Recipe: Instant Pot Sausage & Rice Casserole

Unless you live under a rock, you've heard of the Instant Pot.  And by heard of it, you may have heard people speaking mystically about its magical powers to have dinner on the table in 4 minutes with you not having to lift a finger.  Yes, there are many recipes that involve a 4 minute timer (this included) but there is still some work involved and the entire recipe isn't done and on the table in those four minutes.  Nonethless, I'm a big fan of the Instant Pot.  I've had a traditional stove-top pressure cooker for years and loved the many recipes and flavors I could build in it; the Instant Pot is no exception.

Today I present to you one of my all-time favorite meals.  This is the meal that my mom would always include on the menu whenever I came home from college and still manages to include when I visit.  I've been making Sausage and Rice Casserole for myself and my family for years and after I scored an 6Qt Instant Pot IP-DUO60 7-in-1 this summer on Amazon's #PrimeDay I decided it was a recipe worth converting from the oven to the Instant Pot.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Instant Pot Sausage & Rice Casserole
  serves: 4-6
  total time: ~30 minutes

Ingredients
- 1lb ground sausage
- 1.5 cups of uncooked white rice
- 1.5 cups of water
- 1 cup of Pictsweet Seasoning Blend (frozen) or fresh diced onion and celery

Directions
1. Using the Instant Pot [Saute] function, brown and crumble 1lb of ground sausage.
2. Once brown, remove sausage to a holding plate and drain any excess grease from the inner pot.  Add 1.5 cups of uncooked jasmine rice to the inner pot along with the 1.5 cups of water.
3. Carefully return the browned sausage to the inner pot.  Add the vegetables on top.
4. Lock cover into place and seal steam nozzle.
5. Press [Manual] and set the timer for 4 minutes.
6. Allow to [Keep Warm] for 10 minutes and then turn off and release the pressure.
7. Stir and enjoy!


Notes

• Save time by having a 1lb bag of sausage already cooked in the freezer.
• The Pictsweet Seasoning Blend is also a great time saver -- it's a pre-chopped, frozen blend of onions, celery, green and red peppers and parsley flakes.  Look for it with frozen vegetables.
• This recipe is very flexible, add more or less of any particular ingredient and it can flex to feed as many mouths as are at your table.  Just make sure to keep a 1:1 rice:water ratio
• This recipe can also be assembled in a traditional casserole dish and cooked in the oven, covered at 400* for about 40-45 minutes.  Increase your water to about 2 cups to account for evaporation.