It took me a long time to jump on the Instant Pot band wagon, but once I finally did, I was so happy with the results.

If you haven’t heard of these nifty kitchen items yet, they’re basically electric pressure cookers with some other great features.

Since then, I’ve recommended it to many friends to buy for themselves and gifts. Here’s why:

You’ll Save Them Time

I love my Crock Pot and have used it for years. It’s a great way to cook stews and meats—when I have a lot of time to plan. More often than not, though, I don’t have time in the morning or during the day to do the prep work needed to get a meal going. That’s one huge benefit of the Instant Pot. Everything the Crock Pot cooks in hours, the Instant Pot will do in much less time. You do have to allow time for the Instant Pot to build up the pressure, which a lot of recipes don’t always tell you, but even so, cooking time is still much faster.

They’ll Love the Easy Clean Up

The main unit only needs to be wiped down, but all the cooking parts, including the pot and trivet, wash up beautifully in the dishwasher. My biggest problem is that I use the Instant Pot more often than I run my dishwasher, so I often end up hand-washing the post. Luckily, that’s easy peasy too.

They’ll Love the Versatility

The Instant Pot isn’t just about cooking soups, stews and sauces. You can make dips like this Drool-Worthy Artichoke and Spinach Dip, desserts like this Creme Brulee, and wonderfully healthy recipes like home-made broth.

They’ll Love Less Waste

One of my favorite vegetarian recipes is Butternut Squash Croquettes from cooking blog Love & Lemons. They’re delicious and super easy to make, but the traditional style of roasting the squash takes a long time and ends up wasting a lot of the squash because the edges get hard. But cooking butternut squash in my Instant Pot takes just a fraction of the time and doesn’t waste any of the delicious squash. My plate of croquettes is towering when I use the Instant Pot compared to when I roast the squash in the oven.

They’ll Love the Taste

And the butternut squash is so much more creamy when I cook it in my Instant Pot. My Instant Pot is now my go-to way to cook any type of squash. I can also taste the difference in other recipes. The taste of food cooked in my Instant Pot is deeper and richer.

Bonus for New Moms

Some versions of the Instant Pot even has a sterilizer option to keep bottles clean.

So if you’ve got someone on your list who loves to cook a variety of healthy dishes but doesn’t have time to monitor a stove or prep super early for a Crock Pot, give them the gift of an Instant Pot and watch them smile.

I have the 6-quart 9-in1 Duo Plus and love it, but there are a lot of other versions, including:

• 7-in-1 Duo, which can do almost everything the Plus can do except make cakes and eggs and sterilize.
• 10-in-1 Ultra, which is similar to the Plus but has more programming options, like temperature and altitude.
• Max, which has the programming options of the Ultra but the more limited features of the Duo.
• Smart Wifi, which can do everything the Plus can except sterilize, but it can also be connected to wifi to be controlled through a phone or Alexa.

Do you have an Instant Pot at home? Planning to give it to someone this year?