Vegan Instant Pot Pasta Bake

This is also delicious food, and it’s incredibly kid-friendly, so you’ll have every reason to want to make it. And make it again.

What you’ll love about this recipe

It’s hearty comfort food, food that’ll fill your belly and put a smile on your face. The flavors are a lot like those of a vegan lasagna.It comes together mostly–or entirely–with pantry ingredients.It’s deliciousIt’s immensely kid-friendly.It requires hardly any prep—all you need to do is chop garlic and if you have pre-chopped garlic, good for you.Most of the cooking happens in the Instant Pot so it’s mostly hands-off.You can go from gathering your ingredients to the dinner table in about 30-40 minutes.

How to make a cheesy, creamy vegan pasta bake

This is an easy recipe and quite foolproof. You will need to add in your ingredients in a particular order, but once that’s accomplished, all you have to do is wait for your IP to do the magic.A marinara sauce forms the base of this recipe, and you’ll just actually make it in the Instant Pot, by throwing together the ingredients. If you already have jarred or homemade marinara on hand, you can use it, by all means.What makes this marinara creamy is cashew cream stirred into the marinara sauce. If you’re nut-free, look at my substitution suggestions below.What makes it cheesy are the vegan mozzarella shreds, sprinkled on top. They add the final—scrumptious—finishing touch to an already tasty dish.You’ll start out your recipe by browning the vegan meat substitute in the Instant Pot, and by browning I don’t mean actually browning it, but sauteing it a bit in a smidge of oil with some garlic to get all that amazing flavor going. Don’t skip this step!My herbs of choice in this recipe are oregano and basil. I also add a touch of sage for depth of flavor. You can use just oregano or just basil, just increase the amounts if using only one herb.You can use fresh tomatoes if you have a surplus, but I prefer canned, pureed tomatoes in this recipe just to make things easier.Once you’ve got everything in the Instant Pot, set it to cook on “manual” for 10 minutes.

Substitution ideas:

I use rigatoni in this recipe because it holds up so well in the Instant Pot and all that cheesy sauce makes its way into those wide tubes. I’ve also tried it with celentani, which is a pretty, corkscrew pasta. You can use another pasta, like ziti or even macaroni or shells.I used Beyond Beef this time, but any meat substitute works. I’ve used Farmland and Field Roast in the past as well. Make sure you crumble up the meat substitute before adding it to the IP, especially if you’re using vegan sausages.Use oregano or basil as your primary herb, or a combination of both. I also strongly recommend adding a teaspoon of dry sage (or a tablespoon of fresh), to add more depth of flavor.If you have a jar of marinara on hand, you can skip the herbs and garlic, or cut them down to your taste. Add the marinara to the Instant Pot after browning the “meat.“Before you close the IP lid to pressure cook, make sure your pasta water is salty enough–it should be a little saltier than you want your pasta to be. It’s not easy to stir salt into cooked pasta. But keep in mind that the cheese shreds will add some salt too.To make this recipe gluten-free, use gluten-free pasta and make sure you’re not using a meat substitute that has gluten.To make this recipe nut-free, substitute the cashew cream with 1 cup of coconut milk or sub pumpkin seeds for the raw cashews.

More vegan Instant Pot recipes

Vegan Instant Pot LasagnaInstant Pot Moroccan Chickpea Stew, No OilVegan Butter Chicken with TofuInstant Pot Vegan Beef StewInstant Pot Spaghetti with Meaty MarinaraInstant Pot Khichdi with Mung Bean Sprouts