6 On Your Side: Consumer Confidence, Fall back in love with your instant pot

(ABC 6 News) – The Instant Pot swept thousands of home cooks off of their feet and renewed our love affair with pressure cookers and crock pot meals. But perhaps the one-pot romance has fizzled, and your instant pot is now all but forgotten.

“So if it’s been awhile since you’ve used your Instant Pot, there’s a chance that maybe you just got overwhelmed with these elaborate recipes,” Tanya Christian from Consumer Reports said.

Christian says remembering why you fell in love in the first place can help.

“Instant pots, multi cookers are meant to make life easier, and make cooking easier. So the best way to utilize them is to stick to what they do best. So think about tough cuts of meats, beans, stews, soups and curries. Those are great in these small kitchen appliances,” Christian said.

CR’s tests look at how well multi cookers pressure cook pork ribs, slow cook chili, steam rice and vegetables and how well they keep food warm. The Zavor brand multi cooker earned top scores in all of those tests and is easy to use and clean.

But maybe the spark is gone for good and it’s time for something new–an air fryer/toaster oven combo…

“Air fryer toaster oven is exactly how it sounds. It’s a toaster oven in size … but it has air frying capability and what’s nice is that it combines these two small kitchen appliances that a lot of people love into one device,” Christian said.

The best of the bunch, the Breville, offers many different functions including convection, dehydration and air frying. And its baking results, ease of use and roominess may make it worth the splurge!

For less money, this Cuisinart is just so-so for baking and toasting but it excels at reheating and is easy to use and clean and turns out crispy fries and wings.

Hopefully, rekindling the small appliance flame will help you prepare many more delicious meals this Valentine’s day and beyond.