Looking for a healthier take on comfort food? This Instant Pot recipe is just the thing to spice up your life and satisfy your cravings.
This recipe is brought to you by The Healthier Steps website, which curates to those who aim towards a healthier lifestyle.
If you want to indulge in a comfort dish that won't leave you feeling uncomfortable and overly stuffed, this vegan chili mac recipe is the one for you! The first time I had it was a few months ago when my boyfriend's mom made it for us. And I was in love! I never thought I could eat so much pasta in all my life. It was the kind of mouth watering deliciousness I expected would make me feel awful afterwards, but I felt great! Ever since that first time she made it for us, I craved it. I was shocked when she said it was super easy to make because there were so many different flavors making me think otherwise. This month I decided to try and make it myself and it has since then become a permanent part of our dinner rotation. The hardest part of this recipe for me is not making it more often!
How To:
The first thing I did was to get out my Instant Pot, or the one we are borrowing from my boyfriend's Mom. Then, as I start all of the meals I make, I set out all of my ingredients. After setting everything I needed on the clean countertop, I started a Nora Jones playlist and poured myself a nice glass of red wine. Once the kitchen and the mood was set, I began putting it all together.
One of my favorite parts of this recipe is the minimal ingredients you have to buy for it and also with that, how inexpensive it is to make.
All this recipe takes is:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 medium red bell pepper, chopped (we didn't have any, so this was not used)
1/2 cup vegan crumbles, (this is optional, but 1 Beyond Burger Patty is perfect for this)
1-15 ounce can diced tomatoes
2 tablespoons tomato paste (we used ketchup)
1-15 ounce can kidney beans
1-8 ounce dry elbow macaroni
2 cups vegetable broth
1 cup shredded vegan cheese
Spices
1 teaspoon chili powder, or 1/4-1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (we used chili)
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
The first thing I did was to turn the Instant Pot to the sauté setting and put in the two tablespoons of olive oil. Then it was time for me to cut up my onion. With this virus, everything we put in our fridge, including our vegetables, are washed and ready to go. So my onion was ready for the cutting board! After chopping my onion I put it straight into the pot. While the onion was sautéing, I chopped my three cloves of garlic and added those shortly to the mix. The recipe calls for a bell pepper but we didn't have any so we omitted that. After the garlic and onion were sautéed, we added one crumbled beyond meat patty. We have now made this recipe both with and without the vegan crumbles, and I would highly recommend leaving this out. It's not that it isn't entirely delicious in this dish, but it doesn't add that much in terms of flavor or texture, so it is almost a waste.
After cooking the vegan crumbles, I added the spices and mixed it all together. For the spices, I find it is easier to gather them all in a small dish beforehand so that you may throw them all in at the same time. My sues chef, Will, opened the cans for me and strained the liquid in the beans so that they would be ready for me to put in. After the seasonings, I added the beans, diced tomatoes, two tablespoons of ketchup, two cups of vegetable broth and the elbow macaroni. Or in this case, we used water and Better Than Bouillon Vegetable Base and some other type of pasta from target because it was much less expensive than elbow macaroni. Believe it or not, the shape of the pasta didn't make a difference in the taste! We wanted to make a larger quantity of pasta than this recipe called for so we used the entire 1 LB package of pasta and an additional cup and a half of water. This made for a potentially complicated situation when it came to cooking the pasta.
The first time I made this I thought because it called for vegetable broth I should prepare it in a separate pot, but this is not at all necessary. If you too, are using the Better Than Bouillon Vegetable Base, you can simply add the water to the Instant Pot and then the amount of the Vegetable Base you need to create the broth. I would highly recommend this way because it is less time consuming and one less dish to wash later!
After adding all of those ingredients you are meant to turn off the Instant Pot, cover it, make sure the valve is in the sealing position and set it for four minutes with the "manual setting." The Instant Pot we were using, however, does not have a manual setting. This threw us through a loop. I searched the web for what we should do and thinking that this pot was called 'instapot' not Instant Pot I found completely different, weed related answers. After this hilarious detour, we tried YouTube to find out what we were supposed to do in this instance. We found that the pressure cook button on the Instant Pot was perfect for this meal and set it to that. Once the pot was pre-heated it would beep and let you know, and then continue to pressure cook it for the amount of time you set it to.
We ended up cooking our meal for about fifteen or so minutes, unlike the four the recipe calls for. But this being said, we were cooking more pasta than the recipe calls for as well. When the button beeped, letting us know it was finished, I turned the valve on top to the venting position. Make sure to do this with a towel or an oven mitt on though, as it is very hot to touch. Once the pot has vented out all of the steam, you will be able to open the Instant Pot. If the top isn't budging, odds are there is still steam inside that needs to be released before you can open it.
When you are able to open the lid, this is when you add the delicious vegan cheese. If you are anything like me, you will of course have to taste it first! We used So Delicious Dairy Free Mozzarella Flavored Shreds. I have also had this with Daiya vegan cheese shreds before and it is very yummy! The recipe calls for one cup, but I just eyeballed the amount I wanted. After you stir in the cheese, the pasta should have a creamy chili mac consistency that is ready to serve!
Once it is dished, you might want to wait a bit before digging in as it will be very hot. This recipe makes a delightful meal that makes excellent left overs... if you don't eat it all at once! It is a fantastic source of fiber and will keep you full for hours. Whenever we make this dish, we always dish out bigger servings than we think we will want and yet still are ready for seconds!
I hope you enjoy this meal as much as I do! And hats off to Michelle at The Healthier Steps website for this exquisite dish!
Makes me hungry just reading the recipe!