I feel like I am at that stage as a mom where I’ve no longer got any little ones in diapers and my youngest is almost to a regular booster seat. Instead of thinking about Pampers, I’m thinking about PTA meetings. Our kids are now more involved in extracurricular activities like ballet, chess club and football practice. I’m a busy mom and there is no better tool for me in my kitchen arsenal for these busy weeknights than my trusty pressure cooker!

I just love so much that it basically makes any meal a one-pot meal since you can saute meats and veggies and things in the pot before you pressure cook so cleanup is a breeze! I particularly love making all kinds of soups and pasta dishes in it, and these meals so happen to be the ones that are always big hits with my picky eaters.

My favorite dish of all time that I would always request my mom make every year for my birthday growing up is lasagna. It just hits the spot each and every time! There is never a bad day for lasagna. While I’ve never thought of it as too fussy or hard of a meal to make, things get even easier when you throw your layers on the bottom of an Instant Pot and hit a button. Just like that  you have perfect, delicious lasagna in under 30 minutes. One great thing about this lasagna recipe in particular is that it doesn’t use a springform pan. You can cook everything right there in the pan--and you won’t even get a “burn notice”. It’s great.

Here are a couple helpful notes to keep in mind when making this fantastic recipe:

Do I need to precook the pasta? No, there is no need to. You can use whole wheat noodles, regular, gluten free and no-boil (oven-ready) and they all work just great with no adjustments needed. 

Can I add ricotta cheese to this recipe? You can also add a layer of ricotta or cottage cheese in there, if desired. Some people like to mix ricotta cheese with an egg as one of the layers of lasagna. Feel free to do this if you like that addition. You can add it as a layer right above the meat.

Can I use anything else besides ground turkey? Any ground meat like ground turkey, beef or chicken works great. You can also make it vegetarian lasagna instead with tofu or cooked white beans.

Can I double the recipe? Doubling this recipe is not recommended, even in the 8 qt instant pot because the pot will be too full and it will not come to pressure. To “beef things up” a bit you can, however, add another pound of meat to make it more filling. 

For a 3 quart Instant Pot: you can make a smaller batch in a 3 qt Instant Pot by cutting the ingredients in half (including the water), but keep the same cooking time.

Tips for Making Instant Pot Lasagna In Advance:

Keeping warm: You can totally make it earlier in the day and leave it on the “keep warm” setting for up to 10 hours. Since there is a bit of liquid at the bottom, it keeps warm just great without burning.

Refrigerating Leftovers: If you have any leftovers you can simply keep it in the inner stainless steel pot and cover it with foil or a silicone Instant Pot lid and refrigerate.

Reheating Cold Lasagna:

To heat up cold lasagna, put the inner pot back in the outer pot, cover with the lid, and press “Steam” or “Manual” and pressure cook for 1 minute. The “Saute” function could also work as well. If you don’t see a lot of liquid on the bottom, feel free to add ¼ cup of water. You want to make sure you have some liquid in there to create steam. 

Have you tried making anything like lasagna in your pressure cooker before? Were you pleased with the results. If you are a lasagna fan like me I hope you’ll give this recipe a try!



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