Why a pressure cooker can save both time and money | Kitchen aide

Pressure cookers can steam-cook anything from vegetables and pulses to fish and stews in a fraction of the time, and our panel of chefs agrees they preserve flavour, too

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What are the advantages of pressure cookers?
Charlie, Lincoln
What really sets pressure cookers apart from other bits of kitchen kit, notes food writer Catherine Phipps, is their versatility. I don't see them as a gadget, but just as a saucepan with a specially adapted lid," says the author of Modern Pressure Cooking. You can use them for everything you would a normal saucepan, and much more besides, plus you're also cutting down 70-75% of the cooking time."

Stefano Arturi, of the Italian Home Cooking blog, adds: I can make dishes that would otherwise take hours [stews, chickpeas] in a fraction of the time, and with no loss of flavour - in fact, pressure cooking intensifies how things taste." And all for a fraction of the cost, too: It's a great ally in reducing water and energy consumption when you're cooking things like vegetables, because you need very little of either."

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