Whether you call it dry food, metemgee, or metem, this Guyanese meal of root vegetables made in an instant pot is comfort in a bowl. And the best part is, it’s ready in just 20 minutes!
Guyanese Instant Pot Dry Food
What do you call the food pictured above? In my family, we call it metemgee or metem regardless of how much broth it has and what the accompanying ingredients are. But in my husband’s family, they call it dry food if the finished dish has no broth. However, if it has broth and is served with duff, fried or steamed fish and a boiled egg they call it metemgee or metem even though the cooking process is the exact same for both versions.
So what do you call it in your family? No matter what you call it you don’t have to spend hours making it if you have an Instant Pot.
Why You’ll Love This Instant Pot Dry Food Recipe
- Quick & Easy: If you want to enjoy traditional metemgee in a fraction of the cooking time, prepare it in an Instant Pot. What normally takes up to 2 hours will take you only 20 minutes.
- Convenient But Tasty: Instant Pot Dry Food is comfort food in a hurry but it tastes exactly like the stove-top version.
- Versatile: Because this recipe is made with a variety of ground provision, you can easily swap ingredients.
Ingredients for Instant Pot Dry Food
Instant pot metemgee is an array of root vegetables, aromatics, peppers, seasoning, and coconut milk.
- Cassava: This starchy root vegetable, also known as yuca or manioc, has a neutral and mild flavor, with a taste often described as slightly sweet and nutty.
- Sweet potato: They have a naturally sweet and earthy flavor.
- White sweet potato: They have a milder flavor than their orange-fleshed counterparts.
- Yellow ripe plantains: These are naturally soft and sweet.
- Coconut oil: Use this to sauté the onions and garlic.
- Coconut milk: Even though it may look like the coconut milk is not enough to cook the veggies trust me it is. If using canned coconut milk, use half a can of coconut milk and dilute it with two cups of water.
- Aromatics: Use diced yellow onion, garlic cloves, green onions, and fresh thyme.
- Wiri wiri pepper: Add this or scotch bonnet for added heat.
- Seasoning: Season simply with black pepper and salt.
See recipe card for quantities.
How to Make Dry Food in the Instant Pot
The star of this Instant Pot Dry Food dish is the ground provision or root vegetables. I love having cassava as the center of attraction. Cassava or yuca is my favorite root veggie. Typically, it takes at least 30 minutes to boil cassava to the right tenderness but cooking it in the instant pot only takes 8 minutes. Instant Pot for the win! Seriously why aren’t you using your Instant Pot?
I’ve started making my own fresh coconut milk from grated frozen coconuts that I buy at the Asian market. It really makes a difference in the flavor and fat content of my dishes. For the instant pot dry food I added 7 ounces of grated coconut and 2 cups of water to my blender cup. Then blended it for a minute or two then strained it using a fine sieve. I then added that coconut milk to my instant pot with the sautéed onions, garlic, and cassava.
After 8 minutes of pressure cooking, the cassava is tender and the coconut milk has the separation of fat and oil that this dish is known for. To achieve this on the stovetop version, you would have to boil the coconut milk for at least 20 minutes before adding in the cassava, then cook the cassava for another 20 minutes.
Different Cooking times for different root veggies:
For this dish, I like to cook the cassava halfway before adding the other root vegetables. Cassava is tougher than sweet potatoes and plantain and I don’t want mushy root veggies. After the cassava cooks, I add in the plantain and sweet potatoes and cook for an additional 3 to 5 minutes. You can use any combination of root vegetables you like. These are the ones available where I live but I wish I had some Guyanese eddoes to add to this dish.
I like to garnish the Instant Pot Dry Food with some fresh green onions, mixed right into the pot at the end. Then, before serving the dish I top it off with some fresh thyme leaves. Fresh herbs really brighten this dish. This Instant Pot Dry Food dish is a complete meal on its own or pairs really well with steamed or fried fish. Happy Cooking and be sure to check out my other Instant Pot Recipes here!
Storage
Dry food is best enjoyed fresh. It doesn’t last long because of the coconut milk. Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for no more than 2 days.
Tips for the Best Instant Pot Metemgee
- Cut the root vegetables into uniform pieces to ensure even cooking.
- Do not add the ground provision all at once. Some root vegetables take longer to cook than others so be mindful of that when determining how soon to add another ingredient to the instant pot. Otherwise, you’ll end up with undercooked and overcooked veggies and that’s no good.
- Pierce pieces with a fork to check for doneness. They should be tender but still hold their shape.
Frequently Asked Questions
Instant Pot Dry Food is a quick and easy way to make Dry Food. Dry Food or metemgee is a dish made with root vegetables cooked in a coconut milk broth. Many Guyanese call this dish dry food because the coconut broth is cooked down to a point where it only flavors the dish and no broth remains.
Mettagee, also known as metem, metemgee, or dry food, are root vegetables cooked in a seasoned coconut milk broth.
Ground provision are root vegetables and fruits often used in Caribbean cuisine. They include yams, potatoes, sweet potatoes, taro root, cassava, pumpkin, eddoes, and ginger.
You can roast, steam, boil, or sauté root vegetables but the best way to cook them to perfect tenderness is in the instant pot. They take significantly less time too.
Instant Pot Dry Food
Equipment
- Instant Pot
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 lbs cassava peeled and cut into 2 inch chunks
- 1 large sweet potato about 8 ounces, peeled and cut into 2 inch chunks
- 1 large white sweet potato about 8 ounces, peeled and cut into 2 inch chunks
- 4 yellow ripe plantains
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil
- 2 cups coconut milk
- 1 small yellow onion diced
- 5 cloves garlic finely chopped
- 4 heads of green onions finely chopped
- 3 sprigs of fresh thyme leaves
- 1 wiri wiri pepper or scotch bonnet for flavor
- pinch black pepper
- Salt about 3/4 teaspoon or to taste
Instructions
- Set your Instant Pot to sauté
- When the Instant Pot is hot add the coconut oil and then sauté the diced onions and chopped garlic for about 1 minute
- Add the cassava and coconut milk, salt, pinch of black pepper and sprigs of thyme
- Hit cancel on the Instant Pot to turn off the sauté function
- Seal the instant pot and cook on high pressure for 7 minutes
- Release the steam using a rapid release method (instructions for this can be found in your instant pot manual)
- Next add the remaining root vegetables and the whole wiri wiri or scotch bonnet pepper to your instant pot and mix together with the cassava and the coconut milk broth
- Seal the instant pot and pressure cook for another 3 minutes
- After the Instant Pot is done pressure cooking let it sit for 5 minutes before releasing the steam again.
- Garnish with chopped green onions and serve hot
Notes
Nutrition
The information listed in the recipe card is an estimate provided by an online nutrition tool. The tool evaluates ingredient names and amounts then makes calculations based on the number of servings listed for the recipe. It is provided as a general guideline and not as a precise calculation. For precise nutrition information please feel free to add the ingredients to your preferred nutrition calculator or consult a doctor or licensed nutritionist.
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Anisia Says
Please keep these InstaPot meals coming , they are getting better by the day. Thank you for posting this.
Althea Brown Says
Thank you for checking them out. I love my Instant pot and want my people to know it’s easy to whip up tasty Guyanese food using the instant pot!