Heartful Abilities
Pressure Cooking Workshops — Ottawa

The everyday side of the pot

Not everything is a project. Some sessions are about what the pressure cooker does on a Tuesday: breakfast oats, a grain salad that holds up in the fridge all week, and a quick jam whenever fruit is on sale.

A large bowl of quinoa salad with chickpeas, cucumber, tomato, feta, and green onion
Oatmeal

Measured, set, and done by breakfast

Oats and water go in at a weighed ratio and cook hands-off — plain some mornings, stirred through with blueberries on others.

Rolled oats weighed out on a kitchen scale next to the bag and a mixing bowl

Weighed out

Rolled oats cooking in water in the pressure cooker insert

Cooking down

Finished oatmeal swirled with blueberries in the pressure cooker insert

Finished with blueberries

Quinoa Salad

A grain salad that keeps all week

Quinoa cooks in minutes under pressure, then gets tossed warm with chickpeas, cucumber, tomato, and feta — a base that takes well to whatever vegetables are on hand.

A large steel bowl of quinoa salad with chickpeas, cucumber, tomato, and feta

Tossed and ready to portion

A plated serving of quinoa salad with bell pepper, tomato, olives, and herbs

A second version, with peppers and olives

Quick Jams

Strawberry jam without the all-day simmer

Fresh strawberries, lemon, and honey go into the pot together — pressure cooked down and jarred the same afternoon, no standing over a stove required.

Fresh strawberries, lemons, and honey set out next to the pressure cooker before making jam

Strawberries, lemon, honey

Five jars of finished strawberry jam cooling on the stovetop

Jarred the same day