I’ve taken the plunge! After years of hearing everybody else talk about the joy of pressure cooking, I finally decided to try a pressure cooker for myself. Breville recently sent me their Fast Slow Pro multi-cooker to try. This neat little machine is a pressure cooker and a slow cooker, plus you can steam, sauté, sear, and reduce in it too!
For those wondering how a pressure cooker works, it’s basically a sealed vessel with a valve that controls the pressure inside. Boiling liquid inside the sealed pot creates steam which raises the internal pressure and allows the cooking temperature to rise higher than it can in a non-pressurized pot. The extra high heat cooks everything faster and simulates the effects of braising which helps tenderize tougher cuts of meat and deepen the flavours as well. There’s one more neat little perk: as food in a pressure cooker cooks faster, it also saves energy!
To be honest, I was initially a bit intimidated by the eight different pressure levels (1.5 psi to 12 psi) and steam release settings. Which combo should I use for which food? Fortunately for me, the Fast Slow Pro comes with 11 Pressure Cook presets for vegetables, rice, risotto, soup, stock, beans, poultry, meat, bone-in meat, chili & stew, and dessert which make it simple enough even for a complete novice like me to use. The LCD screen even changes colour to show you when the cooker is pressurizing, cooking, or releasing steam.
The Slow Cook setting also has 9 presets, but I’m familiar enough with slow cooking that I didn’t need the extra help. If you’re new though, those will help make things even easier, especially if you’re not using a recipe that already has the heat level and cooking time specified.
Unlike the super heavy and awkward ceramic bowl in my old slow cooker, the Fast Slow Pro’s six-quart cooking bowl is nice and light. The ceramic coating doesn’t contain PFOA or PTFE, so it’s safe (and environmentally-friendlier) for my family. Plus it’s dishwasher safe!
As I mentioned earlier, the Fast Slow Pro is a pressure cooker, slow cooker, steamer, frying pan, and sauce pan all in one. The cooker comes with a stainless steel rack and steamer basket so you can steam right out of the box. It’s a great, quick way to cook healthy steamed veggies. And if you love Chinese dim sum dumplings like I do, the steam setting works great for these as well.
I have to add that the Fast Slow Pro does a fantastic job at replacing my rice cooker too. Rice takes about 30 minutes in my rice cooker (not including rest time), but on the Fast Slow Pro’s rice setting, it only takes 5 minutes once the pot is pressurized. This Chinese mama loves this time saver!
Today I want to share with you a new family favourite recipe I’ve been making in our Fast Slow Pro. This pork roast with sweet balsamic sauce can be made on either the pressure cook or the slow cook setting, and I love that I can sear the roast, cook it, and make the sauce all in the same pot. You want to save me from doing more dishes? Yes, please!
A roast like this takes about 6 hours to cook on low on the Slow Cook setting. That’s all well and good when I plan ahead and get it in the pot early enough, but I’m famous for forgetting, and that’s where the Fast Slow Pro shines.
Using the Pressure Cook setting, this same roast cooks in half an hour! Even including the time to sear the meat beforehand, time to bring the pot to full pressure, and time to reduce the sauce afterward, the whole thing can be done in around an hour.
Everybody loves the sweet balsamic sauce drizzled over the roast. It’s a reduction of the liquid the roast cooked in, so it’s full of flavour from the rich meat juices, balsamic vinegar, and the caramel sweetness of dark maple syrup.
Pork Roast with Sweet Balsamic Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 pound pork roast
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary leaves or 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
- 1/3 cup water
Instructions
- Season all sides of pork roast with garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder, salt, and pepper.
- Use Sear setting. Allow bowl to pre-heat, then sear on all sides about 2 minutes per side.
- Pour balsamic vinegar and maple syrup over top and sides of roast.
- Add rosemary on top.
- (A) Use Pressure Cook setting and cook on high pressure (12.0 psi) for 32 minutes with natural steam release. OR (B) Use Slow Cook setting and cook on low heat for 6 hours.
- Remove roast, leaving juices in bowl, and allow to rest while sauce reduces.
- Use Reduce setting. Cook down juices for 8-10 minutes until thickened.
- Drizzle sauce over sliced roast and serve with preferred side dishes.
Win a Breville Fast Slow Pro
I’m really excited to be able to bring you the chance to win your own Breville Fast Slow Pro (regular retail value $369.99)! Enter in the giveaway widget below. This giveaway is open to residents of Canada only (excluding Quebec), 18+. All the winner’s entries will be verified.
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Disclosure: I received a sample item for review. All opinions expressed are completely honest and my own, based on my personal experience. Your experience may differ. This post contains affiliate links. This West Coast Mommy is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. I will receive a small commission if you purchase through my link, at no additional cost to you. This income helps pay for the operating costs of my website – thank you for your support!
We are rather mad for pot roasts & chilies here so the first thing I would make would be one of these two family favorites in the Breville Fast Slow Pro!
I’d like to cook baked beans – they’re so nice at a barbecue, but if made in the oven they heat up the house way too much to make often in the summer.
I would make yoghurt first and then bread.
I’d like to cook a vegetarian lentil stew! So yummy!
I think I’d like to try a soup, maybe minestrone in it. My family loves all kinds of soup.
I am definitely going to try your recipe. I love pork roasts and am always looking for different ways to give them more flavour. I think I would also like to try cooking ribs in this pot. I remember my mom using a pressure cooker and her warnings about it blowing the lid off. LOL. Kinda scared me away from using one.
I have a curried chicken recipe that I would like to try first.
I’d cook some chili, bolognese sauce, and some stew.
The recipe for Pork Roast with Sweet Balsamic Sauce sounds delicious and I would try this first.
I would be so excited to make Korean beef short ribs in the Breville Fast Slow Pro! Melt-in-your-mouth flavor explosion!
I’d love to make cheezy cannelloni with some spinach, mmm!
So many dishes and options to cook in this slow cooker! I would likely make Barbacoa (Mexican Shredded Beef).
I’ve seen a recipe for Thai chicken that I’d love to make in this pot. Great meals quickly – perfect for our busy family!
I’ve never tried a pressure cooker before, I’d try making a stew
I would do Lazy Cabbage Rolls
I’d like to make some stew to try it out.
I would make some stew first!
I’d love to make homemade soup, this would help out alot!
I would love to make some kind of roast, either a pot roast or a pork roast.
We love curries with rice. I think this Breville Fast Slow Pro will be perfect for curried beef and rice.
I would’ve love to try making homemade chicken broth (or any broth for that matter) in the Fast Slow Pro.
I would love to make pot roast in this!
I have never tried a pressure cooker, but would love to try some desserts!
I would try making yogurt first.
Family is nuts about yogurt. Bit there are so many other things that I would love to try.
haven’t had them in a long time so I would def try them out first! Battered Mushrooms! Oh, they were so good from what I remember!
If I won I would definitely love to make this exact recipe! I have. Even searching for a great pork roast recipe!!
I would make a beef stew!
Thanks for the chance to win this great prize.
I would make a stew….yummy!!
Beef stew
I would make three packet beef pot roast first to see how it compares to my current slow cooker. It’s the recipe I make most often.
If I had one, I would love to try a type of chicken curry, or other sort of chicken Indian dish. I’m hoping to win this as a gift for a friend, however, so perhaps I’ll just tell her (assuming I win) that she has to try that first 😉
I would like you to try crock pot lasagna next. Please be the guinea pig since I’ve yet to make it myself. Also, if you could let me know how gluten free noodles hold up, that would help a girl out – haha.
I would like to cook Butter Chicken in the Breville Fast Slow Pro.
I’d love to try to roast a small Turkey for us to see if it would be good to do at Thanksgiving time. There is just 2 of us and I think this would save time while making the other foods while this turkey would be cooking. So I’d like to roast a Turkey in it. 🙂
I would love to try spicy, barbecue ribs!
First thing I would make would be a black bean chili. Yummy!
I would like to make a peach, & bourbon Bread Pudding for my husband, as the 1st project in the new Breville Fast Slow Pro.
I think I would try doing a slow-cooked beef roast first.
I’d try your balsamic pork!!! it looks yummy!!!!
First thing that I would make will in the Breville Fast Slo Pro would be beef stew
I would love to make a beef stew
The first dish I would try to cook would be some fall off the bones ribs!
I would like to try beef stew in this
Beef stew is my favourite. My mum used to make it all the time when I was a child
I think I would like to try asian pulled pork tacos.
I would make a classic veggie chili first
I’m a big fan of beef stew so that would be my first dish.
I would like to try out ribs.
I’d love to make some Hungarian Goulash.