Keen cooks will know the best Instant Pots (opens in new tab) take all of the hard work out of cooking, and the Aura Pro is no exception. Marketed by the Instant Pot brand as being first and foremost a slow cooker (opens in new tab), the Instant Pot Aura Pro has 11 cooking functions. This includes being able to sous vide, stew, and even make yogurt. Compared to the rest of the Instant Pots we have reviewed, this cooking gadget has the most cooking functions, but this comes at a price. It’s priced around $140. Although it’s not cheap, you are getting 11 cooking appliances for the price of one.
Instant Pot Aura Pro: Features
There are not many things the Instant Pot Aura Pro can’t do. Complete with 11 smart programs including being able to cook rice, cook multi grains, and it even a preset so you can pasteurize milk to help you create your own yogurt. You also have the option to stew, roast, steam, slow cook, and bake. These smart programs mean all the timings and temperatures are decided for you. But it does give you the option to change and customize your cooking temperature and time manually, to ensure you get your chosen cooking results.
The Instant Pot Aura Pro has additional features including being able to sous vide food and also sear/sauté meals thanks to its stovetop cooking function, and it’s also oven-safe. Another feature includes its ‘delay start’ function. This enables you to defer cooking your meal for an impressive 24 hours in total. This is ideal if you are out, or are trying to plan ahead. Whilst its automatic ‘keep warm’ feature means it can keep your food hot for up to 24 hours.
With an 8-quart capacity (that’s over 7.5 liters), this Instant Pot can be used to feed up to eight adults depending on what you’re cooking. It’s also suitable for cooking joints of meat if you want to save on valuable oven space.
The Aura Pro’s dimensions measure 16.8 x 11.6 x 11.3 inches, and it’s also oval-shaped, so it’s a fairly large appliance to find space for. As this cooker has so many functions, you may want to keep it out all the time, however, if you need to store it away, factor in how much storage space this unit will take up. Having said that, with this Instant Pot, you are getting multiple appliances in one so you might find you don’t need to have many other appliances.
The heating element in this Instant Pot has 1500 watts and you power the unit by simply plugging it into a power socket. The Aura Pro comes with a one-year warranty.
Instant Pot Aura Pro: Design and accessories
Oval in shape, silver and black in color, the Instant Pot Aura Pro multi-purpose slow cooker comes with a stainless steel coating and a non-stick layer. This makes it easy to keep clean. Plus its cooking pot, roasting rack, and lid are dishwasher-friendly, making clean-up much easier (something we’re all about).
The lid of the Instant Pot Aura Pro is clear which makes it easy to monitor food whilst cooking – without having to release heat by lifting the lid.
The multi-purpose slow cooker comes with a range of accessories. This includes a measuring cup, a sous vide rack, a roasting rack, and a steam rack – which all fold away. It also comes with a handy recipe booklet and gives you access to Instant Pot’s app containing 1000s of recipes to inspire your cooking.
Instant Pot Aura Pro: User reviews
The Aura Pro has received 4.5 stars out of five stars on Amazon, and had an enormous 7,380 reviews at the time of publishing. Users praised the Instant Pot for cooking the food evenly especially when using the pot to sous vide food. Other buyers of the Aura Pro said it was easy to clean thanks to its stainless steel design and one buyer described the Instant Pot as a ‘tremendous sidekick’ in the kitchen setting. Other users praised the Instant Pot Aura Pro for being able to cook ahead and keep food warm for them.
However, some users rated this Instant Pot with fewer stars, claiming it doesn’t show the right temperature degree in Fahrenheit. One user said they ‘tested the temperature with a thermometer and it was around 4-to-5 degrees out’. Other reviews criticized this Instant Pot’s ability to slow cook.
Should you buy the Instant Pot Aura Pro?
If you are a keen home cook who wants the ease of cooking but with all the tremendous taste, the Instant Pot Aura Pro makes cooking delicious meals lightwork. We say this because not only does it help you slow cook, reheat, and stew foods, it can help you meal prep thanks to its clever 24-hour delay cooking preset. The Aura Pro also gives you the options to dabble in cooking methods (like sous vide or fermenting yogurt) you might have not had the confidence to try before. This means you don’t have to worry about storing the contraption away. Priced at over $100, it is on the expensive side of cooking appliances, but you do get 11 handy gadgets in one.