Mediterranean Instant Pot: Easy, Inspired Meals for Eating Well

by America's Test Kitchen (Editor)

Bringing together the #1 diet and the #1 most popular kitchen appliance, this Instant Pot-authorized cookbook makes it more convenient than ever to cook the Mediterranean way, incorporating more vegetables, grains, beans, and seafood into your diet, and exploring the healthful, authentic flavors of cuisines ranging from Turkish to North African in everyday one-pot meals.

Made in the Instant Pot, succulent meals such as Chicken Tagine, Lamb Meatballs with Couscous, Pickled Onions and Tahini, Shrimp and Asparagus Risotto, and Gigante Bean Soup with Celery and Olives become hands-off affairs for the busy cook. The Instant Pot also takes the waiting game out of cooking dried beans and sturdy grains so it's easy to enjoy them more often. And vegetables get star billing, both as main dishes (Braised Whole Cauliflower with Tomatoes and North African Spices), and sides (Marinated Artichokes, and Baba Ganoush) Recipes embrace the tenets of the Mediterranean Diet Pyramid, translating its less-meat-and-more-vegetables approach into vibrant, healthy one-dish meals that take the guesswork out of balancing portions and multiple dishes. Most recipes are ready in under an hour. And full nutritional information is provided.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Food, Nonfiction, Reference, Health

192 pages, Hardcover

First published December 31, 2019

About the author

America's Test Kitchen, based in a brand new state-of-the-art 60,000 sq. ft. facility with over 15,000 sq. ft. of test kitchens and studio space, in Boston's Seaport District, is dedicated to finding the very best recipes for home cooks. Over 50 full-time (admittedly obsessive) test cooks spend their days testing recipes 30, 40, up to 100 times, tweaking every variable until they understand how and why recipes work. They also test cookware and supermarket ingredients so viewers can bypass marketing hype and buy the best quality products. As the home of Cook's Illustrated and Cook's Country magazines, and publisher of more than one dozen cookbooks each year, America's Test Kitchen has earned the respect of the publishing industry, the culinary world, and millions of home cooks. America's Test Kitchen the television show launched in 2001, and the company added a second television program, Cook's Country, in 2008.

Discover, learn, and expand your cooking repertoire with Julia Collin Davison, Bridget Lancaster, Jack Bishop, Dan Souza, Lisa McManus, Tucker Shaw, Bryan Roof, and our fabulous team of test cooks!

Learn more at https://www.americastestkitchen.com/.

Reviews

[Nicole]

Grains, Beans and Pasta: 4/16 Recipes Completed
Spiced Rice Pilaf w/Sweet Potatoes and Pomegranate (4/5)
Rigatoni w/Tomatoes and Pancetta (3/5)
Orecchiette w/Broccoli Rabe and Sausage (4/5)
Couscous w/Chicken, Fennel and Peppers (3/5)

Fish and Shellfish: 2/15 Recipes Completed
Poached Salmon (3/5)
Salmon w/Wild Rice and Orange Salad (3/5)

Chicken, Beef, Pork and Lamb: 5/15 Recipes Completed
Chicken and Spiced Freekeh w/Cilantro and Preserved Lemon (3/5)
Braised Chicken w/Mushrooms and Tomatoes (3/5)
Lemony Chicken w/Fingerling Potatoes and Olives (3/5)
Braised Short Ribs w/Fennel and Pickled Grapes (3/5)
Smothered Pork Chops w/Leeks and Mustards (4/5)

Vegetable Mains: 4/12 Recipes Completed
Meze Plate w/Hummus, Spiced Carrots, and Arugula (5/5)
Rustic Garlic Toasts w/Stewed Tomatoes, Shaved Fennel and Burrata (4/5)
Individual Asparagus and Goat Cheese Frittatas (2/5)
Braised Cabbage w/Pancetta, Garlic and Parmesan (3/5)

[Mary Vogelsong · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a beginner level cook, if that, and I found that even though most of these recipes are one-pot meals, they are based in the Mediterranean culture and culinary experience. This made the book far too advanced for me. When I only know the basics of cooking, it is difficult to look up the names of exotic dishes, terms, and ingredients (such as za'atar, freekeh, tagine, rabe, harissa, meze, and burrata), and presume to make substitutions if I don't have what I need on hand. I was too lost to follow along. This cookbook is definitely for the advanced chef.

[Rachelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mediterranean Instant Pot... elegant, simply crafted meals, thoroughly tested. The book's text was easy to read, provided suggestions throughout and explained the staff's rationale about why certain techniques or ingredients were used. Recipes are noted to the minute how long the entree needs to cook. Great for beginner and intermediate chefs.

[Lindsay Merrill]

Possibly unpopular opinion: food cooked in the instant pot is rarely tastier than the same food cooked another way… nothing in this book even intrigued me over making the food using different cooking methods. (I use my instant pot but not for most of these types of things.)

[Twinkletoes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm trying to find more recipes with protien and vegetables, and less carb fillers. This book was great. I made several of the soups, and they were some of the best I've ever had.

[Jade M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely want to try farro and leak soup, hake in saffron broth, fish tagine, and this version of chicken tagine (my favorite).

[Aprilleigh · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first chapter, Getting Started, is about 20 pages covering the basics of Instant Pot cooking, including troubleshooting, cooking grains, legumes, vegetables, and proteins, and almost 20 quick recipes for standards in the Mediterranean pantry (hummus, baba ghanoush, pesto, tzatziki, tahini, za'atar, etc.). That section is referred to often in the rest of the recipes, so it's great to have them collected in one place. Subsequent chapters cover soups/stews, grains/beans/pasta, seafood, meats, and vegetable mains. Each recipe includes total time, servings, nutrition information, and my favorite thing about America's Test Kitchen book, a section called "Why this recipe works" where they explain why they made certain choices and make suggestions. There's also a lovely photo of each recipe.

These are not, as a rule, simple recipes. The majority have about a dozen or more ingredients. There are a lot of specialized ingredients included and not a lot of guidance for substitutions, so this is probably better for experienced cooks or those with decent access to specialty markets. Being new to the Instant Pot shouldn't matter so much.

The recipes, of course, are all from the Mediterranean region, but within each chapter there's a nice variety of options. Even those who aren't fond of olives or tomatoes (staples in the Mediterranean diet) will find that's not a problem. Most of the recipes do call for olive oil, but most people who don't like olives tolerate olive oil without complaint. Even better, the majority of these recipes come in under 400 calories per serving, and those that don't are generally in the low 500s or less. This is probably not a surprise to anyone familiar with the standard Mediterranean diet.

[Kami · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have loved everything I've made from this book and so has my husband. My kids, well, they're kids. I bought this when I finally caved and bought an instant pot. It's been super helpful in learning to use the instant pot, but the recipes are the best part. I love that it has a picture for every recipe because honestly, I rarely try a recipe without a picture. It does have some new/different ingredients that aren't at our regular grocery store like ground fenugreek--never heard of that before--but I'd rather a new spice than expensive and hard to find main ingredients like some of my other recipe books have (yep, never making those ones). Anyway great book. The beet and watercress salad recipe alone was worth buying it. Yum.

[Sandy Wilmering · Rating 2 out of 5]

Like many Instant Pot cookbooks, this one opens with a getting started section. There is tips and troubleshooting information, as well as overviews on cooking rice and grains, beans and lentils, vegetables and proteins. The rest of the book is divided into sections for soups and stews; grains, beans, and pasta; fish and shellfish; chicken, beef, pork, and lamb; and vegetable mains. Nutritional information and photos are provided with each recipe.
I have to say I was disappointed with the selection of recipes. There are really only about a half dozen that I want to try.

[Karla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great tasting recipes with easily obtainable ingredients that come together very easily. One of the more usable IP cookbooks with a variety of flavors from Mediterranean cuisine.

[Tububa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got an Instant Pot when I realized that I do, after all, want to have a pressure cooker and a Crockpot-type appliance and especially if they're a single pot. (Pressure cookers had a moment in the 1980's, and so did Crockpots, just ask your mom or grandma.) Yeah I'm a bit late to the Instant Pot party, but I am a late adopter, what can I say. So how do I use the damn thing? I read the instruction booklet and tried one of the recipes that came in the mini-cookbook mine shipped with. Success. So next I do what most normal 21st-century people do these days and look up a recipe for something online. Failure. I got an overcooked, jelly-like mess instead of the Shorbat Adas I was trying to make. I clearly needed a proper textbook, I mean, cookbook.

So I bought this, and I have to say so far I am not disappointed. There are great illustrations, and the instructions are reasoned and detailed. If you follow along, you will not fail. Some of the ingredients are a bit hard to find in regular grocery store. For example, every other recipe calls for Aleppo pepper, which, at my tender age of 48, I've never even heard of. But they do give you substitution instructions. Various other ingredients of the same level of obscurity (like "preserved lemon") can easily be faked; I soaked some dried lemon peel in lemon juice with a bit of salt and sugar and I think I got pretty close.

The recipes I've tried so far come out good and flavorful. Are they authentic? No, but then you're not a Sicilian grandma with a brick oven and the entire day to pound spices with a mortar and pestle. You are an American using a futuristic plug-in appliance and a book with "easy and fast" in the title. There's plenty here to get you started, and I certainly found that I am getting my bearings now and understand how this thing works and what it's good at.

One last thought about the intended audience for a book like this: yeah it's probably not for a beginner. You should be comfortable with regular cooking techniques, and you should be comfortable with substitutions and omissions. For example, in making the Tuscan white bean soup with escarole, I left out celery, and added shallots. I also scaled the recipe down by a third. The latter was not a step I would have dared to make on my very first Instant Pot outing, but I got enough of a grasp of things to be reasonably confident in the outcome. But I gotta say it was pretty cool to have a bean soup be done in under 30 minutes. It was easy and it was fast.

[Manintheboat · Rating 1 out of 5]

When I saw the title I hoped it was written by someone in the Mediterranean, but no, it turned out to be, oh god no, America's Test Kitchen. Who show up here true to form fucking up other culture's foods.

PAELLA IS MADE IN A PAELLA PAN WITH BOMBA RICE NOT ARBORIO RICE IN AN INSTANT POT YOU DID NOT MAKE PAELLA YOU MADE A PILAF.

FRENCH SAUSAGES ARE NOT ITALIAN SAUSAGES. YOU USED ITALIAN SAUSAGE AND ITALIAN BEANS AND ITALIAN KALE YET CALL THE RECIPE "FRENCH?" WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE???

I take umbrage with almost every recipe. The hard boiled eggs are fine.

[Kenzi Popovich · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this book should count towards my reading goal since I did scour its pages for the best recipes. This year, my New Year’s resolution was to cook at least one new dish every week to improve my cooking skills. What I liked about this book was how simple the recipes were by cooking everything in one pot. However, not many of the dishes spoke to me. The ones I did make turned out really good though!

[Bobbi]

I love this cookbook ! It has a large variety of recipes and is simple in it's following of directions. Plus, it's a fabulous and healthy meals ! Will use this cookbook over & over again ! Bon Appetit!

[Rochelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I wouldn’t make all the dishes in this book, looking through this book I see at least 10 re pies I can use on a regular basis.

While all the recipes are great. I am a big believer in prepping ahead and batch cooking, hence I can’t use all the recipes.

[Trish Bonadonna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect

Exactly what I was looking for. This book takes the difficult out of pressure cooking and adds a seriously healthy splash with the most perfect technical balance. I’ve tried several of the recipes and they are not just “spot on”, they are better than expectation.

[Gloria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Always a fan of ATK, this book is super helpful in:

-Understanding the Mediterranean diet

-Learning more about the Instant Pot

-Working with dried whole grains.

As always, many recipes are a bit different but very tasty. Highly recommend.

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Can't wait to work through all of these recipes

[Beth White]

Not too many recipes I am interested in trying

[Carol N. Boozer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Recipes were good, but required too many non-standard ingredients.

[Dustin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The recipes look delicious, but the ingredients are slightly more obscure from other Mediterranean Diet cookbooks. I saved a few to try, but don’t think I would use the book enough to own it.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

4

Great mix of lighter fare and heavier dishes noted quite a few that I’d make. They include why the dish works which satisfies the nerdy food scientist in me.

[Lilah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book and learned about lot about vegetables I have not grown before. She offers great advice on how to grow and care for the various plants. It gave me ideas for my garden this summer.

[Katie Shields · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had a couple of standbys from this book that I relied on while renovating my kitchen. I recommend the Moroccan chickpea stew and the kale/sausage.

[Jeanette Durkin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A variety of recipes. I'll be trying a few.

[Dayna Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good recipes.

[Cinnamon Frame Wood · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really nice, healthy recipes Instructions are clear and easy to follow. Some of the ingredients are a little fancy.

[Faith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty book, but not enough vegetarian recipes. Introductory instructions and tips are useful.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good photos, good recipes -- but not too many low-carb options.

[Readeira · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don’t own an instant pot, and there were some good recipes but not many

I highlighted the best recipes, if I ever get an Instant Pot.