Top 5 Reasons to Use a Pressure Cooker + Butternut Squash Risotto Recipe (vegan/gluten-free)

If you’re anything like I used to be, you equate pressure cookers with the 1950’s and a fear of getting hit in the face with scalding steam and a hot lid. I hear it all the time; “I have a pressure cooker, but I’m scared to death to use it.” Fear not, my friends! Nowadays pressure cookers have been built with safety features to assure ease of use without scalding, or sky-rocketing lids. There is definitely a learning curve as it’s a different way of cooking, but once you experiment and get a feel for it, you’ll wonder how you ever went without!

Electric pressure cooker

Stove-top pressure cooker

For those who don’t know, pressure cooking is a method which uses water to create steam that does not escape the vessel while the food is being cooked. A fraction of the water is used compared to other methods. Since there is less water to heat, it takes less time for the water/food to reach cooking temperature. As well, due to the intense pressure and heat, items cook faster than simply steaming, boiling or braising. And they are easy to use – put your food in the pan, lock the lid in place, turn on the heat, wait until it comes up to pressure, turn down heat and wait. The units are available in electric and stove top versions, and while some steps differ slightly between the two, the concept is the same. Some dishes such, as green veggies, require you to let the steam out manually, which simply means pressing the valve and allowing steam to flow. Others, like beans and grains, call for natural pressure release, which means you don’t do anything but wait until all the steam has slowly escaped on it’s own. If you aren’t yet sold on the beauty of a pressure cooker, let me share some other benefits with you:

TOP 5 REASONS TO USE A PRESSURE COOKER:

Time savings – “I don’t have time” is the most common reason I hear for why people don’t prepare more of their own meals at home. Well, a pressure cooker can help! Example: brown rice would normally take about 40-45 minutes when boiled. Using a pressure cooker it will cook in half the time. Garbanzo beans take 14 minutes of cook time (not excluding the time it takes to come up to pressure, and release naturally).
Nutrient retention – Since the food is exposed to heat for a shorter period of time, fewer nutrients are lost in cooking. As well, vitamins and minerals are not whisked away by water since there is so much less of it.
Energy savings – Thanks to shorter cooking times, the fire and/or electricity are used less.
No stirring required – If you’ve ever made risotto you know what a drag it can be, stirring and stirring and stirring. You can make arborio rice risotto in the pressure cooker, at 5 minutes high pressure, without having ever lifted a spoon. How cool is that?
Less water – water is a precious resource that is not as abundant as it once was, especially here in Southern California. The less water we can use in every aspect of life, the better.

Some typical dishes for which I use my pressure cooker:

Steel cut oats
Oatmeal
Beans, chilis and stews
Whole grains such as rice and quinoa
Sweet and white potatoes
Kale and other greens

So basically, pressure cookers are awesome. They can be used for anything you’d boil, steam or braise. The tricky part is converting a recipe and figuring out how much liquid to use. It just takes some experimenting. In the meantime I wanted to share this yummy recipe with you for Butternut Squash Risotto using brown rice. Easy and so delicious, without the constant stirring typical risotto calls for. Also, a wonderful cookbook for pressure cooking is The New Fast Food by Jill Nussinow. Invaluable, really. Have fun cooking under pressure, and I hope you enjoy this dish!

Delectable Mushroom Soup | vegan, oil-free, gluten-free

Delectable was the word used by my sister to describe her feelings on this soup, so I figured I’d call it just that – Delectable Mushroom Soup. Much more fun than plain old Mushroom Soup. And honestly people, not to toot my own horn or anything but it really is delectable. I got lucky with this one, for sure. I had a ton of cremini and chanterelle mushrooms (thanks to Costco) and realized I’d never made a creamy mushroom soup before, and it sounded really good to me. I was hopeful the recipe would work out so I made copious notes as I went along. So glad I did. The best part? It’s EASY to make!

This soup is rich and creamy but not overly fattening. I used only 1/3 cup raw cashews which adds fat of course, but not too much. The items I used for garnish are optional and do add a small amount of fat. I grated a very small amount of Miyoko’s killer Smoked Farmhouse “cheese”, and a few drops of truffle oil on top of the fresh chives. Deliciously delectable. 🙂

Spicy Butternut Squash Soup

Spicy Butternut Squash Soup with Lemon-Maple Brussels Sprouts

Most butternut squash soups are a little sweet for me. Honestly, I’ve got a major sweet tooth but some things, like my soups, I want to be more on the savory side. So, this soup is still sweet of course, but the jalapeño and cooking sherry (or white wine) create some interesting flavors that help offset the sweetness. And, while I don’t generally cook with oil, I added a tiny drizzle of truffle oil before serving – YUM. Since I was a little heavy-handed with the jalapeño (by my definition – remember, I’m a spice wimp), I dumped my Lemon-Maple Brussels Sprouts in the soup to offset the heat. Delicious! In the future I will leave the seeds out of the jalapeño – this time I used half of the seeds and the soup was really spicy.

Balsamic & Herb Roasted Butternut Squash

I was at Costco and I saw this 2 lb container of cut up butternut squash. I had to have it. It’s not impossible certainly, but cutting that stuff yourself is sort of a pain. So, I put it in my cart along with my 8 bags of frozen mixed berries for smoothies, and immediately envisioned dinner: roasted butternut squash with herbs and balsamic vinegar, steamed broccolini and garlicky cannellini beans. Healthy, easy and super tasty, just the way I like it! 🙂

Umami Sauce Recipe (vegan, low-fat, gluten-free, oil-free)

If any of you are familiar with the restaurant True Food Kitchen, you may know they make a sauce for their Brussels sprouts called umami sauce. Umami is one of the 5 flavors identified by our tastebuds; salty, bitter, sweet, sour, and savory or umami. Their sauce is AMAZING! Unfortunately, as is the case with most restaurant food, it’s loaded with fattening oil. I found the recipe online but tweaked it to significantly reduce the fat and cut the oil. If you can find oil-free hummus, this would be considered an oil-free dish. The hummus I had on hand did contain a small amount of oil.

I roasted a mixture of Brussels sprouts, butternut squash, onions and white beans (pictured) to serve with the sauce, but you could use this sauce with any vegetable, bean, grain or even as a salad dressing. Enjoy!

Savory Pumpkin Soup Recipe! Heavy on the Rich Flavor, Not the Fat!

I had never made pumpkin soup before. Shocking, I know, considering what a pumpkin freak I am. Well, I gave it a go recently. As per normal, I was determined to listen to my culinary instincts rather than follow a recipe…not sure if that’s big ego or just a can-do attitude talking :). Either way, my instincts paid off, big time!!! This soup rivaled any pumpkin soup I’d ever had, including the non-vegan, really fattening varieties I’d had in years past. Try it! As you know, I don’t cook with oil as a rule, but the small amount of truffle oil stirred in just prior to serving MAKES this soup, in my opinion.

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