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What is more beneficial to have for your gut healing journey, an instant pot or slow cooker? Let’s go over the instant pot vs slow cooker to help you decide.

Instant Pot vs Slow Cooker

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First, let’s understand what both an Instant Pot and a Slow Cooker do.

What is an Instant Pot?

The Instant Pot is an electric pressure cooker. It cooks food quickly by increasing pressure (or steam) inside the range.

It cooks food tenderly, just like slow cookers. But much faster.

Using an Instant Pot can reduce cooking time by up to 70% compared to traditional methods, according to the manufacturer.

For most recipes, you’ll save about a third of the time.

What are Slow Cookers?

Slow cookers are one of the best ways to prepare healthy, gut-healing meals with minimal effort.

You’ll notice a lot of my recipes use the slow cooker. There’s a reason for that.

Slow and go. It’s such a great gut healing, cooking, and general life motto.

Slow cooker cooking makes nutrient-dense dinners simple. The low, steady heat helps preserve nutrients while breaking down tough fibers, making food easier to digest for sensitive guts.

Besides versatility, slow cookers offer other benefits. They cook dishes uniformly while staying hands-free, letting you work, run errands, or rest while dinner cooks itself.

They’re simple to use. Often no more complicated than plugging them in.

Setting Up the Instant Pot or Slow Cooker

When it comes to setup and use, the Instant Pot and slow cooker are different. Not necessarily easier or harder, just different.

Setting Up Your Instant Pot

1. Thoroughly rinse the stainless steel pot and lid with soap and water before first use.
2. Place the stainless steel cooking pot into the Instant Pot.
3. Ensure the anti-block shield is enabled and secure.
4. Seal the interior of the lid with the silicone sealing ring (usually shipped pre-assembled).
5. Secure the condensation collector to the back with a snap.
6. Connect the power cord from the rear and bottom.

Then you’re ready to use it.

Using the Instant Pot

Once you’re set up, here’s what you’ll do:

Set the pressure release valve handle to seal.

1. Connect the power cord.
2. Don’t go above the max line inside the pot (it indicates maximum pressure cooking capacity).
3. Ensure the inner pot is clean and inside the cooker base.
4. Close the pot by following the arrows on the lid.
5. Decide on the cooking process based on your food.
6. Set the pressure release valve handle to seal.

Step 5 is crucial. Pay attention here.

Once food starts cooking, there are different stages:

• Heating Stage: The pot heats up first. Steam and pressure build inside. No actual “cooking” happens yet. This takes 5-20 minutes.
• Cooking Stage: This is where the Instant Pot shines. Cooking happens very quickly, though timing depends on what you’re making.
• Pressure Release: Once the cooking cycle completes and your timer sounds, the pot turns off. Steam and pressure escape through the release pipe.

Note: This final release includes either natural release (NPR) or quick release (QR). NPR takes longer, and the meal continues cooking at a decreased rate during this time. QR quickly halts the cooking process.

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Tips for Using a Slow Cooker

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While the slow cooker is easier to set up, here are some tips:

• Don’t over-or under-fill: Heat must move freely to maintain constant temperature. This is important for gut-healing meals where even cooking matters.
• Keep the lid closed: Don’t open the cover while food cooks, except if the recipe specifies otherwise. Every time you lift the lid, you add 15-20 minutes to cooking time.
• Know your slow cooker: Read the handbook. Keep track of how long different foods take to cook in your specific model.
• Stack ingredients properly: Place firm vegetables at the bottom. Add meat in the center. Put lighter veggies on top.
• Watch your liquid: Too much liquid isn’t desirable. Slow cookers have low evaporation rates, so they’re ideal for small amounts of liquid.

[Bone broth is a perfect example of this. The slow, steady heat extracts collagen and minerals without boiling away the nutrients.]

Top 2 Instant Pots

Okay, so what Instant Pot and/or Slow Cooker to choose?

Here are my top Instant Pot recommendations:

Instant Pot Duo 7-in-1 Electric Pressure Cooker

Price: $129.99 (Amazon Prime)

Features: 7-in-1 functionality including pressure cook, slow cook, rice cooker, yogurt maker, steamer, sauté pan, and food warmer. 8 quart capacity.

Instant Pot Pro Crisp 11-in-1

Price: $249.99 (Amazon Prime)

Features: 11-in-1 functionality including air fry, broil, bake, roast, dehydrate, reheat, rotisserie, toast, warm, and convection oven. 8 quart capacity.

Top 2 Slow Cookers

Here are my top slow cooker recommendations:

An honorable mention slow cooker is the BLACK+DECKER 7-Quart Digital Slow Cooker with Chalkboard Surface because the front of it is a chalkboard surface so you can draw on it, which is a fun, added bonus.

Size of Slow Cooker Needed

While I love the 7-quart size, you might not need anything that large. (Though it’s really not that large.)

Here are ideal sizes for different situations:

3-quart: Perfect for small meals with little to no leftovers.

5-quart: Good size for meals serving three to four people.

6+ quart: Ideal for cooking in large batches and for parties.

What is a Rice Cooker?

I’m throwing the rice cooker in for consideration. I’m ridiculous and have all three: slow cooker, Instant Pot, and rice cooker.

A rice cooker is a kitchen device used to cook various types of rice and grains. It works by heating water and absorbing it into the rice until tender.

Like the Instant Pot, rice cookers are automated. No need to worry about boiling over or catching fire.

Cooking a large quantity of rice takes approximately 25 to 35 minutes.

We make rice in our rice cooker about every other week.

How to Use a Rice Cooker

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You’ll want to read instructions for your specific rice cooker. When I use ours, here are my steps.

Remember, these steps are different than normal because I’m sharing them from an ‘optimal gut function’ standpoint.

1. Measure out the rice you want and place in a bowl, covering with water. (For our family of 5, I make 2 cups of rice.)
2. Let it sit for at least a few hours, preferably overnight. [This soaking process reduces phytic acid, making the rice easier to digest and nutrients more bioavailable.]
3. Place rice in a strainer and rinse until clear.
4. Put rice in the rice cooker pot.
5. Add water to equal a little more than double the rice amount. (For 2 cups rice, I add about 4 1/4 cups water.)
6. Add spices, oil, or butter if desired. I often add spices, herbs, and olive oil.
7. Turn on the rice cooker. Most have a front-mounted light indicating when the machine is on.
8. The cooker alerts you when done by turning off the light or making a sound. After cooking, keep the rice warm for at least 15 minutes. This lets excess moisture escape and rice fully absorb water.

That’s it. This method always makes my rice super fluffy.

Note: I’ve only used Jasmine and Basmati rice in our cooker. Heartier rices like black and wild will be different.

Top 2 Rice Cookers

You can get your rice cooker on Amazon, just like I did.

Here are the top 2 rice cookers to consider (from Amazon):

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Note: I actually have a Lotus Foods Gourmet Stainless Steel Rice Cooker and Steamer, 12 Cup Capacity. I’m not seeing that they sell it anymore, but the two above are almost identical.

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Which is best? Instant Pot? Slow Cooker? Rice Cooker

The answer is completely up to you, your journey, and your personal preference.

You’ll need to decide by answering these questions:

• How much money do I want to spend?
• Where will I store it (tucked away, on the counter, is there room)?
• Do I need a lot of versatility?
• What will I primarily use the cooker for?
• Which one do I feel most confident using?

After answering all of those, maybe your answer is: Guess I need all three. It’s okay. No judging here.

[I use my slow cooker most often for gut-healing bone broths and stews. The Instant Pot is perfect when I forget to plan ahead. The rice cooker ensures perfectly prepared rice every time, which matters when you’re working on healing your gut.]

Do you have an Instant Pot, Slow Cooker, and/or Rice Cooker? Or are you considering getting one?

Questions? Leave them below!

If you liked this post, you might also enjoy:

1. Instant Pot Vegetable Broth
2. Tandoori Chicken for the Slow Cooker
3. 19 Essential Kitchen Items

Xox,
SKH