Member Reviews
I still haven't made anything from this, and I'm not sure I will. While reading I skipped over several recipes as they just weren't appealing or something my family would eat. There is a decent variety though, so I'm sure this will be great for others.
A really well layed out creative book with some fantastic recipes. As a working Mum utilising a crock pot and slow cooker is a life saver and my son really enjoyed helping prep the recipers in the morning. Iw oudl highly recommend this book to all fans of the Instant Pot!
I love my Instant Pot and am always looking for more recipes. This book had a variety of recipes and the instructions were really clear and fulfills the promise that they don't require a lot of prep. Unfortunately, the meals I made didn't really taste great... I think that if you are looking for VERY easy meals, this is the book for you, but there is probably a good reason most cooking does take some prep/time...
I received a free ARC of this cookbook from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
I am still relatively new to the Instant Pot, so when I saw this at one of the book review sites that I use, I was curious. Unfortunately, for me the book will be pretty useless as I am a vegetarian, and the book offers very few vegetarian options. However, if you are a meat eater, there are tons of ideas here for you. After a section that introduces you to the best tactics to use if you want to cook in your Instant Pot straight from your freezer, the book is divided into chapters based mostly on the meats involved. The first two recipe chapters, though, are about soup and noodles. The chapters that follow are about chicken and turkey, beef, pork, and fish and shellfish.
Despite the seeming simplicity of being able to take food straight from the freezer and cook it in your instant pot, the introductory section certainly shows pitfalls and things to be aware of. It is not as easy as you would think. But the convenience of it could sway you, and of course, you will learn how to circumvent many of the problems with this method, especially with the tips and hints that the authors give. I definitely see "soupiness" as a problem, as thawing foods do give off a lot of moisture.
The recipes themselves are mostly what I would call common recipes like tortilla soup, beef lo mein, chicken fajitas, chili, and pot roast. There are a few surprises, like Tater Tot Soup. One of these things I liked is that some of the recipes are what they call “roadmap recipes”; they don't just give you a list of single ingredients to use for a particular dish. Rather, they give you a list of ingredients where some have options, like different seasonings, different types of meat, different sauces, etc. That way, you can make many different versions of a basic recipe. The roadmap recipes include bean soup, ravioli, chicken stew, roast chicken, pot pie, and several others.
If you want the convenience of being able to cook straight from your freezer using your Instant Pot and you are a meat eater, you'll most likely find recipes as well as tips and techniques that will help you get a meal on the table.
What a great book! This is an amazing cookbook for ideas on how to prep and cook frozen food in the instant pot. Not many places have recipes for frozen food so this is great.
Like many of us! I am always looking for some new recipes for my instant pot. I liked this cookbook because it provided some basic recipes for a variety of meals but then also provides ways to make them to suit your family’s taste and to provide variety. The only thing I was missing was pictures.
Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough, the bestselling authors of The Instant Pot Bible, which should be on every cook’s bookshelf, have released a book for those of us who want to use our Instant pots for quick meals, but haven’t taken anything out of the freezer ahead of time. From Freezer to Instant Pot: The Cookbook: How to Cook No-Prep Meals in Your Instant Pot Straight from Your Freezer includes different recipes and techniques for taking frozen to cooked in small amounts of time.
Cooking from frozen has different rules, and these authors have obviously tested and re-tested recipes until they turn out correctly. Pasta is an especially tricky food to cook in the Instant Pot, and there are several good recipes that actually turn out with pasta cooked al dente. Weinstein and Scarbrough take advantage of what most of us would think are problems, like in the Tater Tot Soup, where pressure cooking breaks up the tater tots; this is an advantage in this yummy soup and the cook doesn’t have to chop or peel potatoes. They take advantage of dozens of frozen products besides meat, poultry, and fish; frozen vegetables, as well as frozen meatballs. Many recipes include frozen slabs of ground meat, and in order to cook correctly, they must be in 1 pound chunks, rather than larger.
The frozen foods are chosen carefully so that even frozen, (since frozen doesn’t bend or give) they fit in most 6-8 quart Instant Pots. While the recipes turn out well, there is a huge flaw in this book in that there are no photographs. Is it because the food turns out too ugly to photograph or is it so that the book can be sold cheaply? Even sans photos, this book is a good one, written by experienced cooks, and will be helpful to cooks everywhere.
Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book.
I had an instant pot for quite a while before I really tried to make anything except very basic recipes. I had been raised with a healthy fear of pressure cookers. But I was determined to conquer my hesitation before my husband asked again why I wasn't using it. Truthfully, this book has been a huge help by integrating my instant pot into my weekly food planning. I can prepare the meal as I put away groceries and have it ready to go into the pot when I get home. This improves the quality of my family's meals while adding many more ideas to the cooking rotation. With a little effort, this book has shown me that my instant pot can be my best friend. If you received an instant pot as a gift, buy this book for yourself.
I love my instant pot and use it all the time. I am always on the lookout for new recipes and was so happy to get this new cookbook. My favorite is the ziti with sausage. The recipes are easy to follow and call for simple ingredients. I only wish my freezer was larger so I could freeze more food to use.
Many thanks to Little Brown and Company and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.
This cookbook is fantastic! I am a working mom and short on time (aren't we all?) when it comes to dinner each night. I like planning ahead when I can, but I love than I can plan ahead with my freezer. I utilize our deep freezer to stock up when meat is on sale and this cookbook has helped me use those items from frozen for a delicious meal for my family.
Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
What a great cookbook! The material is well written and presented in an easy to follow manner. I look forward to trying out several of these recipes.
I am a new(er) pressure cooker cook, but I was so excited when I saw this cookbook! Lots of really fun recipes and tips that will make my family happy when we all start back to school this fall. I love the information at the beginning of the book (Nine Important Techniques, etc.) that will hopefully save people from missteps that might otherwise ruin their dinners. The ebook format is definitely a little hard to read, but I would recommend all cookbooks be in hard copy format anyway. Bon appetit!
From Freezer to Instant Pot: The Cookbook is a collection of 75 recipes for meals that can go straight from the freezer to the Instant Pot. Also included are many strategies, tips, and troubleshooting for creating and cooking these meals. Many of these recipes are basic mals that would be enjoyed by many people and have staple ingredients that lots of people keep on hand.
* I received an advanced reader's copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.
I have had an Instant Pot for over a year and it's one of my favorite products to use. But I sometimes need a little easier meals to make on days that I'm struggling on or working late. This cookbook has given me several new ideas and recipes that I can make for those tough days. They are recipes that even my picky eater will try and they are great for sharing with friends and family when they visit. If you are a busy parent and are looking for easier meal ideas for your weekdays especially when school is in session, this is your book!
From Freezer to Instant Pot is an ingenious cookbook and guide to meal prep using the electronic pressure cooker. Released 16th July 2019 by Little, Brown & co., it's 192 pages and available in paperback and ebook formats. The authors are experienced and have several other cookbooks written for the Instant Pot, including my favorite general use pressure cookery book, The Instant Pot Bible .
I love the premise for this cookbook. The recipes are written around being able to take deep frozen proteins and ingredients directly from the freezer into the Instant Pot without thawing or precooking. Streamlining and simplifying food prep is something that really appeals to me. With everyone in my own family working or studying full time, being able to come home after a full day, exhausted, and still put tasty and nutritious food on the table is amazing.
The book follows a logical and accessible progression. The intro chapter includes technique notes and tips concerning ingredient volumes (measure carefully so they don't overflow and ruin the pressure seal), removing foreign objects (that plastic 'diaper' under frozen blocks of meat if you've tossed the packages into the freezer directly from the supermarket and other packaging) and more. There's also a good general guide to cooking with the instant pot, and a useful weight and meat-type table for cooking times and special handling instructions.
The following chapters contain recipes for soups, noodles, chicken and turkey, beef, pork, and fish and shellfish. One of the special features of this book is that every chapter (except the fish one) has several customizable 'road map' recipes which allow for wide variations in sauces, cooking liquids, and amounts.
It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of cookery books with interactive formats lately. Cooking (for me, all thumbs) with paper cookbooks in the steamy kitchen is a recipe for disaster (haha).
The eARC I received did not have pictures included, so I can't review those, but they will be included in the final release copy. (I have not reviewed typesetting or graphics, nor deducted from my review for the lack of photography in the ARC).
My final thoughts. This is actually a godsend for people who don't have hours to prepare and cook dinner. In the recipes we tried, however, the reality didn't quite live up to the promise. Cooking ground beef in the Instant Pot requires the extra step of breaking up the meat which is steamy and unpleasant (but do-able). If your chicken breasts or thighs are frozen solid, separating them can be problematic. The authors do discuss freezing meal sized portions, which requires an extra step. I'm not sure that most people don't do that already which is good. The recipes themselves are 'American family style' cuisine: roasts, chicken, pasta, soups, sloppy joes, etc. The road map recipes allow for a nice amount of variation. The ingredients are easily sourced in any average grocery store.
Well written, humorous, and time-saving.
Four stars.
This book is a great resource book to add to your instant pot collection. Great ideas to make dinner in a snap! Easy to follow directions and some new recipes that I had never had the pleasure of seeing before. I loved every the wide variety of different meal ideas it covers definitely something for everyone can be found in one book,
This book was filled with great recipes with easy preparation and clean up. I can’t wait to try some of these out! The writing was great as well.
This is a great resource for those of us who feel that we have limited time to prepare meals. The instant pot has been an indispensable appliance for easy meals and this cookbook takes meal prep a step further by embracing ingredients pulled from the freezer. I highly recommend this cookbook to all who feel too busy to prepare meals at home - you will love this book!
I love to cook and I love my instant pot. I also have no time to cook and often forget to take things out to defrost. This is the best of both worlds. A quick dinner Instant pot style, and I don't have to defrost a thing!! The recipes are great and many, and I love the way the book lays out the instructions. I can't wait to experiment--there are so many options.
I am an avid cook. I love my Instant Pot for weekday meals. I am not sure if it was the galley version of this book or what, but I found it difficult to follow instructions.
The recipes themselves seemed ok, but I hated having to reread the instructions multiple times and still wondering if I got it right.