Instant Pot Taco Rice

This comfort food combines taco-seasoned meat with cooked rice and salsa in a hearty bowl of family-friendly food. This recipe is great to serve a crowd, too. Use the Instant Pot for easy clean up!

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This is not a pressure cooker recipe, but I am including it in my Instant Pot on Campus series for a couple of reasons. First, this recipe is a family favorite which my son has cooked on the stovetop many times under my tutelage. I'm posting it on my website so that he can access it without sending me texts at 10:49pm asking how to make it.

Second, using the Sauté function on the Instant Pot or Mealthy (or Brown on the Presto) makes your electric pressure cooker function like a high-sided electric skillet. When I make this dish in my 12 inch cast iron skillet I inevitably fling some of the contents all over the stovetop as I'm stirring. That results in a thorough cleaning not only of the skillet but also of the stove. Using the Instant Pot to cook this meal saves clean up!


The third reason I'm sharing this is because I think that electric pressure cookers are hidden gems for disabled cooks. Instead of having to strain to access a stovetop to brown meat--or pay to modify the stove height--cooks can position the electric pressure cooker on a convenient flat surface and work in comfort. Wear an apron and mind the splatters, though.

Chicken Meatballs with Garlic Scape Pesto

Ground chicken and garlic scape pesto makes a flavorful meatball. Serve this tasty Spring treat over pasta, in a meatball sub, as an appetizer or on a pizza!

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Garlic scapes are one of the weirder items in the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share box. They are a strange green hook that packs a mild garlic flavor into a curlicue shape, shown below. I think they're one of the best savory ways to kick off a new growing season and I hope to share the love with you.

When I get garlic scapes in the farm share they are usually accompanied by loads of greens. Spinach, salad mix, cooking greens . . . all of these are more fragile than the hardy garlic scape. While I need to perform Vegetable Triage to ensure none of the delicate greens go to waste, I can toss a bag of garlic scapes into the crisper and remember it in a week without any problems. Once I've gathered all of the season's scapes, I make a massive batch of Garlic Scape Pesto. You can find my Garlic Scape & Pistachio Pesto recipe here. I freeze this pesto in small amounts to use throughout the year, whenever I want to add a flavor boost to pizza, or muffins, or even meatballs.