Owning an Instant Pot is the best thing you can do to yourself if you’re like me and love getting stuff done quickly. Aside for the VERY short two months of summer we have, I use mine almost all year, at least once a week because 1- It's a "set it and forget it" kind of meal, and 2- food stays warm inside until everyone is ready to eat, which is a big plus for my family.
Since I really enjoy the One-pot situation, I love the idea of cooking the protein within the soup so the chicken gets tender and flavorful while the soup also gains from the chicken’s flavor - All this with no added work, or other pots to clean! So if you’re going to take away one thing from this recipe, it should definitely be incorporating the chicken in the soup!
1 yellow onion
3 stalks of celery
4 carrots
2 parsnips
2 sweet potato
3/4 of a butternut squash
2 sweet potatoes
1 tomato
1 large zucchini
2 cloves of garlic
3/4 cup of lentils
10 chicken drumsticks
A handful of cilantro, not chopped
2 tbsp oil
Turmeric
Salt and pepper, to taste
DIRECTIONS
Start by finely chopping every vegetable on a board.
Set your instant pot to saute mode and add onion to oil. When translucent, add celery and carrots.
Add parsnips and saute for 2 minutes. Add rest of vegetables with the garlic and let them sweat for 5 minutes.
Mix in the lentils and chicken then add seasonings and cilantro to top. Do not mix in the cilantro. Add water until you reach the max capacity of the instant pot.
Set the pot on pressure cooking for 35 minutes. When it is done, release the pressure.
Remove cilantro and set aside chicken. Using a hand blender, mash up the soup until a creamy texture forms.
If you are making this in a regular pot, I would leave it to boil half covered for about 1.5 - 2 hours because of the lentils and chicken. Check on your soup after 1 hour and adjust time if needed.
Enjoy,
Guila