Instant Pot – Macaroni & Cheese
- Dry Soup Packet(optional) – Cream of Broccoli in the photos.
- Fluid – 3 cups of water/milk/stock
- Box of Macaroni
- Butter/Margarine, 3 tbsp or so to taste – 1 block(1/2 cup) in photos.
- 2 Cups of shredded cheese, whatever you have in the fridge.
- Spice options if not using a soup packet for flavour – listed at the end.
- The soup packet is optional but a tasty option. If using add to the pot first.
Suggestions for Soup Packet – Cream of Broccoli, Onion, Vegetable etc. - Add the Fluid to the pot, if using a soup packet – stir so there’s next to no lumps.
Using stock is a great way to add additional flavour and richness to the pot.
So to does using milk.
You can decide your own portions or just use whatever you have on hand.
It’s all good. In the demonstration pictures I’ve used 1 cup milk, 2 cups water. - Dump in the macaroni, give it a stir.
- Dump the butter/margarine in the middle. This makes it richer. I used a block(1/2 cup). You could even skip it altogether if your doing whatever diet, or substitute for your high end oils.
- Put on the lid, set the Seal Lock into place. Turn it on Manual, 7 Minutes.
That’s right, 7 minutes. - Once done, release the lock and stir in your cheese.
2 cups is what I normally go with, use more if you like extra cheese, use less if it’s not to your tastes/diet plan. But a 1/2 cup of cheese is pretty stingy.
Depending on the type of cheese your using, ie Kraft block/preshred or harder/drier deli cheese, you may have to put the lid back on for 2-3 minutes to get the cheese to melt enough. You can use whatever cheese you want or have, as long as your cheese melts(looking at you vegan cheese options).
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- Ingredients
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- Mixed in the Pot
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- Setting the Pot
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- Finished Mac & Cheese
That’s it, fairly dead simple.
Cooking is not exactly rocket science, and doesn’t have to be exactly correct. Especially in one pot/instant pot meals. It’s not going to be exactly the same as stove-top cooking, so why make it complicated? But it takes making the dish several times to figure out how to make it -your- dish.
This is a dead simple recipe.
That being said, dead simple recipes are open for -lots- of modifications, especially on a budget.
Suggestions for additional spices(especially if you don’t use the soup packet) would be 1/2 tsp of mustard powder(or ground mustard – not the yellow plastic bottle stuff you see for hot dogs), some ground black pepper.
Go wild, add some chili flakes if you like hot spice, add some tomato paste.
Throw in some veggies – handful of frozen corn, a block of frozen spinach/kale, toss in a couple spoons of salsa, a blend of bell peppers.
Throw in a tin of tuna for tuna casserole.
Dish it out into an ovensafe dish and put it under the broil for a few minutes with some more cheese and cracker crumbs on top for that extra mile.
Don’t have enough/any solid/shredded cheese? Use cream cheese if you have it for an alfredo style dish.
I know someone who hacks their mac & cheese with a tub of flavoured chip dip instead.
Just because it’s what your seeing on your screen, or written in that recipe book doesn’t mean your personal tastes won’t find it boring so why not make it a dish your going to love?
Until I figure out what’s wrong with that thing – your supposed to download it, or open it in google docs, then print. The preview that happens when you click on the link isn’t what it’s supposed to look like, and the print button prints the tiny preview.
Eventually I’ll get around to making a detailed post about how I organize my personal cookbook. A short explanation is a photo album, and index cards, either the smaller more common 3×5 size, or the photosized, 4×6 card. Digital cards can be made by some word document mavericking. Here’s a link to download the blank template. And yes, I use Open Office because it’s free and it works.
Modifying Recipes 