The love of the Instant Pot continues!

I’m not vegan by any means, nor vegetarian, but I’m not opposed to trying any kind of dish as long as it sounds good, and ultimately tastes good. Many times, the problem with making a vegan dish is the weird specialty ingredients that you are forced to find, and our little town sometimes has problems locating such things, although with Amazon, there is some help there.

A good introduction to both Instant Pot cooking and vegan cooking comes with “The Essential Vegan Instant Pot Cookbook” by Coco Morante. Morante has written several other Instant Pot cookbooks, including “The Essential Instant Pot Cookbook” and “The Ultimate Instant Pot Cookbook.” She is also a blogger and runs the Instant Pot Recipes Facebook page.

The cookbook itself is divided into 7 chapters of recipes: Breakfast, Grains and Pastas, Beans and Lentils, Soups, Stews and Chilis, Main Dishes and One-Pot Meals, Vegetable Sides and Desserts and Beverages. There is also a chapter on Basics which includes making standard beans, lentils, rice, butternut squash and more in your Instant Pot, which can be very helpful with any kind of cooking.

Breakfast recipes include Vegan Yogurt, Steel-Cut PBJ Oatmeal with Raspberry Chia Jam and Chickpea-Flour Egg Bites with Roasted Red Peppers.

White Bean and Carrot Tagine

Grains and Pastas has recipes for Lemon Risotto with Pea Pistou, Speedy Penne Arrabbiata with Sheet Pan Meatballs and Polenta with Black Pepper.

Beans and Lentils include recipes for Greek-Style Lima Beans with Almond Feta, Roasted Garlic Hummus and Green Lentil Sloppy Joes.

Soups, Stews and Chilis include dishes like Artichoke Soup with Garlic Bread Croutons, Hot and Sour Soup and Winter Vegetable Chili.

Main Dishes and One-Pot Meals include recipes like Massaman Curry with Tofu and Kabocha Squash, Bulgur-Stuffed Bell Peppers with Garlic Sauce and Quinoa and Sweet Potato Bowls with Cilantro Lime Vinaigrette.

Vegetable Sides has dishes such as Spicy Ratatouille, Beet Salad with Avocado, Orange and Almond Feta and Carrot and Parsnip Coins with Tahini Sauce.

Desserts and Beverages end things with Creamy Cardamom Rice Pudding, Chocolate-Peanut Butter Cheesecake and Strawberry-Rhubarb Compote (recipe included).

My family is between being very experimental, food-wise, and being incredibly picky. It’s mostly my husband and I who are the will try anything people and the kids who are picky, though some have random out-of-the-box foods that they love that you would never expect. So, one evening, when the kids were eating their plain foods, I made for my husband and myself White Bean and Carrot Tagine, a Moroccan-inspired stew. This dish was something that didn’t need anything out of the norm except for the spice blend ras el hanout, which the author helpfully included a recipe for, and is really just a blend of paprika, cinnamon, coriander, cumin and cayenne pepper.

The beans and carrots cook in a stew of veggie broth, the spice and some onion and garlic. The recipe gives you instructions on how to get the dried beans ready to cook, or you can be incredibly lazy and use canned beans, which I did. You then just pop everything in the Instant Pot, let it cook for 30 minutes — Morante gave a estimated 15 minutes for the pot to come up to pressure and I found that was pretty accurate — and go.

The dish is finished off with some tomato paste and lemon juice and is served atop a bed of couscous, which I hadn’t made before, but if you can make rice, you can make couscous. And it tastes basically the same.

I found the soup to be a warm, spicy dish that is perfect for a cold evening and my husband and I both ate two bowls. No one missed meat and we both loved it and would make it again.

For those wanting to branch out a bit in their food routine or wanting to start vegan cooking, this would be an excellent place to start.

“The Essential Vegan Instant Pot Cookbook” is published by Ten Speed Press. It is $19.99.

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Strawberry-Rhubarb Compote

There are classic pairings, and then there are perfect ones like strawberries and rhubarb. They’re in season at the same time, and the sweetness of the berries combines with the tart, tangy rhubarb to make a well-balanced compote. Left to my own devices, I’d happily eat a bowl on its own, but for company I serve it over vanilla coconut ice cream.

MAKES ABOUT 4 CUPS

1 pound rhubarb (about 4 large stalks), trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces

1 pound strawberries, hulled and quartered lengthwise

1⁄2 cup turbinado or organic cane sugar

1⁄2 teaspoon ground cardamom

Combine the rhubarb, strawberries, sugar, and cardamom in the Instant Pot and stir well, making sure to coat the rhubarb and strawberries evenly with the sugar. Let the mixture sit for 15 minutes, until the fruit releases its moisture. This is all of the liquid you will need for the recipe. Give the mixture another good stir.

Secure the lid and set the Pressure Release to Sealing. Select the Manual or Pressure Cook setting and set the cooking time for 5 minutes at low pressure. (The pot will take about 10 minutes to come up to pressure before the cooking program begins.)

Let the pressure release naturally (this will take about 15 minutes). When the pressure has fully released, open the pot and stir the compote to break down the rhubarb.

Transfer the compote to a heatproof container, where it will continue to thicken as it cools. Serve the compote warm or chilled. It will keep in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.

–Reprinted with permission from The Essential Vegan Instant Pot Cookbook, by Coco Morante, copyright 2019. Published by Ten Speed Press, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC.

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Contact Amy Phelps at aphelps@newsandsentinel.com