Instant Pot Steamed Vegetables

Instant Pot steamed vegetables are the perfect healthy side dish! Mixed veggies like carrots, brussel sprouts, corn and green beans all cooked together y’all! Fresh is best but pressure cooker frozen corn on the cob can be used too.

How to Steam Vegetables in Instant Pot

Boy is it nice to be able to cook multiple things all at once!! It took me a bit to figure out just the right mix of veggies but I’m here to share my findings with all of you! Below is a veggie cook time sheet so you can make your own mixture but corn, brussels, carrots and green beans are our favorites.

Ninja Foodi Steamed Vegetables

You can use the same instructions for a Crockpot Express or Ninja Foodi pot as well. Using high pressure and like choices they will all come out tender and delicious to serve as a healthy side dish. Only difference with the Foodi is you use the lid that is not attached for this one.

Believe it or not my 3 daughters would rather eat a plate full of veggies over meat any day of the week! Adding meat inside is possible too if you follow our Instant Pot chicken and vegetables recipe. It didn’t start off like this when they were little but boy am I glad we stuck out the “you have to try one bite” night after night. It paid off!

How long does it take to steam vegetables in an Instant Pot?

Use the chart linked below! Of course these are approximate times depending on how much you’re making and how thick each piece is, but they’re pretty dead on. The trick is you want to choose a mixture of those that cook at the same cook time, or one will become too soft.

Cook Time Chart

You may have steamed vegetables in an Instant Pot before, but just one at a time. Mixing them can be confusing if you don’t have an Instant Pot vegetable cook times chart like this one. Use our Instant Pot vegetable cook time chart here for reference.

You must gather different items that have similar cook times so they’ll come out perfectly tender. Seems obvious but let’s go a step further after that and talk about what we used.

Ingredient Notes

• I chose corn on the cob broken in half. I bought these fresh but you could use the frozen bag at the store and the timing won’t change believe it or not.
• And a great duo with this was brussel sprouts, both firm and needed about the same time in our magic pot.
• I chose whole multi colored carrots as you see here but you could use a bag of baby pressure cooker carrots instead
• Fresh green beans with ends snipped off were nice too. They do get on the softer side mixed with these but that is how we like them so it worked

These work great because they all have somewhat similar times, the green beans were an iffy add but they actually turned out great too. We used to make them separately all the time, now we can throw them in together!

What are the fastest vegetables to cook in a pressure cooker?

You could choose to mix Instant Pot broccoli and pressure cooker cauliflower too since one or 0 minutes is perfect for both of those.

Can you steam frozen vegetables in an Instant Pot?

You can! We are using fresh produce here, this is how to cook Instant Pot frozen vegetables here if that is all you have. Those are fast usually because the sizes are rather small and they are in fact precooked most of the time so stay close.

How do you steam vegetables without a steamer basket?

This basket is an Instant Pot accessory must you will use all of the time, I like this one with little feet at the bottom. Yes you can use a trivet but the smaller pieces will likely roll off and into the liquid below. When they do they’ll become complete mush so spend the five bucks or whatever and get one of these, you won’t regret it.

There are mesh baskets online you can use too that are larger if you have a big family. A 7″ bundt pan and a springform pan are the 3 things (other than a trivet that comes with your pot) I highly recommend.

Tips

Rinse off outsides and remove any outer layers of leaves or pieces that may be damaged. Choose your like mixed vegetables: Slice larger pieces like brussel sprouts in half. Peel carrots and cut into large chunks (the smaller the softer they will be). Long pieces like corn on the cob should be cut in half. Leave green beans whole.

This is what my batch looked like, a really good mix we all thought. Now when steaming broccoli you have to use other 1-2 minute cook time items. If not you’ll get mush, you get what I mean… With the time to prep them and cook for a very short time this should take less than 15 minutes start to finish. It’s a great low carb and keto easy side dish.

What is the difference between steam and and pressure cook on an Instant Pot?

Steam function is when you just cook your food with steam. Pressure cooking with a steamer basket though is the same cooking mechanism except for the addition of pressure to the mix. I choose to use pressure cook every time, just my preference.

Other vegetable recipes you’ll love

If you’d rather make air fryer vegetables that are mixed we share how to do that here as well. This is how to cook Instant Pot bok choy to tender. You can cook Instant Pot mushrooms right inside the inner pot actually! Sauteed in butter and garlic they come out great.