Tamales in 20 Minutes ..... from scratch!

Tamales.

When I think about tamales, I think about huge full kitchen, full of assembly line women working together to make hundreds of tamales.

It takes HOURS and hours! Sure you get to take home some amazing tamales, but it takes so long!

Well..... Not anymore!!!

I had seen somewhere like the day after I got my Instant pot..... that you could make tamales! Say what?!?! I didn't need 200, I only have a family of 4 and didn't want to store any. I just wanted a few for dinner! So, I had to try this out! The recipes I found were all so difficult, and I'm a simple girl! SO... this is what I did.

I got my organic masa out (I always buy my corn products organic, they are one of the heaviest pesticide/herbicide sprayed crops! yuck!) and sort of followed the instructions on the back of the bag to make my dough. Yes, I said "sort of" - I don't like following rules. So it called for vegetable broth, I used organic beef broth ..... I did a heavier hand on the spices, and I think I used sunflower oil. Don't judge, it's what I had.

Next, I took my favorite homemade dry enchilada mix, and took some leftover turkey and a can of my home canned tomatoes and simmered it all up together on the stove. This was going to be perfect! My son hates all poultry, so I opened a can of pinto beans for him. Then I got to rolling my tamales. Now... keep in mind, this is for my family (no guest), and I'm not trying to sell them. They didn't have to be pretty! So, I cut out parchment paper rectangles to wrap them in..... I have yet to find organic husks, so I'm limited here. I laid out my dough, topped with the meat mixture, chopped olives and onions, then rolled them up! The son's did not have onions or olives, just plain beans (he's so boring in his food choices).

I seriously just rolled the long sides, then the bottom up. Left the top open, and put them on the rack, with 1 cup of water in the bottom. See how I stacked them here ... .

See... not super pretty.... but functional! ☺ I cooked the on manual + high pressure for 25 minutes. Once done, I did quick release pressure! They were AMAZINGLY tasty! We topped them with some salsa verde, the husband put some cheese on top of his (the rest of us are dairy free, so that is why it wasn't IN them). SERIOUSLY, this is going in our recipe rotation. These were simple! We actually made them a couple nights after this first adventure using some leftover shredded beef. It is a great way to use up any leftover meats you may have, and make it into another meal!

I broke them a little unwrapping them, I'm not the most patient person

Let me know if you try this method out, what you used, and what you think! I found these SOOO easy to make, and SO yummy to eat! SO much room to make these so many ways!

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