I stumbled upon the “cold start” yogurt technique on Pinterest from This Old Gal. It’s funny, when I bought my Instant Pot®, I immediately thought about all of the wonderful things I would be making. Little did I know that more than anything else, I would use my Instant Pot® to make Greek Yogurt. I make a batch of yogurt, pretty much every week. Up until recently, I have been using this method for homemade yogurt. After making the yogurt, I chill it in the fridge overnight and then strain off the whey until I have thick and creamy Greek Yogurt. Delicious. The no-boil method is SO MUCH BETTER. No fussing with thermometers. No icky film to remove. No worry about scorching on the bottom – just thick, creamy, perfect yogurt, ready to eat or strain into Greek Yogurt. The trick is to use ultra-pasteurized milk. Ultra-pasteurized milk is heated to a higher temperature than regular pasteurized milk, which kills more bacteria. Because of this, you can skip the step of heating your milk to 180-200F. I have experimented with two different brands and both have worked for me.
This Instant Pot® Vegetable Chowder is loaded with summery vegetables – zucchini, squash, and corn, just begging for a glass of sauvignon blanc and a crusty loaf of bread. It isn’t summer, though, and I am all out of wine. What I do have a crisper full of vegetables that I bought intending to grill, and a weekend full of cold, rainy, weather, with no grilling in sight. What is a girl to do? Make soup, of course! I adapted another one of my recipes that calls for bacon. While I love bacon, I try to make my soups mostly vegetarian-friendly, because it is a meal that my kids will all eat. To replace some of the bacon-y goodness, I added in smoked paprika. This kept the soup meat-free, but added a hint of smokiness that would have come from the bacon. I also call for either water or vegetable stock. Feel free to use chicken stock, if it is what you have.
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