Category: Whole Grains

Easy Instant Pot Oatmeal

Pressure cooker oatmeal is an easy breakfast! The best Instant Pot oatmeal is made with rolled oats, toasted until fragrant then cooked for just 3 minutes. Here’s an easy, healthy breakfast recipe for weekdays or entertaining guests: Instant Pot oatmeal! Alex and I eat quite a bit of oatmeal over here: it’s one of our favorite whole grains. In fact, most days I eat our best oatmeal recipe as a healthy way to start the day. But if you’ve got a pressure cooker, oatmeal is even easier to make. The oats are toasted in butter until fragrant, then mixed with milk and cooked for just 3 minutes. (Vegan variation is too, below.) What comes out is the creamiest, tastiest, easiest pressure cooker oatmeal you’ll find. Looking for steel cut oats instead? Go to Apple Cinnamon Pressure Cooker Steel Cut Oats. How to make Instant Pot oatmeal (a tutorial) This is truly one of our easiest Instant Pot recipes! It’s so fast and it makes the creamiest, most delicious pot of oatmeal using rolled oats. Using a pressure cooker to make oatmeal is perfect for whipping up a healthy breakfast when you’re entertaining house guests. Alex and I just had my […]

A Couple Cooks – Healthy, Whole Food, & Vegetarian Recipes

Pressure cooker oatmeal is an easy breakfast! The best Instant Pot oatmeal is made with rolled oats, toasted until fragrant then cooked for just 3 minutes.

Instant Pot oatmeal

Here’s an easy, healthy breakfast recipe for weekdays or entertaining guests: Instant Pot oatmeal! Alex and I eat quite a bit of oatmeal over here: it’s one of our favorite whole grains. In fact, most days I eat our best oatmeal recipe as a healthy way to start the day. But if you’ve got a pressure cooker, oatmeal is even easier to make. The oats are toasted in butter until fragrant, then mixed with milk and cooked for just 3 minutes. (Vegan variation is too, below.) What comes out is the creamiest, tastiest, easiest pressure cooker oatmeal you’ll find.

Looking for steel cut oats instead? Go to Apple Cinnamon Pressure Cooker Steel Cut Oats.

Instant Pot oatmeal

How to make Instant Pot oatmeal (a tutorial)

This is truly one of our easiest Instant Pot recipes! It’s so fast and it makes the creamiest, most delicious pot of oatmeal using rolled oats. Using a pressure cooker to make oatmeal is perfect for whipping up a healthy breakfast when you’re entertaining house guests. Alex and I just had my parents in town for the weekend, and it was the perfect breakfast for house guests because it’s mostly hands off. We made a double recipe: see the section below about scaling up this recipe.

Step 1: Use Saute mode to toast the oats for 3 minutes.

The first step to make the very best Instant Pot oatmeal is to toast the oats. Now, you could just go right into cooking. But we’ve found that toasting oats in butter or coconut oil before cooking makes them taste exponentially better! (We do this in our Toasted Oatmeal & Best Oatmeal recipes.)

To toast the oats, turn on Saute mode on your Instant Pot. Melt 2 tablespoons butter or coconut oil, then add 2 cups rolled oats and stir often for about 3 minutes. Side bonus: It makes your kitchen smell divine!

Toasting the oats

Step 2: Cook on High for 3 minutes.

All you need for the perfect Instant Pot oatmeal is 3 minutes! Add 1 1/2 cups milk (or almond milk), 1 cup water, and 1/4 teaspoon each cinnamon and kosher salt. Cook on high pressure for 3 minutes.

Step 3: Quick release and stir!

That’s it! Remove the steam from the pot by performing a Quick Release (see the recipe below for instructions if you’re an Instant Pot newbie). Then give it a stir and you’re ready to go!

Quick release and stir

Scaling up Instant Pot oatmeal (x 2, x 3!)

This recipe calls for 2 cups rolled oats, which makes 2 large or 3 moderate servings. Instant Pot oatmeal is perfect for entertaining, so you can easily scale this up. Try doubling or tripling this recipe to make enough for many eaters.

One thing to note: doubling and tripling slightly increases prep time! The Instant Pot requires time to “preheat” and come up to pressure before it cooks. This time takes longer the more ingredients you have in the pot. So doubling and tripling the recipe increases the overall time to make it because of the preheat time. A doubled recipe takes about 10 minutes to preheat and tripled takes about 15 minutes. Of course, it will still take the same amount of time to cook: just 3 minutes! Just make sure to adjust your expectation of the prep time accordingly.

Pressure cooker oatmeal

Ideas for oatmeal toppings!

The fun of oatmeal is not so much the oatmeal itself: it’s in the toppings! Here are our best ideas for how to top your Instant Pot oatmeal:

  1. Banana slices, toasted walnuts, and maple syrup (shown in the photo!).
  2. Peanut butter and healthy strawberry jelly.
  3. Fresh blueberries, maple syrup and lemon zest.
  4. Almond butter, cinnamon and roasted pumpkin seeds (pepitas).
  5. Dried cherries, honey and a dollop of Greek yogurt.

What are your favorite oatmeal toppings? Let us know in the comments below! (Mine is #2, if you’re wondering.)

What type of Instant Pot to use?

All pressure cooker brands vary! The brand we use is an Instant Pot 6 Qt Programmable Pressure Cooker. This recipe is customized for a 6 quart pressure cooker. We also can’t speak to other brands and types of pressure cookers. For example, Instant Pot Mini works differently, so use it at your own risk.

Instant Pot oatmeal

This Instant Pot oatmeal recipe is…

Vegetarian, gluten-free, plant-based, dairy-free and vegan.

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Instant pot oatmeal

Easy Instant Pot Oatmeal

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  • Author: Sonja Overhiser
  • Prep Time: 0 minutes
  • Cook Time: 10 minutes
  • Total Time: 10 minutes
  • Yield: 2 to 3
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Description

Pressure cooker oatmeal is an easy breakfast! The best Instant Pot oatmeal is made with rolled oats, toasted until fragrant then cooked for just 3 minutes. 

Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter or coconut oil*
  • 2 cups rolled oats
  • 1 1/2 cups 2% milk or almond milk
  • 1 cup water
  • 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
  • Toppings: Milk, maple syrup, banana, toasted walnuts, etc.

Instructions

  1. Turn on Saute mode and add the butter to the Instant Pot. When it is heated, add the oats and toast for 3 minutes, stirring often, until fragrant. Add the milk, water, salt and cinnamon.
  2. Cook on High Pressure for 3 minutes: Press the Pressure Cook button, making sure the “High Pressure” setting is selected, and set the time. Note that it takes about 4 minutes (or 10 minutes, if the recipe is doubled) for the pot to “preheat” and come up to pressure before it starts cooking. During cooking, avoid touching the metal part of the lid.
  3. Quick release: Vent the remaining steam from the Instant Pot by moving the pressure release handle to “Venting”, covering your hand with a towel or hot pad. Never put your hands or face near the vent when releasing steam. Open the pressure cooker lid and stir the oatmeal. Serve immediately with desired toppings.

Notes

*This recipe is easy to double or triple to feed a crowd! Keep in mind that the preheat time increases with more ingredients. A doubled recipe takes about 10 minutes to preheat and tripled takes about 15 minutes.

  • Category: Breakfast
  • Method: Pressure Cooker
  • Cuisine: American

Keywords: Instant Pot Oatmeal

More healthy breakfast recipes

Here are a few more healthy breakfast recipes we love:

A Couple Cooks - Healthy, Whole Food, & Vegetarian Recipes

Wild Rice Soup (& Cozy Dinner Party Menu)

This wild rice soup recipe is impossibly creamy, packed with flavor and full of tender veggies and hearty rice. Everyone asks for the recipe—it’s that good. This post was created in partnership with Sub-Zero, Wolf, and Cove; all opinions are our own. It may look like just a bowl of wild rice soup, but to us, it’s much more than that. This bowl of decadent creamy soup is a peak into our philosophy on food (yep, we’re going deep!). Alex and I think food should be three things: nourishing, delicious, and community-building. And this soup is all three. It’s made 100% of fresh and healthy veggies, but it’s so savory and creamy you’d never know it. Let’s just say “best soup ever” was mumbled more than once around the table as we downed spoonfuls. We served this at a Cozy Dinner Party we had recently. It’s all the things food should be⁠—and we can’t wait to share it with you! Related: Got an Instant Pot? Instant Pot Wild Rice Soup The philosophy This recipe and dinner party are in honor of our friends at Sub-Zero, Wolf, and Cove. What we love about the brand is that they’re not only passionate about […]

A Couple Cooks – Healthy, Whole Food, Vegetarian Recipes

This wild rice soup recipe is impossibly creamy, packed with flavor and full of tender veggies and hearty rice. Everyone asks for the recipe—it’s that good.

Wild rice soup

This post was created in partnership with Sub-Zero, Wolf, and Cove; all opinions are our own.

It may look like just a bowl of wild rice soup, but to us, it’s much more than that. This bowl of decadent creamy soup is a peak into our philosophy on food (yep, we’re going deep!). Alex and I think food should be three things: nourishing, delicious, and community-building. And this soup is all three. It’s made 100% of fresh and healthy veggies, but it’s so savory and creamy you’d never know it. Let’s just say “best soup ever” was mumbled more than once around the table as we downed spoonfuls. We served this at a Cozy Dinner Party we had recently. It’s all the things food should be⁠—and we can’t wait to share it with you!

Related: Got an Instant Pot? Instant Pot Wild Rice Soup

Creamy wild rice soup dinner party

The philosophy

This recipe and dinner party are in honor of our friends at Sub-Zero, Wolf, and Cove. What we love about the brand is that they’re not only passionate about making the highest quality refrigeration, cooking, and dishwashing appliances (you may remember we use a Cove dishwasher in our kitchen!), but we share a similar philosophy that extends beyond the kitchen. Living deliciously is all about setting down our phones, picking up our forks, and relishing every succulent, savory, sweet taste of the good life.

What to serve with creamy wild rice soup
Cozy dinner party menu

The menu

This wild rice soup was the star of our Cozy Dinner Party! We hosted it to enjoy the coming cool weather and a visit from my sister. She’s currently relocating to the US from Southeast Asia, so it’s incredible to spend quality time together, whereas in the past its been so few and far between.

Another reason for the party: I’m a summer girl, so practicing getting “cozy” for the cool weather is a skill I need to cultivate! The way to get through the winter months for me is all about getting cozy and making all the tasty seasonal foods: like soup! What did we pair with it? A fresh salad, a signature cocktail, and crisp bread.

Here’s the full Cozy Dinner Party menu:

Best game for dinner parties

The memories

One of our favorite dinner party tips: make a Question Jar. Even in a dinner party with people you know intimately, it can be so much fun to have conversation starters to discuss throughout the meal. Excited to have my sister back home, it made for a fun way to guide conversation and talk about things we might not have otherwise. Of course, this is especially nice if you have people who are meeting for the first time!

Here’s an example of some of our questions:

  • What is the thing you’re most passionate about right now?
  • If you could start a business today, what would it be?
  • What is one thing you’d change about yourself?
  • What is one goal you have in the next 6 months?
  • Where do you want to travel next?
  • If you could master one new skill, what would it be?

Do you have any great get-to-know-you questions? Let us know in the comments below!

Wild rice soup

How to make wild rice soup

This wild rice soup is pretty darn incredible, if we do say so ourselves. It’s creamy, it’s cozy, it’s savory: yet somehow, it’s made 100% of plants. Yes, this is secretly a vegan wild rice soup (don’t tell anyone). But after you make it, you’ll swear that somehow a little heavy cream got mixed in. It’s perfectly seasoned, and you might not be able to stop eating it (we weren’t!). Per my sister: “This is really the best soup ever.“

While it takes about 1 hour to make, this healthy dinner recipe is 100% worth the effort. And since most of that time is hands off, it works as an easy dinner idea, too. What are our secrets to how to make the best wild rice soup?

  • Use cashews. Blended cashews can stand in for dairy! In this wild rice soup, you’ll let them soak while the soup simmers. Then you’ll take 2 cups of the soup out (veggies and all) and blend it with the soaked cashews. It makes for the creamiest base EVER. You’ll swear there’s dairy in it.
  • Add white beans and mushrooms. Because there’s no chicken in it (sorry, meat lovers!), this wild rice soup features white beans as a plant-based protein. It’s a unique addition and seriously good. Mushrooms also bring in big flavor and texture.
  • Simmer until the rice pops. Wild rice notoriously takes quite a while to cook: upwards of 50 minutes. You’ll cook this soup until most of the rice grains burst and are tender. It might feel like a long time, but it’s important that the rice is perfectly tender.

If you have an Instant Pot, this soup is modeled after our Instant Pot Wild Rice Soup one of our most fan-favorite recipes. Head to that recipe to get the Instant Pot instructions.

Wild rice soup
Best game for dinner parties

This wild rice soup recipe is…

Vegetarian, gluten-free, vegan, plant-based, and dairy-free.

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Wild rice soup

Wild Rice Soup

1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (6 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

  • Author: Sonja Overhiser
  • Prep Time: 10 minutes
  • Cook Time: 55 minutes
  • Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes
  • Yield: 6 to 8
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Description

This wild rice soup recipe is impossibly creamy, packed with flavor and full of tender veggies and hearty rice. Everyone asks for the recipe—it’s that good.

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup cashews*
  • 1 medium yellow onion
  • 2 celery stalks
  • 3 medium carrots
  • 8 ounces baby bella mushrooms
  • 6 cloves garlic
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon dried thyme
  • 1 tablespoon dried oregano
  • 8 cups vegetable broth
  • 1 cup wild rice (not a wild rice blend)
  • 2 teaspoons kosher salt, divided
  • 2 15-ounce cans white beans
  • 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
  • 2 teaspoons dried sage
  • 1 tablespoon soy sauce, tamari, or liquid aminos

Instructions

  1. Place the cashews in a bowl and cover them with water. Leave them to soak while you make the recipe.
  2. Dice the onion. Thinly slice the celery. Cut the carrot into rounds. Slice the mushrooms. Mince the garlic.
  3. Add the olive oil to a Dutch oven. Add the onion, celery and carrot and cook, stirring occasionally for 5 minutes until lightly browned. Add mushrooms and saute for 2 minutes. Add garlic, thyme and oregano and stir for 2 minutes.
  4. Add the broth, wild rice, 1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, and black pepper. Bring to a simmer. Simmer for 20 minutes. Then add the beans and simmer 30 to 35 minutes more, or until rice breaks open.
  5. Using a liquid cup measure, carefully remove 2 cups of the soup (broth, veggies and all) to a blender. Add 1 cup water. Drain the cashews and add them to the blender, along with the dried sage. Blend on high for about 1 minute until creamy. Then pour the creamy mixture back into the soup.
  6. Add the soy sauce and the remaining 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt. Taste, and adjust seasonings as desired. Garnish with fresh ground pepper.

Notes

*We used raw cashews. If your cashews are salted, you may need to adjust and add a little less salt at the end. 

  • Category: Soup
  • Method: Stovetop
  • Cuisine: Plant Based

Keywords: Wild Rice Soup

Looking for soup recipes?

Here are a few more soups (and sides) we’d recommend for a cozy dinner party:

A Couple Cooks - Healthy, Whole Food, Vegetarian Recipes

Freekah Vegetable Soup Recipe

This cozy vegetable soup recipe features freekah, a whole grain that adds a chewy texture and a wisp of smoky flavor. It’s like a healthy spin on canned noodle soup! Ready for a seriously cozy soup that’s full of bold flavor? This Israeli soup recipe from the new cookbook Sababa features freekah, ancient grain that’s starting to have a moment here in the US. This soup feels like an elevated take on the chicken and stars canned soup of my childhood, but 100% tastier and healthier. Says author Adeena, the freekah adds body and “just a wisp of smoky flavor, as though a blown-out match had passed through each spoonful for a second.” If that’s not a reason to try this out, we’re not sure what is! This recipe comes from Adeena Sussman, author of the new cookbook Sababa: Fresh, Sunny Flavors from My Israeli Kitchen. Keep reading for more about the book and this freekah soup recipe. About the book: Sababa Sababa means “everything is awesome” in Hebrew, and this theme carries through the entire Sababa cookbook! It’s full of vibrant photography and fresh recipes from Adeena’s kitchen in Tel Aviv. Israeli cuisine has become beloved around the world, […]

A Couple Cooks – Healthy, Whole Food, Vegetarian Recipes

This cozy vegetable soup recipe features freekah, a whole grain that adds a chewy texture and a wisp of smoky flavor. It’s like a healthy spin on canned noodle soup!

Vegetable soup with freekah recipe

Ready for a seriously cozy soup that’s full of bold flavor? This Israeli soup recipe from the new cookbook Sababa features freekah, ancient grain that’s starting to have a moment here in the US. This soup feels like an elevated take on the chicken and stars canned soup of my childhood, but 100% tastier and healthier. Says author Adeena, the freekah adds body and “just a wisp of smoky flavor, as though a blown-out match had passed through each spoonful for a second.” If that’s not a reason to try this out, we’re not sure what is! This recipe comes from Adeena Sussman, author of the new cookbook Sababa: Fresh, Sunny Flavors from My Israeli Kitchen. Keep reading for more about the book and this freekah soup recipe.

Sababa cookbook

About the book: Sababa

Sababa means “everything is awesome” in Hebrew, and this theme carries through the entire Sababa cookbook! It’s full of vibrant photography and fresh recipes from Adeena’s kitchen in Tel Aviv. Israeli cuisine has become beloved around the world, and this is one of those books where as we page through we wanted to make literally EVERY recipe. While the book is not vegetarian or vegan, it’s vegetable forward and has tons of beautiful offerings whatever your diet.

Before sharing her freekah recipe, here’s a quick Q&A we did with Adeena about her book and Israeli cuisine! Here’s what she had to say:

Sonja: You were born & raised in the US but moved to Tel Aviv in 2015. What is it about Israeli food culture that helped draw you there?

Adeena: I love the passion for fresh food – from a humble sandwich shop at fine dining restaurant to home cooking, if the produce isn’t snappy and the bread pretty much fresh out of the oven, it doesn’t get served. I also love how Israeli food is as much about a laid-back vibe of socializing and hosting as it is about the food itself. I also love the dozens of ethnic traditions, brought to Israel by immigrants from all over the world and also from home-grown Arab, Druse, and Beduin populations, that influence cuisine here. It’s a delicious melting pot.

Sonja: What are 2 dishes in Sababa you would say are must-try, hat say something about Israeli food and your own personal style?

Adeena: I would say the Tanini Glazed Roasted Carrots. They take a simple, expected dish and transport you to the Middle East by incorporating cumin, date syrup, tahini, and lemon into an addictive dressing. I also love the Cardamom-Cinnamon Cold Brew Coffee. By throwing a cinnamon stick and some whole cardamom pods into your pitcher before cold-brewing, it creates something familiar, yet unexpected.

Sonja: Tell us: why should more of us be cooking with freekeh? What are other dishes where you love to use it?

Adeena: Freekeh – smoked cracked wheat pronounced “freaky” in Israel – is chewy like farro, but with more taste intrigue! It’s a whole grain, filling and super versatile. In the book, I use it in a delicious salad with roasted grapes and lemony dressing. I often cook up a quantity of it and use it wherever I might use brown rice, barley, wheat berries, or any substantial grain.

Vegetable soup with freekah recipe

What is freekah?

Freekeh is cracked wheat, an ancient grain that hails from the Middle East. Similar to bulgur wheat, it comes from the durum wheat plant, harvested when the wheat is green. In Arab communities, young green wheat is picked and dried in the field over wood to create freekeh, a grain that can be used a million ways. The grain has a chewy texture and a smoky undertone.

Is freekah gluten-free? No. Since it’s made from wheat, it is not a gluten-free whole grain like quinoa and millet.

How to cook freekah? If you’d like to cook freekah on its own as a side dish or as part of a grain salad, here’s our master freekah recipe: How to Cook Freekah.

Freekah soup recipe

Tips on this freekah vegetable soup recipe

This vegetable soup with freekah recipe is seriously cozy and comforting. While it takes about 1 hour to make, most of that is hands off. The hands on time is about 15 minutes. Here are a few things to keep in mind when making this freekah recipe:

  • Soak the freekah. This recipe calls for soaking the freekah while you saute the veggies; don’t skip this step! The freekah absorbs some of the water: this way it doesn’t absorb too much of the broth.
  • If you can’t find kohlrabi, use celery. We weren’t able to source the kohlrabi used in this recipe, so we substituted celery instead. It worked well to give a little crunch and subtle flavor. (A few kohlrabi recipes we love: Kohlrabi Carrot Fritters and Beet Dip with Kohlrabi Sticks.)
  • Add more freekah if you’d like. Adeena notes in the book that you can add more freekah to give the soup a thicker, porridge like consistency.

This vegetable soup with freekah recipe is…

Vegetarian, vegan, plant-based, and dairy-free.

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Vegetable soup with freekah recipe

Freekah Vegetable Soup Recipe

1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

  • Author: Sonja Overhiser
  • Prep Time: 10 minutes
  • Cook Time: 45 minutes
  • Total Time: 55 minutes
  • Yield: 4 to 6
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Description

This cozy vegetable soup recipe features freekah, a whole grain that adds a chewy texture and a wisp of smoky flavor. It’s like a healthy spin on canned noodle soup!

Ingredients

  • 1 cup cracked freekeh
  • 1 large onion
  • 1 medium kohlrabi (substitute celery if not available)
  • 2 medium carrots
  • 3 garlic cloves
  • 2 medium zucchini
  • 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more for seasoning
  • ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more for seasoning
  • 8 cups vegetable or chicken broth, plus more if needed
  • 1 Parmesan rind or 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast (optional)
  • 2 teaspoons chopped fresh za’atar or oregano
  • ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper, or more to taste
  • Chopped fresh herbs (za’atar, parsley, chives, or scallions), for garnish

Instructions

  1. Place the freekeh in a medium bowl, cover with cold water, and set aside.
  2. Dice the onion. Peel the rind and tough outer membranes off of the kohlrabi and dice it. Peel and dice the carrot. Mince the garlic. Dice the zucchini.
  3. Heat the olive oil in a large (4-or 5-quart) saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring, until softened, 8 minutes. Add the kohlrabi and carrots and cook, stirring, until the vegetables begin to soften, 5 minutes; season generously with salt and black pepper.
  4. Add the garlic and cook 1 more minute. Drain the freekeh, rinse it with cold water, and add it to the pot. Add the broth, zucchini, Parmesan rind if using, za’atar, salt, and the cayenne.
  5. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, until the soup is thickened, 25 to 30 minutes.
  6. Remove the Parmesan rind, season with more salt and black pepper to taste, divide among bowls, garnish with herbs, and drizzle with olive oil.
  • Category: Main Dish
  • Method: Stovetop
  • Cuisine: Israeli

Keywords: Freekah recipe, Freekah vegetable soup, Vegetable soup recipe

More vegetarian & vegan soup recipes

Here are a few more vegetable-forward soup recipes we’d recommend:

A Couple Cooks - Healthy, Whole Food, Vegetarian Recipes