Instant Pot Southwestern Pasta
Jul 25, 2019, Updated Sep 15, 2019
Southwestern Pasta loaded with beans, corn, onion, peppers and flavored with taco seasoning! Made in the Instant Pot, this makes an easy weeknight meal for busy days!
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This Southwestern Pasta is loaded with black beans, corn, onion and is all made in the Instant Pot.
Makes an easy and quick weeknight meal which gets done in 30 minutes or less!
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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Another day, another easy pasta recipe!
Pasta is one thing which I absolutely love making in my Instant Pot. I mean, I do use my Instant Pot every day to make everything from dals to rice to curries.
And while all that is great, pasta is definitely my favorite thing to cook in my pressure cooker.
You just can’t beat the convenience of making pasta in one-pot. Can you? It’s one of my favorite meals to make on busy days.
This summer has been really busy. My in-laws are visiting and with that there’s a never ending blog work and house work.
So between all this, I am resorting to easy meals like this Southwestern Pasta. It’s one of those meals which you can make without much prep work and it comes out great every single time.
This Southwestern Pasta
✓ makes an easy weeknight meal for busy days
✓ packed with flavors
✓ loaded with beans, corn, onion, pepper
✓ made with whole wheat pasta
✓ can be made vegan by skipping the cheese at the end or using vegan cheese
For this southwestern pasta recipe, I have used whole wheat penne pasta.
The whole wheat takes a little more time than the regular pasta to cook in the Instant Pot.
For regular flour pasta, I always cook for 4 minutes at high pressure with a quick pressure release.
But for whole wheat pasta, I cooked for around 5 to 6 minutes at high pressure and then let the pressure release naturally for 5 minutes before manually releasing the pressure.
A lot of the flavor for this pasta comes from the pasta sauce that you use.
I absolutely love and recommend Rao’s Homemade Sauce. It’s the absolute best. This is not sponsored, just sharing because it’s so good!
Other than the pasta and the sauce, the rest of the ingredients include beans, corn, onion, peppers and jalapeño.
I flavored this pasta with taco seasoning. You can very well use cumin, smoked paprika. Even chipotle powder will be good here, ancho chile maybe?
This pasta is also great to pack in your lunch box. I often give Sarvesh the leftovers in his lunch.
Heats up well and makes a filling meal.
I do add little bit of Mexican cheese blend at the end. You can totally skip it if you like. Or you can add lots of it if you love cheese!
How to Make This Pasta Vegan
Super easy, just skip the cheese at the end.
Or you can use your favorite vegan cheese.
I sometimes also like to sprinkle nutritional yeast on top. Either way, it will turn out great.
I like to serve this Instant Pot Southwestern Pasta with diced avocados and cilantro. It’s easy, so flavorful and I think you guys are going to love this one!
Method
1- Press the saute button on the instant pot. And then press the adjust button to set saute to “less”.
Once it displays hot, add the olive oil. Then add the garlic, jalapeño, red onion and saute for 4 to 5 minutes until soft and fragrant.
2- Add the black beans, sweet corn, red pepper.
3- Then add the taco seasoning and mix.
4- Stir in 1 cup water.
5- Then add the pasta followed by pasta sauce. Do not stir after adding the pasta sauce. You can spread it though over the pasta using a spatula.
Add salt and close the pot.
6- Press the manual or pressure cook button and cook on high pressure for 6 minutes.
Let the pressure release naturally for 5 minutes and then do a quick pressure release.
7- Open the pot and stir everything together. Add the cilantro and mix.
8- Also add the cheese and stir until it melts.
Cover the pasta with a lid for 2 to 3 minutes for all the flavors to mix in together after adding the cheese.
Serve southwestern pasta with more cilantro and avocados!
More Easy Instant Pot Meal Ideas
Instant Pot Tomato Basil Pasta
Instant Pot Thai Peanut Noodles
If you’ve tried Instant Pot Southwestern Pasta Recipe then don’t forget to rate the recipe! You can also follow me on Facebook and Instagram to see what’s latest in my kitchen!
Instant Pot Southwestern Pasta
Ingredients
- 1.5 tablespoons olive oil 22 ml
- 3-4 large garlic cloves chopped
- 1/2 jalapeño de-seeded and chopped
- 1 small red onion chopped
- 1 cup black beans from a can
- 1/3 cup sweet corn I used frozen corn
- 1 medium red pepper sliced
- 2 teaspoons taco seasoning or to taste
- 1 cup water 8 oz
- 8 oz penne pasta I used whole wheat, around 3 cups penne pasta
- 1.5 cups pasta sauce 12 oz, I used Rao's marinara sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon salt or to taste
- 1-2 tablespoons chopped cilantro + more to garnish
- 3/4 cup Mexican cheese blend shredded
- diced avocados to serve, optional
Instructions
- Press the saute button on the instant pot. And then press the adjust button to set saute to "less". Once it displays hot, add the olive oil. Then add the garlic, jalapeño, red onion and saute for 4 to 5 minutes until soft and fragrant.
- Add the black beans, sweet corn, red pepper. Then add the taco seasoning and mix.
- Stir in 1 cup water, followed by pasta and pasta sauce. Do not stir after adding the pasta sauce. You can spread it though over the pasta using a spatula.
- Add salt and close the pot. Press the manual or pressure cook button and cook on high pressure for 6 minutes (I will probably do 4 minutes if using regular pasta in place of whole wheat).Let the pressure release naturally for 5 minutes and then do a quick pressure release.
- Open the pot and stir everything together. Add the cilantro and mix. Also add the cheese and stir until it melts.
- Cover the pasta with a lid for 2 to 3 minutes for all the flavors to mix in together after adding the cheese.
- Serve southwestern pasta with more cilantro and avocados!
Stove-top Instructions
- Boil pasta according to instructions on the package. You can reserve some pasta water (around 1/4 cup) to thin out the sauce later.
- Heat olive oil in a pan on medium heat. Cook the garlic, onion, jalapeno for 4 to 5 minutes. Then add the beans, corn and pepper. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes and then add the taco seasoning. Cook for 30 seconds.
- Add in the boiled pasta and pasta sauce. Mix everything together. You can add reserved water from boiling pasta at this point if the sauce looks thick. Add the cilantro and cheese. Stir until the cheese melts. Serve pasta with cilantro and avocados.
Video
Notes
- I have used whole wheat pasta here. If using regular white flour pasta, I would cook for 4 minutes with a quick pressure release.
- Use vegan cheese to make this recipe vegan. You can even skip the cheese.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Which Taco seasoning do you use?
Trader Joe’s
Going to try this this week. Think I can use frozen peppers? Any idea how best to add chicken? Thanks
frozen peppers should be okay. No idea about chicken, I am a vegetarian and have never cooked chicken!
I have some of your recipes saved, clearly I didn’t pay attention to which blog I was on??
Cooked tonight for dinner and it was absolutely delicious and perfectly cooked in instant pot. Thanks for the recipe 🙂
welcome 🙂
Made this last week and it was absolutely delicious! The avocado to serve (I used a dollop of guacamole instead) is a must! Absolute winner with the family! Thank you Manali ? xx
glad to know Sana!