Pressure Cooker Vegetable Soup and Cornbread Loafies

In the recipe book that came with my new pressure cooker (Cook's Essentials brand -- 5 quart) there was a recipe titled "Easy Corn Chowder" which sounded delicious, but after reading the recipe and ultimately making it, it is really nothing like I would expect corn chowder to be, but delicious none the less. Here is my adapted version, pretty much the same except I added more carrots and skipped the onion in the original recipe.

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 cups sliced carrots
1-2 cups sliced celery
3 medium-large potatoes, diced
2 cups frozen corn
1 cup frozen peas
6 cups of your favorite broth or stock
salt and pepper to taste
2 cups wide egg noodles


Heat oil in pressure cooker using the "brown" setting. Add carrots, celery, and potatoes. Brown until soft (I browned for about 5 minutes, stirring as needed.)

Add corn and peas. (My husband was not crazy about the pea texture after being pressure cooked, I think you could probably add these later when you add the noodles and that might help.)

Cover, set to high pressure, set timer for 8 minutes.

Let the pressure drop using quick release method. Unlock and remove lid. Season with salt and pepper.

Turn on steam setting and add noddles and cook until desired doneness, about 5-8 minutes depending on what noodles you use. The steam setting is pretty much like a pot of boiling soup on the stove.

I loved this soup and will be making different variations of it again I'm sure. It was a nice recipe to try out the different settings on the pressure cooker and help become acquainted with all the features.

For the Sour Cream Cornbread Loafies I used this recipe from Land 'o Lakes:

1/4 cup LAND O LAKES® Butter, softened
3 tablespoons sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup milk (I used buttermilk)
1 cup all-purpose flour
2/3 cup yellow cornmeal
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda

Heat oven to 425°F (I dropped it down to 375).

Combine butter and sugar in small bowl. Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often, until creamy.

Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in sour cream and milk.

Reduce speed to low; add all remaining ingredients. Beat just until mixed.

Spoon batter into 12 greased or paper-lined muffin cups (I used my mini loaf pan and was able to fill 6 of the 8 mini loafies). Bake for 15 to 18 (I did 20 minutes since the loafies are bigger than regular muffins and I dropped the oven temperature) minutes or until golden brown.

We thought these were wonderful, they were a little different than our favorite cornbread recipe but I had some sour cream I wanted to use up and these were a nice use of that. My whole family liked them and my husband commented that they were more cakey than my usual recipe, which I enjoyed. The kids called them cornbread loafie cakes and loved them as well.

My three year old couldn't wait to get her hands on a cornbread loafie :)

The soup and cornbread went together well and was a warm and comforting easy weekend lunch. The wonderful Deb at Kahakai Kitchen has a weekly Souper Sundays event that will have you heading to the kitchen to cook up a warm pot of something yummy, go check it out :)