Instant Pot Plus 5.7L Multicooker Review

Design and Features

• Modern design
• Handy control panel
• Lots of useful functions

The Plus 5.7L has an all-black frame for an arguably more minimalistic look that’s similar to other multicookers in their range. It’s got more of a Ninja-style look to it against some cheaper appliances in its class, and looks excellent.

The 5.7-litre capacity here is reasonably large thanks to its deep metal pot that has silicon tips on the end to make lifting it in and out of the unit easier. There is enough room inside for cooking larger portions of pasta or rice dishes, or even meat and fish, if you want to batch cook, for instance.

Its lid twists off with ease and locks into place securely when the appliance is in use. The top of the lid has a large handle to help with removing the heavy lid, while there is a textured sliding switch for the steam release valve, helped by a handy symbol so you know which way to push it.

The Plus 5.7L’s control panel is made up of cooking-style hieroglyphics and symbols to denote its cooking modes. Normally, I bemoan this sort of thing, but alongside the symbols comes a large digital display that clearly shows which cooking mode has been selected, be it Pressure Cook, Slow Cook, or Sous Vide, for instance.

The functions here are plentiful and far-reaching, with a total of nine to choose from. These include more ‘standard’ functions such as Pressure Cook and Slow Cook to odder ones including Sous Vide and Sterilise. The latter is particularly useful if you need to fully clean baby bottles and dummies, for instance, as Instant Pot says itself in its marketing bumf.

You can also use the Plus 5.7L as a hob thanks to its Saute mode with five selectable settings for control, and there is a useful Warm function if you want to keep items at a hotter temperature for serving. It also comes with a metal trivet that can be handy for use as a rack when steaming or pressure cooking, for instance.

This multicooker also has app connectivity, which allows you to remotely control the appliance by selecting a function and time, and then ‘sending’ the function to it. You still need to manually press the start button for it to work, though. The app also provides some handy recipes, although these don’t appear to be specific to this Plus model.

The large pot is also dishwasher-safe if you don’t want to clean it manually. I chose to hand-wash each implement, which was easy and quick to do.

Performance

• Fantastic results as a pressure cooker
• Sous Vide was a surprising success
• Works well as a steamer, too

During my time with the Instant Pot Plus 5.7L, I cooked a range of items to best gauge how well it performs and how competent it was as a fully-fledged multicooker. I had high hopes, and Instant Pot delivered with an excellent candidate that’s easy and quick to use, depending on the function selected.

I elected to start with a one-pot pressure-cooked pasta recipe adapted from one I was given. I put 160g of pasta into the pot along with some beef meatballs, mushrooms, tomatoes, tomato puree, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, onions and red wine stock. This was set on Pressure Cook on its High setting for eight minutes. 

The pre-heat took just over 12 minutes, giving a total cook time of around 20 minutes. After that time, it came out cooked, but slightly on the runnier side. I added some more tomato puree and put it on the Sauté setting for a few minutes more to help the sauce thicken. The result was a rich and thick pasta sauce with minimal effort.

I also attempted a salmon risotto. This was adapted from a ‘base risotto’ recipe on the Instant Pot recipe, which I added tomatoes to for a tomato risotto. I used the Sauté setting to soften the onions and set the rice going until it went translucent, and white wine was added. I then set it to Pressure Cook for eight minutes on High with stock and tomatoes added, alongside varying seasoning. 

The salmon was placed on the trivet Instant Pot provided, and was slightly sitting in the liquid when it cooked. The result was wonderfully steamed salmon and a surprisingly good risotto that just needed some cheese added at the end to get to an optimal consistency.

The Sous Vide setting intrigued me, as it’s not something I had tried before in the traditional sense – advanced air fryers such as the Dreo ChefMaker have a similar setting by using water in its tank alongside a traditional air frying element to emulate the process.

With it, I put two pieces of sirloin steak in a sealed zip lock bag, which were placed into a bath of hot water in the Plus 5.7L’s inner pot set to 63°C/145°F and left to cook for two hours. After this, they were taken out and seared in a pan to provide a little more colour to the outside. After the steak had been left to rest for 10-15 minutes, it came out tender, moist, and full of flavour.

I also used the Steam setting for some chicken breasts and Jersey Royal potatoes to put over a salad. The chicken steamed for 30 minutes to the target temperature of 74°C to ensure it was cooked through, while the potatoes needed a further ten minutes to get to an al dente texture. The chicken was then finished in my Ninja Air Fryer Max Pro 6.2L AF180UK with some cheese melted over the top. It tasted excellent.

Should you buy it?