Tuesday, January 3, 2017

Instant Pot Adventures - Pasta

Okay, my new favorite thing to cook in the IP is pasta! No colander needed, no water wasted, quick and easy pasta.

Mac and Cheeze:

Parker made this without any recipe. He put whole wheat macaroni, water to cover, nutritional yeast, spicy mustard, turmeric, black pepper, broccoli florets, two cans of pinto beans, and some Daiya or other vegan shredded cheese all cooked in the IP for 5 minutes. He added some non-dairy milk after it cooked and a bit more Daiya and stirred until it melted.  Topped with siracha and gobbled up.


Pasta Marinara:

Whole wheat spaghetti broken to fit into the pot, one jar vegetable marinara sauce, 2 jars of water (or until pasta is covered), one bunch kale washed and chopped, chopped mushrooms, parsley, turmeric, and oregano all cooked in the IP for half the cooking time as the pasta directions. After it was cooked, I added fresh ground black pepper, chopped walnuts, and pitted kalamata olives. I've used seitan crumbles and I prefer cooking them separately and adding after the pasta is cooked because the seitan absorbs some of the liquid. This would work perfectly with homemade sauce, but I used the sauce from the store the first few times to get the feel for it.
The entire family is having fun with the Instant Pot and figuring out new things to make. It is quickly becoming a favorite kitchen gadget and we even thought about taking it with us when we went to Wisconsin for Near Year's. (Post on our trip coming soon.)

2 comments:

Cadry said...

How fun! I love seeing your cooking trials. I'm going through a similar frenzied exploration with my air fryer. An instant pot is definitely my next big kitchen purchase! Especially in the winter, I think it would be so handy for quickly cooking lentils, rice, and whatnot.

VeganLinda said...

I so want an air fryer! I'm trying not to buy one for a while, but seeing all the great stuff you and others are cooking makes it hard to resist! I think I'll like the IP even more in the summer since we don't have A/C.