Hi, I'm Nisha, and today I've got three
different vegan meal prep ideas for you:
all made in the Instant Pot, and all
perfect for winter. These recipes are
going to nourish both your body and your
soul because they're not only well-
balanced in nutrients but also really
comforting, so let's get right into the
first one.
This first dish I'm going to make is a
French lentil soup. And of course soups
are great for meal prep and they're even
easier when you use your instant pot to
make them. I'm starting the soup off by
chopping some onions, carrots and garlic,
and that's going to infuse the soup with a
lot of flavor. It's really important to
sauté those until they get a little bit
browned, add some salt and pepper so you
really infuse the soup from within. And
then I'll add some French lentils,
baby potatoes, and some other goodies. 
I'm starting off with 1 large sweet
onion. You could use a yellow onion
instead but I think the sweet onion or a
Vidalia onion, as it's called, adds a
little more depth of flavor because it
has that slight sweetness.
Next I'm going to use a generous amount of garlic. Of course if you don't like
garlic as much, you can use a little less
but I think a lot of garlic is key to
creating flavor. And to easily peel
garlic, I just push down with the back of
a knife and that's probably the easiest
way to peel garlic that doesn't require
some sort of special contraption. I'm
just going to mince up the garlic. I find it
easiest to mince once I've peeled it, to
then cut it into thin strips and then
put all those strips together and then
just run a knife back and forth over it.
It really helps to have a strong, sharp
chef's knife or a Japanese knife, which
is what this is. A little kitchen, kind of
steak knife is going make this a lot
harder to do. Next up are some carrots. I
love the subtle sweetness that carrots
bring to a soup or a stew And I'm just
going dice them up.
The next thing I'm using are potatoes. 
These are baby potatoes and I love using
potatoes in a lentil soup, especially in
the instant pot, because the high
pressure of the pressure cooking makes
them really soft and they kind of just
melt into this soup. And because these
are such little potatoes the skin is so
thin you don't need to peel it at all. If
you are using regular sized potatoes,
you'll want to cut them into bite-sized
pieces like this.
Now for my favorite part of the soup,
which is a bouquet garni. A bouquet garni
is a French word that means "a bundle of
fresh herbs tied together with string."
Today I'm using parsley, rosemary, bay
leaves, thyme and oregano. If you don't
have all of those, that's totally fine; 
just use the ones that you do have. And
I'm going to put that in the soup with
all the other ingredients and it's going
to really perfume the entire soup with
deep rich, herbaceous
wonderful flavors that you're gonna get. 
Now that we've got all of our vegetables
prepped, it's time to make the soup in
the instant pot. You're going to start by
hitting the Sauté button down here; let
it heat up for a few minutes and then
we're going to add our olive oil. And
once it's hot you're going to add your
onions and let them get nice and brown.
Once the carrots and onions have cooked
down a bit you're gonna add all of the
ingredients, including this vegetable
broth, the French lentils, this beautiful
bouquet garno, these little potatoes, and
the remaining salt and pepper. Gently
stir those ingredients, and then finally
I'm going to add some crushed canned tomatoes
on top for this soup. You're going to hit
the "pressure cook" button right here. If
you have an older model of the instant
pot, it's going to say "manual." And it'll
show a timer, and you want to reduce it
to 12 minutes using these keys. You want
to make sure that this sealing knob is
set to Sealing instead of Venting. If you
set it to venting it won't actually seal
and you won't be able to pressure cook.
Alright, the soup is done and it smells
so good I can't wait to try it. And I
just let this come to a natural pressure
release after the soup was done on the
pressure cook setting. A natural pressure
release just means you don't touch the
instant pot after it's done; you just let
it depressurize on its own and you know
it's done when this metal pin right here
comes down it'll make a little clicking
sound.
The last step is to add some acid. I'm
adding a little bit of Dijon or brown
grain mustard and some high-quality
balsamic vinegar. The reason I add acid
to a soup or a stew or chili at the end
because it really brings out the flavors
in some of the other ingredients that
might otherwise lie dormant.
My next instant pot meal prep idea is a
miso butter cauliflower mash. It's a
healthier alternative to mashed potatoes
but still tastes really rich and
indulgent and it stays great in the
fridge
so you can serve it alongside your
favorite protein or vegetable during the
week. I'm going to start this dish by
chopping some cauliflower as well as
some leeks. You're just going to chop the
cauliflower roughly into florets. No need
to be super precise because it's all
going to get pressure-cooked together.
I'm using two leeks for this recipe
because I love the way leeks and
cauliflower go together, but you want to
make sure that you thoroughly clean your
leeks - they've got all this dirt inside
of them so you want to trim the outer
layers and then thoroughly soak them in
water get all that dirt out. Scrub it out
because you don't want the taste of sand
in your mouth when you go to eat this.
For this cauliflower mash, the first step
is to sauté some leeks and garlic in
olive oil. And that first step is really
essential to adding a lot of flavor into
this mash. You're going to start by
turning on the sauté setting and you'll
add a little bit of olive oil. Once the
pot gets hot,
you're gonna set your instant pot to the
pressure cook setting and then you're
going to reduce the time to 4 minutes.  Don't forget to set the knob to the Sealing
function. While the cauliflower is
cooking in the instant pot, we're gonna
go ahead and get started with the miso
butter , nd that's gonna add so much
flavor to this dish. And all you need are
two ingredients: we've got some vegan
butter and some miso paste.
Once the cauliflower is done pressure
cooking, you're going to perform a quick
release, which means you'll move the
sealing knob to the venting position. And
to the cooked cauliflower, I'm going to
add that miso butter I just made along
with remaining salt and pepper and some
nutritional yeast for a bit of a cheesy
flavor. Then you're going to take a
immersion blender and just directly in
the pot go ahead and blend it up. If you
don't have an immersion blender, just
transfer the cauliflower mixture to a
food processor instead. When you think of
cauliflower, you probably think of like
super healthy, but I guarantee this mash
is going to taste indulgent and rich. 
It's really flavorful, it's like a hug in
a bowl, and I can't wait for you to try
it cuz it's so easy and it's so comforting.
For my final instant pot meal
prep dish, I'm doing a breakfast and this
is going to be a really cozy, comforting
dish for the winter. I'm starting off
with some pears and some dates because this is a pear and date spiced oatmeal. The
first step is to peel and dice some
pears. You can use any variety you like.
The spices I'm using are going to go really
well with these pears.
I've got cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, and
allspice, and together with the vanilla
extract, it's gonna make this taste a bit
like a dessert. It's going to be really warm,
cozy, a little spicy, just really nice
winter flavors.
The first step is to lightly spray your
instant pot with some cooking spray or
coconut oil to prevent the oats from
sticking. Then you'll add the steel-cut
oats. I'm using one and a half cups. I'm
using four cups of plant-based milk for
about one and a half cups of oats  - I find
that to be a great ratio for creamy oats.
Then I'll go ahead and add the pears.
Then we're using some medjool dates.
These are the really soft, sweet, sticky
dates. If you can find them instead of
the deglet dates, I highly recommend them. And you just want to make sure you
remove the pit from the inside. Then we
have some vanilla extract. Finally we
have a combination of spices, as well as
a pinch of sea salt. The great thing
about this recipe is that it really
requires little work, and so you can
make it in about five minutes. 
Once you put everything in here, the
instant pot does all the work for you, so
you can go get ready for your day, go to
the gym, whatever it is that you want to
do in the morning. The oatmeal might be a
little foamy on top when you open the
instant pot. Just give it a good stir to
incorporate everything, and it'll have
this nice creamy texture, and it'll be
perfect to eat.
I hope you enjoyed this video for vegan
instant pot meal prep ideas. If you did,
go ahead and give it a thumbs up. One
final favor: leave me a comment below -
what video topics or recipes do you want
to see next? Thanks so much for watching
and until next time.
