Instant Pot Chipotle Sofritas + Video
Aug 24, 2017, Updated Jan 02, 2018
Make chipotle style sofritas at home using your instant pot! Quick, easy, vegan and gluten-free!
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Fan of chipotle sofritas? Now make it at home using your instant pot! So easy!
If you love all the Instant Pot vegetarian/vegan recipes that I share on the blog, please join me on this Facebook Group – Instant Pot Vegetarian Recipes. The group would feature vegetarian instant pot recipes from all around the web!
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Few days back, I had a chipotle veggie bowl for lunch. I actually ate chipotle after quite a while, maybe after 6 months or so which is definitely quite a long time in my opinion. Anyway so Sarvesh always takes the veggie bowl minus the sofritas because well that’s him – it’s hard for him to like tofu except maybe when it’s kung pao tofu at his favorite Asian restaurant. But I opted for the veggie bowl with sofritas and I enjoyed them so much that I thought of recreating the recipe at home using my instant pot. I have to say this stuff is spicy – so definitely not for you if you can’t handle the heat. Of course I will give few points (check end of post) on how you can reduce the heat but overall sofritas are spicy and you better be prepared for it before digging in.
So what exactly is chipotle sofritas? Few years back chipotle introduced these as a protein option for vegans. These are crumbled tofu cooked in a spicy and flavorful sauce made of poblano peppers and chipotle peppers. I tried making this recipe twice, first time it was just too dry and I wanted some sauce in my dish. The second time around, it was just too spicy and also I thought of not pan-frying the tofu and add it straight to the sauce. It would still be great if you don’t pan fry it but if you want exactly the chipotle style, then you have to fry the tofu.
There are a lot of things going on in this spicy chipotle sauce
✓ Roasted poblano pepper: I roasted it straight on my stove. You can roast it an oven too, I like that smokey flavor that you get from roasting straight on the gas.
✓ Chipotle peppers in adobo sauce: you can find these at most grocery stores and also on amazon.
✓ Spices like cumin, coriander, oregano
✓ Sugar & tomato paste to balance the heat
So, as you can imagine it’s a very flavorful sauce and yes spicy too. Making this sauce is super easy, you only need to gather all your ingredients before hand and then just dump everything together in a bowl and blend till smooth. I always use my favorite immersion blender but of course you may use your regular blender too.
Few things which you should and should not do while making chipotle sofritas in the Instant Pot
✓ Do not – try to crumble the tofu first and then fry it in the instant pot. Yeah, I did it and all the tofu just stuck to the pot. You may do this on a regular pan but IP isn’t the perfect option for doing this. So fry solid blocks of tofu and then crumble them.
✓ Do – spray your IP with a non-stick spray before frying the tofu. This will make cleaning easy.
✓ Do – press your extra-firm tofu with some heavy object for 15-20 minutes before frying. This will remove the excess moisture from the tofu.
Lots of tips and tricks and now on to the recipe for these Instant Pot Chipotle Sofritas! I enjoyed mine with cilantro-lime rice and these instant pot black beans. Some salsa and guacamole on top wouldn’t hurt! 😉
PS: This recipe is vegan, before someone says that the granulated sugar in the recipe isn’t vegan, it is! I used this sugar.
Method
*Press the tofu with a heavy object for around 20 minutes to drain excess moisture. Pat dry and then cut into blocks and set aside.
Roast poblano pepper on direct heat till charred, around 6-7 minutes. Remove the skin, stem and seeds.
To a blender or food processor, add all ingredients listed under “sauce”.
Blend till you get a smooth sauce. I used my immersion blender. Set aside.
Press saute button on the IP and add 2 tablespoons of oil to it. Once oil is hot, add the tofu.
Cook tofu till it’s golden brown from both the sides.
Remove tofu from the pot and crumble into small pieces. 
Now add the prepared sauce to the same instant pot in which you fried the tofu (no need to clean it). At this point you may add more salt as needed.
Add 3/4Â cup + 2 tablespoons water and mix (at this point you may cook the sauce for 1Â minute on saute mode before adding the tofu). Add the crumbled tofu and mix.
Close the lid of the IP and cook on manual high pressure for 3Â minutes.
Once the 3 minutes are up, wait for 3 more minutes and then releasing the remaining pressure manually. Enjoy chipotle sofritas with black beans and rice!
How to adjust Spice Levels to taste
More spice > consider adding extra adobo pepper or reducing the sugar
Less spice > consider using 1/2 poblano or only 1 adobo pepper. You may also increase the sugar or tomato paste quantity.
* I haven’t use much salt in this recipe as everything had bit of salt in it like adobo sauce but feel free to add more salt as needed.
* The total cook time is more than 3 minutes since the instant pot takes time to come to pressure and then you have to wait for 3 more minutes before releasing the pressure.
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Instant Pot Chipotle Sofritas
Ingredients
- 16 oz extra-firm tofu
- 2 tablespoons canola oil
- 3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons water add more if you want it more saucy
- salt as needed
for the sauce
- 1 poblano pepper 88 grams, roasted, seeds and stem removed
- 2 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
- 2 tablespoons extra adobo sauce
- 2 tablespoons canola oil
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 tablespoon sugar I used vegan granulated white sugar
- 1/2 tablespoon dried oregano
- 2 teaspoons cumin powder
- 1/2 teaspoon coriander powder
- 3 garlic cloves chopped
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup water
Instructions
- Press the tofu with a heavy object for around 20 minutes to drain excess moisture. Pat dry and then cut into blocks and set aside.
- Roast poblano pepper on direct heat till charred, around 6-7 minutes. Remove the skin, stem and seeds.
- To a blender or food processor, add all ingredients listed under "sauce". Blend till you get a smooth sauce. I used my immersion blender. Set aside.
- Press saute button on the IP and add 2 tablespoons of oil to it. Once oil is hot, add the tofu.
- Cook tofu till it's golden brown from both the sides.
- Remove tofu from the pot and crumble into small pieces.
- Now add the prepared sauce to the same instant pot in which you fried the tofu (no need to clean it). At this point you may add more salt as needed.
- Add 3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons water and mix (at this point you may cook the sauce for 1 minute on saute mode before adding the tofu). Add the crumbled tofu and mix.
- Close the lid of the IP and cook on manual high pressure for 3 minutes.
- Once the 3 minutes are up, wait for 3 more minutes and then do a quick release.
- Enjoy chipotle sofritas with black beans and rice!
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Instant Pot Chipotle Sofritas
Could you include stove top directions for those who don’t own an instant pot? It would be greatly appreciated.
I have stove-top instructions for most of the newer recipes. this is an old one, I will definitely redo it and add the stove-top instructions. Thanks!
This was delicious however I will omit the sugar next time. I found it way too sweet. The other flavors are amazing and I’m so glad they soaked into the tofu using the instant pot.
I bet the instant pot really helps to infuse the flavor into the sofritas – such a genius move!
So delicious and yummy.I loved your way of cooking.It’s taste so amazing and delicious.Last night I made chipotle sofritas for my uncle.They especially appreciate me.I try also Yakhni Pulao recipe its taste also awesome sharing a link with you : ( http://sooperchef.blogspot.com/2017/08/punjabi-yakhni-pulao-recipe-sooperchef.html ).
Thank you Angie!
Oooh this sounds so delicious and aromatic 😀
Thank you Nadia