Instant Pot Vegan Mac and Cheese
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Instant Pot Vegan Mac and Cheese is a staple for any busy family wanting to get a healthy dinner on the table quickly and effortlessly.
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Instant Pot Vegan mac and cheese. It’s totally a thing, and it’s a thing you are going to want to know about if you’re trying to adapt a dairy-free/plant-based lifestyle as a busy lady. Because truly, mac and cheese is life. Serve it alongside some, Vegan Steak, and you’ve got yourself a meal!
It’s comfort food at it’s finest. It’s a bowlful of warmth that reminds you of your childhood, although WAY better than what came in the blue box. What the heck was in the packet of powder anyway? It definitely wasn’t cheese!
That’s what I wanted to talk about actually.
So with vegan mac and cheese, I’ve tried it many different ways.
- traditional mac & cheese but subbing in dairy-free store bought “cheese” products… blegh! worst mistake ever.
- using butternut squash and pumpkin as the “cheese” base. good, but not quite authentic or comforting.
- using this recipe I’m sharing with you today – SO yummy, but it still took time to cook the veggies, then the noodles, then blend the sauce, then mix it together.
The thing is, this mama is busy, and I’m guessing that you are too!
Whether you’re working outta the home or you’re a busy mom at home wearing //all the hats// you’re feeling the pressure, and trying to make healthy meals for your family is just adding to the ever-growing to-do list.
So instead of taking on all the pressure yourself, how about you hand it on over to something that knows exactly how to handle the pressure… the INSTANT POT! (see what i did there???)
Do you have one yet?
I absolutely love the pressure cooker for so many things (even with a plant-based diet):
- steel cut oats every morning – make one batch to last the whole week
- perfect quinoa (in 5 minutes!!)
- dried beans, saving me tons of money
- soups
- lentil curries
- chili
- spaghetti
- mac & cheese like the one I’m showing you right here
And if you eat eggs, they really do make the most perfect hard-boiled eggs ever, and the shells literally just come right off.
So if you don’t have the instant pot yet, you’ve got to get yourself one, and you’ll save so much time! This is the one I have.
For this specific recipe, I am using a couple of other products to divide the sauce ingredients from the noodles.
First, I put this trivet over the mac noodles. Then I add this pan on top of the rack to put all the veggies and cashews into.
Using those tools for your instant pot mac and cheese allows you to cook the noodles at the same time as your vegan cheese sauce ingredients.
Then you just pull out the cheese ingredients, throw them in the blender for like 30 seconds, and pour it all back over the noodles in the instant pot. EASY!
But a big question I know you have –
Does this instant pot vegan mac and cheese actually taste like real mac and cheese?
no.
but it’s close.
As a vegan, I think we’re all trying to find something – ANYTHING – that matches the taste of cheese. The truth of the matter is that nothing really does. And you kind of have to learn to accept that.
But with this vegan mac and cheese, we’re really close to hitting that mark. You’re getting a creamy texture you get from a traditional mac. You’re getting a new flavor palate that does resemble mac.
AND you’re hiding veggies in dinner, and your kids won’t even know it! TOTAL win.
Of course, the recipe is below, but if you need a little visual help, I’ll throw in a video to make it even easier for you.
INSTANT POT VEGAN MAC AND CHEESE
Ingredients
- 16 oz dried elbow macaroni
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- 4 cups water
- 1/2 cup raw cashews
- 1 cup potato peeled & chopped
- 1/2 cup carrots peeled & chopped
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- 2 Tbsp vegan butter
- 1/4 cup water
For sauce
- 1 cup unsweetened almond milk
- 3/4 cup vegetable broth
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp paprika
- 3 Tbsp nutritional yeast
- 2 1/2 Tbsp tapioca flour or corn starch
- 2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
Instructions
- In pressure cooker, elbow macaroni, olive oil, and 4 cups of water to cover the pasta.
- Place trivet on top of pasta and set cake pan on top of trivet (see links for product details).
- In the cake pan, add cashews, potato, carrots, garlic, butter, & 1/4 cup water. Cover with foil.
- Add pressure cooker lid, and make sure the vent is closed.
- Cook at high pressure for 4 minutes.
- Once cook time is finished, do a quick release right away.
- Carefully remove cake pan from the pressure cooker and pour all ingredients in pan into your blender. Add all sauce ingredients to the blender and blend on high for about 30 seconds, or until completely smooth.
- Add sauce mixture back into the pressure cooker on top of the noodles, and stir. The sauce will be thin at first, but as you stir, it will become a thicker sauce within a few minutes.
- Enjoy!
Yes! You can make this without the use of an instant pot. On a stovetop, just simmer the veggies, boil the pasta, and continue with the rest of the instructions.
As a vegan recipe, it’s one of the best and closest versions of mac and cheese you are going to get. Super delicious and creamy!
This came out so delicious even though I used a different type of pasta. The sauce is unbelievably creamy and savory. Thank you for sharing this recipe!
Hi Melinda, this is amazing to hear. Thanks for taking the time to share how the recipe turned out for you.
Can you cut this recipe in half?
Hi Chris, I haven’t tried that so I am not sure if it would work.
Hello,
I would love to give this recipe a try tonight, however, we don’t use Nutrional Yeast. Is there something I can sub for it, or just simply omit it? Thanks so much.
So nutritional yeast adds a somewhat nutty cheesy flavor to foods, which is why vegans love it so much. While there’s not really a substitute for it, you can blend up all the other ingredients, give it a taste and adjust with other seasonings if it doesn’t seem as flavorful. Good luck! Let us know how it turns out!
I haven’t ever tried the full recipe in the instant pot because I don’t have a trivet, but this sauce has become a staple in my home! I usually steam all the sauce ingredients (the ones that would go in the instant pot) in a saucepan, then add to a blender with the other ingredients. I absolutely love to add salsa to this and use it as queso dip. It’s reminiscent of a cheese dip my mom used to make. Love, love, love it! Thank you for the recipe ❤️
Made my family super happy! My daughter recently found out she can’t tolerate dairy, this recipe made her day! She said it was amazing and taste like cracker barrel! Didn’t have all the correct tools and I think I messed up the pasta ratio so we had a ton of sauce leftover. Definitely will make this again!
Hi! This recipe was delicious! My partner and I have been obsessed with our IP and have been looking at so many recipes. My question is how to make the sauce a little less floury. I could have used too much nutritional yeast, but I wasn’t sure if the recipe just results in the sauce being a bit grainy. I want to make this for a big group of non-vegans and I worry they won’t be able to handle the texture. Additionally, do you have any advice for reheating this recipe? I would like to cook it the night before. I am a student and much of my cooking is done at random times of day and then reheated later.
Thank you so much!
Hi, just wanted to let you know I made this and it was delicious! Thank you so much for sharing this recipe. I’m not vegan, but I have been exploring vegan recipes as a way to reduce cholesterol from my diet. The only changes I made were that I used coconut oil instead of vegan butter and potato starch instead of tapioca four or corn starch because that was what I had on hand. One thing I want to add in reply to the commenter who said the pasta was overcooked and veggies undercooked is that in my experience altitude and the brand of pasta you use can throw off an Instant Pot recipe. It doesn’t mean a recipe is bad if you don’t get it right the first time, you just have to make adjustments to figure out what works best for you. I live at a higher altitude so I usually add 2 minutes to the cook time unless the person sharing a recipe mentions that they also live high altitude. And I have used a brand of elbow macaroni before that took nearly twice as long to cook as another brand just to reach the same consistency.
Thank you so much for chiming in Ashlee! This is definitely one of our staple recipes in my home. I 100% agree. A recipe that works for one person may not work for another, and there can be so many different factors. I’m actually high altitude myself and often forget that factor when a recipe may not work for a reader, so I appreciate you pointing that out.
Does this mean if I am not high altitude that I should reduce the amount of time your recipes say to cook them?
Can this sauce be made separately and re-heated
Yes, I often make the sauce separate and use it for other recipes.
Just came across this recipe and want to give it a try. The recommended trivet, which is 2.7 inches high, doesn’t seem like it would be tall enough to cook 16 oz. of pasta beneath it. Is this the correct size trivet?
yes that’s right! It’ll rest right on top of the pasta and cook it just right! enjoy
This recipe did not work on many levels. The pasta was over cooked and vegetable way under cooked. Ended up with a longer process as I had to redo the pasta and then had to put in the steamer for the veggies. Fail.
I’m so sorry to hear that this didn’t work for you Heather! I’ve made this over 25 times and the veggies are always very soft with the pasta being just about al dente for me. This is also a recipe that can be made on the stove alternatively
I was a little nervous trying this because of this comment, but I realized her veggies were probably undercooked because they weren’t cut small enough. I diced my veggies really small and used gluten free pasta. The pasta came out a little “slimy” – which is what happens when you do IP pasta, but is perfect for this recipe because it mixes well with the sauce. Also – be sure to immediately do a quick release when the 4 minutes are up.
So pleased with how this turned out. Yum!
YAY! Love that you gave it a shot anyway and that it turned out perfectly for you.
This was my first vegan recipe ever made, and I loved it! Definitely goin in my recipe book. Thank you!