The instant pot is perfect for people who love to cook big batches of food all at once and freeze portions for later use. As a pressure cooker, it allows reheating dishes without any defrosting time. One of the perfect food choices to reheat is frozen soups and broths. I’m sharing with you my tips on how to reheat frozen soup in Instant Pot.
Depending on the portion, you can get your frozen soup perfectly heated within one to five minutes. But before you start throwing blocks of soup into the pot, here are some issues you should consider.
Choosing the Difference Between Natural Release and Rapid Release Functions
As with all pressure cookers, you need to depressurize the pot at the end of the cooking session before you can open the lid. Ignoring this process can lead to dangerous hazards where sudden hot steam and food content can spew out from the pressure valve. So what is the difference between natural release and rapid release of pressure?
Natural release is the usual method of depressurizing the cooker. Once the instant pot finishes cooking, it automatically triggers a gradual reduction of the inner pressure. Until the pot is safe to open, heat and pressure continue to cook the content.
Rapid release is bypassing the gradual release process once cooking is finished. It can quickly be done by turning the pressure release valve on the lid to open position. Please take extra caution as a big cloud of hot steam will immediately be released from the opening. Here are some situations where you should avoid using rapid release:
– Content contains ingredients that will expand in size such as legumes
– Content includes items that will produce a lot of liquid or already contain a lot of liquid
– Content with ingredients that will create a lot of foam such as beans and grains
– There are a lot of content within the pot
Under these circumstances, liquids can leak out from the valve opening and cause a huge mess.
The next question you would want to consider is how much soup and what type of soup are you trying to reheat?
Large Batch of Broth or Thin Soup
If you are reheating blocks of broth for use, simply press the Manual/Pressure Cook button and input cooking timer to zero. The pot will quickly bring the broth to a boil before switching to Keep Warm function.
Large Batch of Thick Soup
Using the previous instruction can leave your soup scorched at the bottom. Cover the lid, click on the Keep Warm function, and allow the pot to do its magic. No constant need to check the soup or non-stop stirring. Although it will take a longer time than the express method, your soup will come out perfect.
Small Batch of Thin or Thick Soup
One of the coolest functions of Instant Pot is that you can put a whole bowl of soup with its container straight in the cooker. Here are the instructions on how to reheat frozen soup in instant pot:
1. Remove the lid off your soup container.
2. Add a cup of cold water into the pot.
3. Insert the steamer shelf into the pot.
4. Place your soup on the steamer shelf.
5. Close the lid. Make sure the pressure valve is closed.
6. Choose Manual/Pressure Cook function and set the timer to zero.
7. Wait for the pot to beep. Use the rapid release option to depressurize the pot.
Important Note: Please make sure that your soup container is safe to withstand the heat and pressure. Pyrex glass bakeware containers are excellent choices.