Cover Image: Instant Pot Miracle Vegetarian Cookbook

Instant Pot Miracle Vegetarian Cookbook

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Member Reviews

Another delightful cookbook from Urvashi Pitre. I believe the author is a trained statistician and this training shows in the construction of the book's recipes. Each recipe is precisely described and easy to follow. Every recipe I tried for my family worked and was delicious. What I also appreciated was the detailed information on ingredients; example - there were several pages devoted to legumes and their cooking. I have been following Pitre's suggestions and she has helped me improve my Instant Pot technique! Thank you!

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Instant Pot Miracle Vegetarian Cookbook is a new tutorial for the Instant Pot with a comprehensive selection of plant based recipes written and developed by Urvashi Pitre. Due out 29th Sept 2020 from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, it's 256 pages and will be available in paperback and ebook formats.

This is a nice lacto-ovo-vegetarian cookbook for instant pot cooks with a busy schedule. The layout is very basic and unfussy - easy to understand and accessible. The recipes are arranged by category: vegetables, lentils beans & legumes, rice & grains, eggs & cheese, desserts & drinks, and staples/sauces/spices (used in other recipes). Many of these are -hearty- dinner dishes that even my meat loving family really devoured (without complaining).

Ingredient measurements are supplied in American measurements only. There wasn't a conversion chart for metric measures included in the eARC provided for review. Nutritional information not included. Extra tips or recipe alternatives are listed in sidebars with the recipes. The recipes themselves are fairly straightforward and are made with easily sourced ingredients. Many are very simple, none of them are overly complex. The author has included a handy table in the back of the book which lists recipes by category also with specifications such as: egg-free, nut-free, gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan, and several others. Special classifications are also listed in each recipe heading.

The photography clear and abundant; most of the recipes are illustrated, and the photographs which are included are clear and well done.

This is a large collection of recipes and even allowing for the fact that some of them are similar to others in the same category, this will keep vegetarian cooking fans going for ages. These are simple "everyday" recipes which are anything but boring. We tried several dishes and all of them were tasty and well written. (We didn't try any of the bread-y or dessert recipes, but I found no glaring errors with a quick read-through).

We're definitely going to try more of these recipes. Well written book, tasty recipes.

Five stars. This is a solid recipe book which will be used. It would make a superlative housewarming gift to a friend or family member - college student, new graduate, newlyweds, kids flying the nest, etc. The instant pot is a phenomenally useful multi-purpose small appliance and everyone should have one (in my not so humble opinion - I use mine *every* day, more or less).

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

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This book didn't make me want to start cooking right away. The recipes are just ok, nothing that jumped out at me that I couldn't wait to cook. It's a decent book, just not too exciting

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I have been meaning to cut down on meat for a while and this book is the excellent way to do that - I love my instant pot and this book has some great recipes, I look forward to trying more.

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The recipes sound wonderful. Each recipe is introduced in a conversational way, which makes it fun and less intimidating. There are also great photos. There's nothing worse than a cookbook with no photos!

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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.

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A great easy to follow vegetarian cookbook for those experienced in using an Instant Pot or for those who just received one as a gift. My personal favorite was the Butternut-Ginger Soup. I am definitely going to pick up a physical copy of this book to keep on hand in my kitchen.

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I liked this cook book. The recipes all sound and look delicious and there are many that i would gladly cook for myself and my family.
I do wish this book had more photos of the dishes you can create with the recipes. I like to see an image of every single recipe in a cook book.

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This is a great beginners guide to both vegetarian cooking and using the Instant Pot. I think some of the recipes are repetitive, and I would have liked to seen more variety. However, for the beginner, there is a lot of information and step-by-step instruction on how to use the Instant Pot successfully.

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I was hoping to find more vegetarian meals to add to our regular diet and there were a few here that did seem appealing but overall I wouldn't eat most of these dishes, or at least they didn't sound appealing enough for me to give them an attempt. I am obiously not a vegetarian though and it may be more me being picky on the types of vegetarian dishes I do happen to like than the book not offering palatable choices. I am sure actual vegetarians will find plenty to choose from here, but people like me just looking to add more healthy options to their regular diet may find it lacking.

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These are fantastic recipes. Easy to follow, lightly explained, and a really appealing range of cuisines and dishes. I bookmarked so many to try. They use a few unusual ingredients but nothing too difficult to find or use.

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Great recipes, but no nutritional breakdown. Each of the recipes are also labeled so that you can easily find the ones that are egg and/or dairy free, gluten free, nut free, etc.

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I hoped that this book would inspire me to get my pressure cooker out and use it, but it didn’t. There wasn’t much that appealed and when I found recipes that I thought I might try, they called for pre-prepared products such as Jamaican curry powder or corn-bread mix. I thought I’d like to make the paneer but the main ingredient was ‘half and half’ - I had to google to see what that was, to then discover it’s not generally available in my country. I feel that publishers should consider how well books travel before offering them internationally.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC.

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Good vegetarian cookbook. Enjoyed the recipes. Beautiful pictures. Easy to follow recipes. Typical but helpful instant pot book to help make delicious vegetarian cooking.

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I have an Instant Pot and am always on the hunt for books that can expand my bookshelf. :)

The recipes look delish as recipes... and were not hard for me to cook for the ones I tried. But not a lot of pictures. Pictures help entice people to want to try things out.

Other than that, I plan on getting this title for myself when it comes out!

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Vegetarians (and vegans and gluten-free and dairy-free and nut-free) rejoice - there is finally a book of Instant Pot recipes available! All too often it seems like instant pots, pressure cookers and slow cookers are focused on cooking meat or dishes containing meat, when anyone who has tried it will know it works just as well for vegetables and grains and desserts. This book proves just that.
It is filled with recipes with absolutely no meat or fish, and many recipes being GF, DF, nut free and/or vegan.
The only disappointment in this book is that a number of recipes have no pictures and I love being inspired by pictures rather than just recipe names (and it's always good to know what you are aiming for).
There are not always pictures of the finished dish, and never a picture of the food cooking in the pot, which is a shame.

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I am SO picky about meat. And as such, I need very specific recipes to keep me interested. Not only are these easy, but also very tasty! There are tons of recipes with beans and eggs for protein. Our favorite recipe is the mushroom stroganoff. I can't wait to try more recipes from this. If you like to eat without meat, there is a lot of variety here for you.

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I love my InstantPot. I was a vegetarian for over 20 years. I have heard great things about Urvashi Pitre, but have never really looked at her recipes. When I saw InstantPot Miracle Vegetarian Cookbook: More Than 100 Easy Meatless Meals for Your Favorite Kitchen Device available for request on NetGalley, it seemed like a good ask. I received an arc in exchange for an honest review.

Shortly before I received the arc, I cleaned out the pantry and discovered that we somehow have 4 mostly full, within use by date, containers of cocoa powder. I don’t know how it happened. I vowed to make a lot more desserts involving cocoa powder. When I get a cookbook to review, the first thing I do is check the dessert section. The very first recipe is Hot Fudge Pudding Cake and it calls for 3/4 cup of cocoa powder. I had everything on hand to make this cake and the process looked interesting. I announced there would be chocolate cake in an hour and got no guff from my housemates. I keep one of my housemates, Rich, supplied with access to dessert at all times. If I slack off he goes to the dollar store and buys the most horrendous garbage “dessert-like food.” It hurts my soul.

The directions called for a step I haven’t seen before and I was curious how it would turn out. InstantPots make great cheesecake (seriously buy an InstantPot and make a cheesecake), lava cakes, puddings, and custards. The moist cooking environment works well for them. This cake was like a solid pudding, a mouse with more structure or a deep, less eggy flan. Which ever description works for you. it was chocolatey, but not as chocolatey as a mousse. If I had been the only person eating it, I would have shrugged and moved on. Rich fell in love with it. He has told me it is the best thing I have ever made and he would very much like me to make it more often. I have already made it twice in one week. As awful as the world is right now, I am happy to make something that makes someone happy.

Anyway, I’m going to have to buy this cookbook because I will be making this cake until one of us dies, and if I die first, someone else will need to be able to make the cake.

As for the other over a hundred recipes, some look better than others. I think this is a good cookbook for busy vegetarians or people who want to eat some meatless meals.

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Thank you #Netgalley for the advanced copy of this cookbook!

I was so happy to be granted access to this cookbook! I love my instant pot and have a few recipe books already, but as a someone who is not a huge meat eater I was always looking for vegetarian meals! This book is exactly what I was looking for! I think the recipes are very unique! I can't wait to try the Beet Dill dip and the veggie chili! Beautiful photos of the recipes that made me very hungry and ready to cook!

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This is an okay Instant Pot cookbook but there were a lot of reasons it's not a book that I'd personally buy or use often. First off, I'm never a fan of books that are written by people who don't follow the diet. This author says in her bio that she lost 80 pounds by going keto, and she's clearly not vegetarian. The book even references things like how well the Intant Pot sears meat, which is not something you really expect in a vegetarian cookbook.

The recipes are VERY high in carbs, which is also weird for someone who eats very few carbs herself. She uses a lot of products like wheat pasta and white rice, and even says that it's a myth that brown rice is healthier than white (she does not provide sources or more info to back this up). Even the few recipes that are labeled low-carb don't seem low carb to me, and then she puts at the bottom of them "serve with rice or bread" with no low-carb alternatives offered.

There is no nutritional information provided, which is a huge pet peeve of mine. Many of the recipes seem incredibly high in (mostly bad) carbs and low in protein and fiber, but it's hard to know without manually plugging in each recipe in some faulty online site.

She frequently uses ingredients like saffron threads which are tasty but many cooks will not have on hand (or be able to afford). She also combines flavors and ingredients in ways that are just not really in my comfort zone, like she has multiple dessert "soups" with beans (like kidney beans) and sugar. That might be a great flavor combination and I do tend to like international recipes, but... that's a little out there even for me.

She also uses a lot of dairy and other animal products, meaning vegans will have to pick and choose recipes or try substituting. Some recipes are gluten free, but only ones that are naturally GF (like rice dishes), instead of offering a few options like gluten free cakes in the desserts section.

She uses a lot of beans but she recommends soaking them either overnight or with hot water for an hour, and says you'll have to adjust the time and liquids if you don't soak yours. One of the things I like about pressure cooking beans is that I can just pop them in and they're done with no pre-soaking, so having to guess at how to change every bean recipe is daunting. She also says some of them won't turn out because then you have to add extra time and other ingredients in the dish will be overcooked. Beans and eggs are pretty much the only proteins she uses, since she says tofu doesn't cook well in the IP (a few recipes suggest adding it after) and she doesn't like "fake meats." Apparently she also considers things like tempeh fake, though I would consider it a traditional ingredient. In any case, this leads to not a lot of variation in proteins. She does offer one recipe using "soy curls," which is an ingredient that's "just no" in my kitchen.

I am intrigued by the fact that she cooks pasta in an Instant Pot and may try one of those recipes but I'll need to use gluten free pasta and have to just hope that works as well, since she never addresses that.

The biggest thing for me is that I just don't like the sounds of most of the dishes. They combine flavors I wouldn't combine and didn't intrigue me.

Color photos are provided for many of the recipes, but I suspect they are tinkered with. Vegetables are shown as bright and vibrant in a way that they simply would not be if you followed the recipe. Peas would not be bright green after pressure cooking for 5 minutes at high pressure and then sitting with natural release for 10 more minutes. That's just not reality. I personally hate it when cookbook photos are misleading, so that alone is pretty much a deal breaker for me.

The author apparently has a high following on her blog and Facebook, and I'm sure her fans will enjoy this book. It wasn't a good fit for me.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for review.

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