Does anyone own an Instant Pot? (369 views)

Yup and I love it. I have a 10 qt stove top pressure cooker and wanted a smaller one. And my crockpot died. So I took advantage of the Amazon Black Friday sale and got one. To me, it's really just an electric pressure cooker and slow cooker combination, but it has settings for rice, grains, yogurt, etc. The manual is horrid, but there is a ton of info out there on using it. I mostly use the pressure cooker settings. I like the unattended cooking aspect of it. I do find the saute temp setting to be a bit high for things like garlic and ginger. I usually brown my stew beef/lamb/pork in the oven so I can do it in one batch, I use the IP saute function mostly for veggies or whole pieces of meat. 

There are other threads here for pressure cooking that mention the Instant Pot. Try this link

I just ordered one from Amazon this week. It arrived this past Saturday. I have only used it for rice so far (worked great) but I am thawing a chicken to make soup this weekend. I got it to replace an electric pressure cooker that I had for many years and loved but died on me last year. I also figured it would replace my rice cooker which I never used and my slow cooker, so one gadget.....more space etc....
So far I like the look, feel, features of it much more than my old pressure cooker but that was quite old and had served me well for many years. This is less bulky, lighter, and has some nicer features. I will likely use it primarily for pressure cooking, but having the option to do so much more with it, is a bonus.

Karen

Catbatty, yes, I think so. One blogger ("dads cook" or something like that; just Google it) says that the 6-quart has been big enough for pretty much anything he has done for his family. I got the 8-quart b/c sometimes I had wished that my 6-quart crockpot were a bit larger; also, for pressure cooking, you can't fill the pot more than 1/2 to 2/3 (depending on the ingredients); and I like the slightly wider surface area of the 8Q when I'm putting in a roast. None of which applies to you if you're mainly soups/beans/veggie. OTOH, if by "beans" you mean dried beans, you're quite limited on your PC capacity (no more than half full; do your own research b/c I haven't cooked those yet), so that may bump you back to 8Q.

Clear as mud, right? My short answer: while I think a 6Q would be plenty, if I did a lot of soups & (dried) beans, I'd go for 8Q. Soups freeze great, & dried beans need lots of room in a PC.