This dish is not only quick to cook, it’s also quick to prepare. Unlike most pressure cooker veggie dishes, it will not take you more time to prep the vegetables than it does to cook them! That’s because you can do more than one thing at a time – don’t worry it’s not complicated.
While the pressure cooker is pre-heating you roughly chop the onion. While the onion is sauteing in the pressure cooker, you roughly chop the zucchini. Then, just plop in the rest of the ingredients and go.
How easy was that?
Add a ball of fresh mozzarella or a little tower of strained ricotta and this is my family calls “dinner” on hot summer evening.
The pungency of garlic has a tendency to totally disappear when pressure cooked, so what I like to do is finely mince it and mix it in right at the end. Don’t worry, you won’t get a mouth full of raw garlic. Instead, you’ll get all garlic’s wow without any ow because it cooks just a bit using the heat from the freshly cooked veggies.
| Pressure Cooker | Accessories | Pr. Cook Time | Pr. Level | Open |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 L or larger | none | 5 min. | High(2) | Regular |
- 2 medium onions, roughly chopped
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 6 medium zucchini, roughly chopped
- 1 pound cherry tomatoes
- 1 cup tomato puree (or water)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1-2 garlic cloves, finely minced
- Swirls of fresh olive oil
- 1 bunch of basil
- While the pressure cooker is pre-heating, roughly slice the onion. Then, add the vegetable oil and onion to the cooker on medium heat and saute' until soft (about 5 minutes).
- Meanwhile, roughly chop the zucchini.
- When the onions are just starting to look a little singed, mix in the zucchini, cherry tomatoes, puree, and salt.
- Close the lid and set the valve to pressure cooking position.
- Electric pressure cookers and stove top pressure cookers: Cook for 5 minutes at high pressure.
- When time is up, open the pressure cooker with the Normal release - release pressure through the valve.
- Mix in the garlic.
- Strain out the vegetables with a slotted spoon and serve with a sprinkle of fresh basil leaves and a swirl of your best olive oil.
- Save and refrigerate the cooking liquid and serve in a small glass the next day as a chilled soup or use in place of stock in your next pressure cooker risotto.
Liked it pretty good, . I cooked tortellini in the cooking fluid which was mostly absorbed, It made for a tasty meal.
To me these instructions are very confusing. This is my first time using an instant pot. Your first step for the onions is to saute on medium heat, so I put the pressure cooker in saute mode. Once adding all of the other ingredients and then putting the lid on, this is where I don’t know what to do. According to the instant pot instructions it is dangerous to put the lid on in saute mode, so I don’t think that is what I’m supposed to do, but the instructions don’t say what mode to put it on. If I’m pressure cooking, which I think I’m supposed to be at this point, then I think I’m supposed to be selecting a cooking function as well, but this recipe doesn’t mention anything about that. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!
This is an old recipe from before Laura moved to Electric pressure cookers.
Once she sees your comment she will probably update the recipe. She usually does.
In the mean time…
I don’t have an IP so I can only give general advice.
Yes start in Saute mode. Then at step 4, switch to pressure cooker mode set it for 5 minutes at high pressure (probably the default), lock the lid and press start. The IP will happily do the rest of step 4 for you by itself, so come back when it beeps, to release the pressure, then continue with the other steps as written. Note that you may have to adjust the time slightly as the IP cooks at a slightly lower pressure than the Kuhn Rikon she has used for this recipe. Although for such a short cook, it probably won’t matter. In fact the slightly longer time the IP takes to reach and lose pressure may well mean you will need to REDUCE the cooking time a bit. Try 4 minutes and see how it goes. You can always simmer it a little longer if it needs more time. It is a bit more of a problem if it has already turned to mush. Though you could always blitz it and call it soup.
Since you are new to pressure cooking, it would be a good idea if you worked through at least some of the lessons Laura gives. See the sidebar on the right for the link.
Thanks Greg and Jen, I have updated the recipe instructions to include electric pressure cookers now. : )
Ciao,
L
What is “xx” minutes?
Whoops! That should have been 5. I have corrected it. : )
Ciao,
L