its website.

Personally, I love using my Instant Pot to steam broccoli on a regular basis. I always steam it at 0 minutes , Quick Release the pressure, and voila! Some vegetables, like broccoli, just need 0 minutes because it’s already cooking while building up pressure for steam. Anything more than 0 results in mushy broccoli, and no one wants that.

Instant Pot Spaghetti Squash

Pressure cooker spaghetti squash is sooo amazing because like sweet potatoes, it usually takes a long time to bake in the oven. The Instant Pot makes it a breeze to get a healthy vegetable in a snap.

You could cook the spaghetti squash in the Instant Pot steamer basket whole, or cut in half! It is so great to do it this way so then you dont have to deal with spaghetti squash spilling out or dropping it with tongs.

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What Kind Of Steamer Basket Can I Use In My Instant Pot

Instant Pots are very versatile when it comes to choosing a steamer basket. You can use steel, silicone, or even bamboo â yes, thatâs right! You can use a bamboo steamer basket in the Instant Pot!

For this recipe, I used a standard steel steamer basket, but silicone and bamboo work great if you have any issues with your steamer basket sticking.

Here are a few of my favorite steamer basket options to use:

Steam With Plate On Tinfoil

This steaming method only requires three things, a plate, a pot, and some aluminum foil.

• Grab a medium-sized pot and fill it with ½ inch of water.
• Take your aluminum foil then form three golf-ball-sized balls of foil and place at the bottom of the pot.
• Then place a heat-proof plate on top of the foil balls and turn on the heat.
• Add in the vegetable or protein onto the plate, cover and let it steam until cooked.
• Once the food is perfectly steamed, carefully take the lid off and remove the ingredients from the hot plate.

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Instant Pot Baby Carrots Without Steamer Basket

Wondering how do you steam carrots without steamer basket?

Let me tell you that steaming carrots in Instant Pot whether its baby or regular carrots is as easy as you think.

You can cook Instant pot baby carrots without steamer basket by directly adding the carrots into the water in the inner pot.

Cook on high pressure, the cooking time remains the same here. Do a quick release and strain the steamed carrots.

How Long To Cook Baby Carrots In Instant Pot

You need to cook baby carrots in Instant Pot on HIGH pressure for 2 minutes for fork tender carrots and just 1 minute for firm carrots. Followed by a quick release.

Note: Avoid very thin baby carrots as they tend to fall apart when steamed in the Instant Pot for this long. They are already tender. For very thin baby carrots I would choose the 0 minute pressure cooking time.

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Kale & Other Sturdy Leafy Greens

Kale is the ultimate superfood. You just feel healthy when you eat kale. Its a fact of life. Its actually quite tasty. Most greens are jam-packed with micronutrients that our bodies love. These micronutrients help us stay healthy and avoid deficiency. They also provide antioxidants and help us to naturally detox and fight off oxidative damage. We all know we need to eat our greens. Let the Instant Pot make it easier.

Instant Pot Steamed Vegetables Recipe Or Formula

The key to using your Instant Pot to steam vegetables AND TO BE EFFICIENT AT THE SAME TIME is to put the vegetables that take the longest to cook in the steamer basket FIRST.

Then, cook them for their total time MINUS however long it takes to cook the next vegetable.

For example, when I made Instant Pot steamed broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots, I put the carrots and cauliflower in first and let them steam for 15 minutes.

Then I carefully added the broccoli, put the lid on top and set the timer for 1 minute. When the timer went off, all of the vegetables were done at the same time!

Psst! Want to give those veggies some extra flavor? Try topping with a pinch of finishing salt! I love Ava Janes Kitchen because it doesnt have microplastics and its SO GOOD! Plus, you can get a bag for just 1¢!!

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Instant Pot Silicone Steamer Basket

As you can tell by the name, this product is an official IP accessory. It is made from high-quality food-safe silicone and it resists to high temperatures .

However, it doesnt have legs of its own and its not very big . On the other hand, you can buy two or three of these and stack them. This way, you can steam different types of foods, on different levels. In terms of circumference, it can be safely used with different pressure cookers .

Lastly, the basket is easy to clean and doesnt retain bits of food.

The verdict: Its a good steamer basket that wont leave a dent in your budget. However, its not as convenient as the first two products Ive discusses since its not very spacious and it doesnt have feet.

Instant Pot Water Test

Before you use your Instant Pot for the first time, you should perform a water test. The Instant Pot water test is like an initial test run for your Instant Pot.

The water test will both ensure that your Instant Pot is working properly and will familiarize you with using your Instant Pot.

One of the Instant Pots that I purchased was defective. A water test helped me to determine that the Instant Pot wasnt working properly. I was able to contact Instant Pot support and get a replacement.

Note: If you have the Instant Pot Ultra, you will use the dial to select cooking programs and change the cook time and then press start. Instead of a steam release valve that you turn, the Instant Pot Ultra has a steam release button that you will press if you want to manually release the pressure. The steam release valve will seal automatically on the Ultra, whereas on other models you turn the valve between a venting and a sealing position.

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How Long Does It Take To Steam Veggies In Instant Pot

Vegetables like cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage need just 0 minutes to steam in the instant pot. Hard and root vegetables like potato, carrot, radish need more time.

I use 4 minutes as the standard time to cook any Instant pot steamed vegetables and see if its cooked properly based on that I will decide if I need to increase the time or not.

Instant Pot Frozen Green Beans

If you have a bag of those super market frozen green beans lying in your freezer, let me tell you that you can cook them easily in the Instant Pot.

Moreover, you can even ditch the thawing part

Heres how you can cook frozen green beans or fresh frozen green beans in your Instant Pot.

• Fill up the inner pot with 1 cup water.
• Place the metal insert inside the inner pot.
• Dump the frozen green beans.
• Pressure cook on HIGH following the above cook time chart.
• Do a quick pressure release.
• Add you favorite seasonings and serve the cooked frozen green beans.

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How To Steam Vegetables Without A Steamer

Three methods for steaming veg, no fancy kitchen tools needed.

Steaming vegetables can be a real life-saver when it comes to dinner, which is why we’re bringing back this steamer basket hack from Sarah Jampel, originally published in 2013. Here’s how to steam vegetables without a steamer.

Kitchen gadgets can be miracle workersjust try making cherry pie without a cherry pitterbut they also have a dark side. Not only are some tools pricey, but many are also one-trick ponies. Shell out the big bucks for a kitchen torch and chances are you’ll make crême brûlée once and then retire it to your already-crowded shelves.

If you don’t steam food frequentlyor if you find yourself in need of a steaming basket, statdon’t run out and buy one. All you need is a metal colander or a baking rack, a big pot, and some aluminum foil, and you’ve got everything you need to make a steamer at home.

Let’s get steamy.

Want More Easy Side Dish Recipes

This Instant Pot broccoli is one of our very favorite easy side dishes! A few more we might recommend: our Parmesan potato wedges are seriously good, this BEST kale salad is delightful, and these Instant Pot Brussels sprouts are super quick. And then of course, our best green salads are always a hit.

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For Instant Pot Shredded Cabbage:

• Remove the flimsy outer leaves from your cabbage and shred it. I prefer to shred mine in the food processor because it is easy to clean and very fast. You can also do this with a mandoline slicer or a knife, of course.
• Place 1-2 cups of water or broth in the inner pot, then place the cabbage in. You dont need to use the trivet or steaming basket for this.
• Cook on high for 2 minutes.
• For soups or for a softer result: Let the pot naturally release pressure.
• For a side or crisper result: Perform a quick release to finish up with.
• Check out these 20 Instant Pot cabbage recipes and make sure to try out Sri Lankan Coconut Cabbage.

How To Steam Broccoli Without A Steamer Basket

Once upon a time, I was a young adult with a meager collection of kitchen equipment.

I desperately wanted to make a broccoli casserole just like my mothers, but I had no steamer basket with which to steam broccoli.

I did what any young person should do in those circumstances. I called Mom and asked for help.

She said that she never used a steamer basket either, and gave me simple instructions on how to steam broccoli without one.

So, thanks to my lovely momand my clueless younger selfIm sharing this easy technique with you today. All you need is a pot with a lid for cooking and a colander for draining.

Once youve steamed your broccoli, you can serve it as a side dish or use it in your favorite recipe.

Keep it simple with a sprinkle of sea salt and fresh ground black pepper, if you prefer, or drizzle it with a little sauce for flavor.

I like sweet Thai chili sauce or a little ranch dressing sometimes.

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