Hearty Cassoulet in the Instant Pot

A hearty bowl of tender beans studded with chunks of sausage and vegetables in a simple broth. This comforting recipe is an excellent use of pressure cooking to create a warm nutritious meal without having to remember to pre-soak beans.

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I buy dry beans because I know they're good for us, but I rarely remember to pre-soak them prior to using. (I can easily remember to set the eggs and cream cheese out to come to room temperature before making a cheesecake so I suspect it's a matter of priorities, not organizational skills.)

I teach Instant Pot classes, and for my All-in-One-Instant-Pot class I want recipes that can cook all together and create a full meal with a single cooking session. This one fits the bill. Add some bread and a salad if you like, or just dig in to a bowl. Other recipes on this site from that class are my Instant Pot Spaghetti and Meatballs or my Turkey and Wild Rice Meatloaf with Sweet Potatoes.

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When I saw this recipe* (more on that in a bit) I noticed that it called for BOTH pre-soaking the dried beans AND a relatively long cook time. I wondered if it was truly necessary to pre-soak when the cooking time should be sufficient to fully cook the dry beans.

I decided to experiment and do half a bag of beans with a quick soak and leave half a bag of beans dry, then make two batches of this recipe--one with each kind of bean. Full disclosure--my daughter suggested this and she's a smart cookie (as well as my Producer for my online cooking classes). Having my college kids home "at school" instead of away at school is mostly a very nice situation.

How do you Quick Soak dry beans in an Instant Pot?

Instant Pot Fruited Wild Rice Salad with Sweet Potato

This vegan and grain free Instant Pot salad combines chewy wild rice and tender sweet potato with grapes and clementines in a lemony herb dressing. Perfect for summer alongside grilled meats or for fall alongside baked meatloaf.  

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I have meaningful work and it's an amazing thing to be able to write that statement.
What does this have to do with the Instant Pot Fruited Wild Rice and Sweet Potato Salad recipe I'm sharing today? 
The short version is that I discovered the dressing I'm using in this salad (I've got a DIY version, too, see the Note below) via my work with Minnesota Central Kitchen turning rescued/donated ingredients into meals for hungry people in the Twin Cities area.
If that's enough for you please feel free to scroll on down to the recipe.

Garlic Scape Herbed Cream Cheese

A fast and flavorful spread for appetizers or snacks, this zesty cream cheese marries fresh herbs with garlic scapes for a Spring treat. Spread this on crackers or tortillas, pipe it into peppers, or dunk a carrot for a fresh from the farm share appetizer.

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To make a more useful website for my fellow farm share eating folks, I periodically ask food bloggers for recipes so I can add their photos (and links back to their sites) to my Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient.

It's mean, rude, poor form, and illegal to take recipes and photos someone else has created and publish them on another website. Want to print off a recipe to hang on your fridge and refer to? Rock on! Here's how to print from my site. Want to copy and paste this post to publish somewhere else? No, you do not have my permission to steal my work. You're most welcome to link to this page instead.

When I was gathering garlic scape recipes I came across this Grilled Crostini with Garlic Scape Cream Cheese and Tomatoes from Kim of Kiss My Smoke. Her recipe reminded me that I hadn't tried making a savory cheese spread using farm share ingredients.

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This is not that spread that my kids keep asking me to make--I think I need to use some ricotta and more pepper to make it a bit drier/firm it up, to come closer to Boursin, but much more testing is needed. Rule #3, something to look forward to. 

[What are Rules #1 and #2? Rule #1--you need someone to love. Rule #2--you need something to do. Rule #3--you need something to look forward to. I learned these from my spouse shortly after we met.]