With fall in full swing, it’s no surprise that slow cookers will be in action to whip up all of your favorite holiday dishes. Instant Pot has announced a new smartphone-friendly model to its well-known pressure cooker lineup. The Instant Pot Pro Plus boasts Wi-Fi connectivity, an app chock-full of recipes, and a few hardware design updates.
The core functions of the 10-in-1 cooker remain the same. You can use it to slow cook, steam veggies, cook rice, sauté meat, make yogurt, use as a sous vide, and even can your own preserves. Rice and soup modes include something called NutriBoost, which uses bursts of steam to mix things up inside and evenly distribute flavor. Apparently, this also increases the nutritional value. Instant Pot says cooking with this can be up to 70% faster compared to the stove, which also saves on power usage.
The addition of Wi-Fi connectivity and an app gives you access to a wide range of recipes and the ability to shunt the settings for them directly to your Instant Pot. Currently, there are over 800 recipes available, but more are getting added all the time. The remote access lets you also start or stop cooking from your Android or iOS device, and pop the release valve.
A welcome physical change are the handles on the pot, which makes for easy removal when things are still hot. You can use the inner pot on the stovetop, in the oven, and on induction plates if you need to, which is a nice touch. Both the lid and inner pot are machine-washable. This particular model is 6 quarts, which is more than ample for a family of four, but you can get Instant Pots as big as 8 quarts.
The front controls have had a bit of an update too. The LCD display is touch-sensitive, while older models relied on a mechanical wheel to navigate.
This isn’t Instant Pot’s first stab at making a pressure cooker that connects to your smartphone. Its original “Smart” model from 2014 was recalled due to a probe defect and it took some time until it dipped back into phone-friendly territory. The Instant Pot Pro Plus says it has over 11 proven safety features in place, including overheat protection and seal locking.
Defect aside, we really liked the original model, and have high hopes for the new one. The Instant Pot Pro Plus is available now for $170.
