Well, you might have been wondering if I had dropped off the face of the planet.  It’s been over two months since my last post so, yeah, I guess you can say I’ve been MIA.

Sometimes we all need to take a step back.  The world is very busy and it’s a great re-energizer to spend some time away.  I practiced being totally present in the moment and engaged with family and friends.  I also had time to collect thoughts, and let’s be honest, focus on real world stuff!

Today I’d like to talk about the Instant Pot and share a recipe for Roasted Tomato + Carrot soup.  Have you heard of the Instant Pot? Let me say…it’s totally and completely revolutionized my time spent in the kitchen.  I’m actually quite in love with it.  I make delicious soups like this one below.  all.  the.  time.

So what is the Instant Pot?  If you’re not familiar, it’s an electric pressure cooker that also happens to serve as a slow cooker, steamer, and yogurt maker with quick modes like soup, meat/stew, poultry, rice and porridge.  You can also sauté and brown your meat right in the pot.  I LOVE the sauté function.  Say hello to one pot meals and goodbye to additional pots and pans.  Yippee.

I received mine as a Christmas present and it truly is the perfect gift.  It’s allowed me to simplify meal making while significantly reducing cooking time.  The extra time has allowed me to do more things I enjoy like adapting traditional recipes and also creating some new ones.  I’ve seen so many delicious, wonderful soups and stews that I’m dying to convert into an Instant Pot meal.

As I mentioned, pressure cooking is fast!  I can now cook a roast in under 40 minutes or a full chicken in 20.  Once I close the lid, there’s no stirring or watching required.  The cooker does it’s thing and the food comes out like perfection.  My traditional slow cooker has been retired.

Another bonus is making bone broth.  If you have been thinking about making bone broth but are put off by the thought of cooking the broth for 24-48 hours then the Instant Pot will make things magnitudinally easier for you! You can prepare delicious, healing broth in just 90 minutes.  I use bone broth as the base in all my soups.

Here is a delicious soup that I cooked at high pressure for under 20 minuses.  It’s bursting with flavour, uses healing bone broth as the base and is chock full of nutrient dense, delicious veggies. How can you go wrong with that? You really can’t.

If you don’t have an Instant Pot or traditional pressure cooker you can still make this soup.  Just get out a trusty dutch oven or heavy bottomed pot.  The end result will still be delicious.

Roasted Tomato + Carrot Instant Pot Soup

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp heat stable fat like coconut oil/duck fat/ghee
• 398 ml can of diced fire roasted tomatoes
• 1 large sweet onion, diced
• 5 large carrots, diced
• 1 sweet potato, diced
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 4 cups bone broth or chicken/veggie stock
• Himalayan pink salt + pepper to taste
• Fresh lemon + avocado chunks to serve

Method

1. Plug in the Instant Pot and press the “Sauté” function.  Add fat of choice to the stainless steel cooking insert and sauté the onions until they begin to soften and turn translucent.  Add a pinch of salt to bring out flavours and release juices.
2. Add the sweet potato, minced garlic and carrots.  Continue sautéing for another 5-1o minutes or until veggies start to soften.  Add another good pinch of salt.
3. Add the can of tomatoes and stir to combine, followed by the bone broth.
4. Press the “Keep Warm/Cancel” button to stop the sauté mode.
5. Stir and then place the lid on the Instant Pot and lock the lid.  Twist the steam release handle on the lid to “Sealing”. 
6. Press the “Manual” button to switch the cooking mode.  Use the “+/-” buttons to set the cooking time to 19 minutes.  Note that the soup will be cooking for longer than 19 minutes as it takes time for the pressure cooker to reach desired pressure.  The 19 minute timer will start once proper pressure is achieved.
7. Once the soup is done cooking the Instant Pot will automatically switch to the “Keep Warm” mode and will signal done with beeps.  Once you hear the beeps, the soup has cooked for the full 19 minutes at full pressure. Let the soup remain in the “Keep Warm” mode for 10 minutes and then press “Cancel.”
8. Twist the steam release handle on the lid to “Venting”.  I always put on my oven mitt as a precaution as a small amount of steam will escape from the venting hole.
9. Once the pressure has released, carefully open the Instant Pot.
10. Use a potato masher to gently and carefully mash the soup into a chunky puree*. Continue softly mashing until desired consistency is reached.  Alternatively, puree in blender for an ultra smooth consistency.
11. Test for seasoning.  Add more pink salt, fresh cracked pepper and fresh squeezed lemon juice to taste.
12. Enjoy with avocado chunks, fresh cracked pepper and fresh lemon wedges.

*Thanks to my mom for this awesome tip.  I’m totally loving the texture soups get from using the potato masher! 

Ps. I used my leftover soup puree to make these savoury breakfast muffins.  They are perfect with some grass-fed butter and a drizzle of honey.  I call them breakfast muffins but you could totally eat these any time of the day!  I’ll share this recipe next if you’d like.  Let me know by leaving me a comment below!