In the last 18 hours, I’ve pressure cooked gumbo and slow-cooked my first batch of applesauce from an early-fruiting tree in the backyard, with only a cleaning of a single pot between projects.

Now that’s what I call kitchen bliss!

My now favorite kitchen tool in the world is the Instant Pot IP-DUO60 7-in-1 Multi-Functional Pressure Cooker. It gets pulled out multiple times a week for bone broth, homemade beans, stews (quick or slow!), and now applesauce. I’ll use it for plum jam, too, I imagine; the plum tree is almost ready and quite abundant this year. I batch cook chicken, dairy-free saag, and roasts as well.

If I am pressure cooking or slow cooking, I just chuck everything into the pot and press a button. 30 minutes to 19 hours later my meal is complete. Roasted chicken, chile verde, 3 day marrow broth….so much deliciousness in one little machine!

I love that this single device cooks grains, beans, stews, roasts hunks of meat, makes wicked broth, cultures yogurt, cooks apples to mush and infuses flavors deeply into my food whether it is in quick or slow mode. One machine with several uses is always worth having around! The keep warm function lasts forever, so I can have hot food on hand and not worry about it turning off in the middle of the night (a great feature when you want overnight oats hot and ready at 6am!).

So inspired am I by the last day of effortless yet delicious cooking that I had to share. Be sure to search the blog for recipes I post here and subscribe to my newsletter to receive secret recipes from my upcoming Instant Pot cookbook!

What’s my Number Two Favorite Kitchen Tool, you ask?

My Vitamix. Mainly because it has stood the test of time after 20 years of love. My InstaPot gave it a run for its money, and came out ahead after about two years of consistent use.