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Top 10 Sizzling Keto Instant Pot Recipes for Convenient Low-Carb Meals and Desserts

By Fitoru | 11 October 2019
Beef goulash in a white pot next to parsley

Why would you need a keto instant pot recipe?

Let’s start from the very beginning. The initial transition to the ketogenic diet is often the hardest part. You may have to deal with “keto flu” symptoms first of all, and, of course, there’s a lot of adapting your food choices and questioning even the simplest foodstuffs like sauces and salad dressings. 

Once you achieve a state of ketosis, there may be another adjustment period due to the dreaded keto plateau, and for a lot of keto dieters, that’s the moment when their meal plans really get refined—getting to ketosis in the first place is graduating high school, staying there is college-level. 

And then, when you’ve finally got a good grasp on your daily macros, you’ll want to make the keto diet as easy and convenient as possible, and that includes recipes you can set and forget in your Instant Pot for a fuss-free week of meals or a dish big enough to feed the whole family. Here are our top 10 keto Instant Pot recipes for tasty stews, hardy meals, and delicious desserts.

The Benefits of the Instant Pot

The best part of the Instant Pot is right in its name: instant. While of course it still takes a certain amount of cook time, it doesn’t involve the same care and attention as, say, making three things at once with your stove and oven to create one well-rounded meal. A good instant pot or slow cooker includes the following benefits.

Energy Efficient and Money-Saving

During the hottest months of the year you may get warnings from your electric company that the grid is at max capacity, along with suggestions like closing your blinds during the heat of the day or not using your oven until the evening. The problem is your kids eat dinner long before nightfall!

With an Instant Pot the issue is moot. It’s one small machine, the heat is contained, and you’re not literally sweating over a stove during the hottest days in August. 

Not only are you conserving energy but you’re also saving money. Your electric bills are high enough in both summer and winter, so why not use a smaller appliance that requires less electricity and can be easily unplugged when not in use? It’s a win-win.

Convenient and Time-Saving

If you’ve got a 9 to 5 (or 8 to 6 with the commute) job the last thing you want to do every night of the week is labor for a meal, and let’s not forget all the prep time involved. An Instant Pot helps you meal plan because you can make a large portion of food all at once. It’s also possible to put in your dinner’s ingredients in the morning, set a timer, and come home to a fully cooked meal that’s ready for you to kick back and enjoy. 

Another bonus: way easier clean-up. You won’t be scrubbing a bunch of pots and pans at the end of the night, just one pot that can be placed in the dishwasher along with the whole family’s plates, cups, and silverware. 

Foolproof and Safe

It’s not fun to admit, but many of us have burned a dish as simple as noodles, or even left a pot of water boiling for so long we’ve managed to burn the pot itself! This is wasteful and dangerous—if you forget something on the stove or in the oven, you could damage your home, a child or a pet could upset it first, or you could even start an uncontrollable fire. A machine that knows when to shut itself off could literally be a life-saver.

Multipurpose

The Instant Pot isn’t just a crock pot for stews and soups. It can also be used as a pressure cooker, rice cooker, food warmer, sauté pan, steamer, slow cooker, and yogurt maker. There are many varieties out there as well, from trusted brands like Breville, Cuisinart, and more. When buying, check out the features each product has to offer, and once it’s home you can start exploring all kinds of one-and-done dishes, including desserts.

Cooked to Perfection

It can be difficult, especially if you didn’t grow up cooking regularly, to know when a piece of meat is done. You want fish to be cooked through so it can’t make you sick, but you also don’t want to overcook it to the point that it isn’t even palatable. Same goes for a large piece of meat like a pot roast, and what about frozen items? Sometimes you don’t remember to get the veggies out of the freezer the night before, what then? 

Though it’s not recommended for large pieces of uncooked frozen meat to be put in a slow cooker in case there isn’t enough time to cook thoroughly, smaller pieces of meat and definitely vegetables can be trusted in the Instant Pot to warm up properly, soak up the spices and flavorings, and be ready right around dinner time. 

Any Downsides to Pressure Cookers and Instant Pots?

When this idea was new, pressure and slow cookers were a little bit more dangerous than they are today. The heat could cause the lid to blow off, the liquid could rise up and spill over the top like any boiling pot, and there was potential for steam burns when the pot was finally opened. It used to be on the user to release enough steam and prevent an explosion, which is literally the plot of The Shining if you’ll recall the book: Jack Torrence is sent to the Overlook Hotel to release the steam from the boiler lest the whole place explode.

Nowadays these modern machines are built to release their own steam (phew!). They come with lid locks to prevent opening under dangerous conditions, plus automatic temperature controls, failsafe backup valves, and just like your own GFCI outlets (ground-fault circuit interrupter) the machine will shut off rather than risk a dangerous power surge. All of these known dangers have been corrected for and largely eliminated.

The Benefits of the Instant Pot

The Top 10 Keto Instant Pot Recipes

If you’re already sold on the Instant Pot, then here are the recipes you’re looking for that will marry keto dieting with the ease and convenience of an instant meal. These juicy, succulent meals and warm, tempting desserts may impress you with just how versatile your Instant Pot can be.

1. Keto Instant Pot Crack Chicken Recipe

“Crack” chicken is so-called because people have found it to be terribly addictive. Keep the ranch flavoring keto by making your own homemade keto salad dressing, and bring together boneless chicken breasts, cream cheese, bacon, and spices in this recipe from The Keto Queens to see if it isn’t a family favorite in your home too! Top with scallions and cheddar cheese after plating, and serve over zoodles (zucchini noodles) and you may find every bit of tableware licked clean in the end. Check out more tasty crock pot chicken and rice recipes if you just can’t get enough.

2. Keto Bone Broth

The key to making bone broth is that long simmering process, but the Instant Pot helps cut down that time, all while using way less energy than your average stovetop. From I Breathe I’m Hungry comes this easy-to-follow recipe for bone broth that can help boost your collagen intake and reduce full-body inflammation. Start with ginger and garlic for flavor and health benefits, and just add bones and drippings to a mixture of apple cider vinegar and water, celery and onions, and you’re good to go. You can even use this broth as a base to make keto chicken soup the next time you or a loved one needs that classic flu symptom remedy.

3. Instant Pot Buffalo Chicken Meatballs

From Jean the nutritional therapist at What Great Grandma Ate we get this uniquely spicy recipe for keto chicken meatballs with homemade keto buffalo sauce. The sauce comes from a mixture of ghee and hot sauce, and the ground chicken is folded in with garlic, onion, and almond meal for binding. With free-range chicken and grass-fed ghee, your keto recipe is as healthy as possible.

4. Instant Pot Beef Stew

In this recipe, Jennifer Banz from Low Carb with Jennifer combines thick-cut bacon slices with beef, mushrooms, carrots, and onions and keto-friendly xanthan gum for thickening. Perfect for weeknights with the family and full of the amino acids needed for new muscle growth and repair, you can serve this dish over any number of keto rice substitutes or spaghetti squash for one of the best low-carb meals around.

5. Instant Pot Taco Soup

This paleo Instant Pot recipe from Wellness Becomes Her combines all the Mexican flavors of Taco Tuesday in one convenient taco soup recipe. Thick and hardy, you can serve it with this quick recipe from Gnom-Gnom for 15-Minute Gluten-Free Keto Tortillas. That plus salsa and avocado, and in one dish we have the best of everything Tex-Mex and tasty.

6. Instant Pot Loaded Cauliflower Soup

This creamy, cheesy recipe from All Day I Dream About Food gives you all the flavors of a loaded baked potato with none of the carbs. Chopped bacon, sour cream, cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese, and diced veggies join the versatile cauliflower—the perfect low-carb substitute for mashed potatoes. This Instant Pot keto dinner recipe is so good you may want it for every meal of the day.

7. Instant Pot Low-Carb Keto Pot Roast

The crock pot classic: pot roast. No recipe list for Instant Pot would be complete without it, and this recipe from Ditch the Carbs has everything you’d expect: chuck pot roast, garlic and Italian seasoning, coconut aminos for color and flavor, apple cider vinegar, and a medley of vegetables like celery, zucchini, mushrooms, bell peppers, and turnips. With a savory gravy, it’s a whole meal in one.

8. Paleo and Keto Butter Chicken

This Instant Pot take on an Indian classic from Urvashi at Two Sleevers can be served with Sugar-Free Londoner’s keto naan bread and cauliflower rice. High in protein and fat but low on carbs, this recipe is authentic tasting and rich and will keep you full for the rest of the night.

9. Low-Carb Instant Pot Cheesecake

That’s enough dinner: now it’s time for some keto dessert. Cheesecake fat bombs are one thing, but how to make a whole cake you can share with others? This low-carb cheesecake recipe from Savory Tooth details a crust made of butter, blanched almond flower, and sugar-free powdered erythritol, paired with a filling made from heavy whipping cream, eggs, cream cheese, and lemon juice and vanilla extract for flavor (plus more erythritol to satisfy that sweet tooth). Silky and seemingly decadent, this Instant Pot cheesecake will impress anyone.

10. Crock Pot Sugar-Free Chocolate Molten Lava Cake

Brenda the Sugar-Free Mom has our final recipe for all you chocolate-lovers out there: a keto-friendly molten lava cake. This time sweetened with the sugar alternatives Swerve and stevia, the melty marvel combines gluten-free flour and unsweetened cocoa powder with butter, whole eggs, vanilla extract, and sugar-free chocolate chips.

The No-Thought Instant Pot for Keto

There’s almost no carb-heavy dish that can’t be approximated with a keto-friendly alternative recipe, and all the dishes you’ve grown to love creating in your hassle-free Instant Pot can be adapted to keto too. Low-carb recipes like soups, stews, sweets, and even casseroles can be made in the right crock pot or slow cooker, and now you have a bevy of dishes to try yourself.

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