Instant Pot taco pasta is a simple sauté, dump, stir, lid, and top one-pot meal. There’s minimal clean-up with maximum flavor and satisfaction!
Guys, it has been two months since I wrote a new recipe. That is the longest that I’ve gone without creating something new in SIX YEARS. Well, almost six years. You know what I’m getting at, though. It’s been nice to take a little break and let myself focus on just thinking of new ideas and taking some prettier pictures of old posts. I hope you guys have enjoyed the updates!
So, since we haven’t talked in a while, I hope that 2017 has been good to you. It’s been a little bit rough for me so far, I have to admit. Nothing too terrible has happened to me personally, but I’ve seen a lot of bad stuff happen to some friends and I’ve just been kind of dully sad. I try to be a positive person but it’s not always easy to do when you don’t see a lot of great things happening. How do you deal when you are feeling discouraged? Prayer and yoga and just trying my best to be mindfully positive have worked best for me so far (some sickness and a foot injury caused me to miss about 2 weeks of yoga and my jaw has not been that sore in a long time!). (By the way, if you are interested, this is the yoga that I am doing and I love being able to do it at in the comfort of my own home – for free.)
The blog has been doing well, though! Thanks to all of you for reading. You guys will never know how much I appreciate that you choose to come here to get recipes – and for my Chattanooga folks, restaurant reviews. I recently started booking kids’ cooking classes, so if you are interested in that, check out my kids cook page! Be sure to note that I don’t have a physical space, so I bring the class to you – you provide the space and the students, I bring everything else. I also recently did my first food tour, so if you are interested in learning more about the Chattanooga food scene through a tour, please get in touch!!
Okay, enough about that. Two months off left me with a lot of updates to give. Let’s talk about taco pasta. Instant Pot taco pasta, that is. One thing that has definitely not changed is my obsession with my Instant Pot. When I got the Instant Pot for Christmas in 2015, I thought, “I’ll keep my slow cooker. I’m sure I’ll still use it a lot. Having it and the Instant Pot will allow me to slow cook two things at once.” Well, I used my slow cooker like one or two times after I got the Instant Pot. First off, it’s just rare that I slow cook more than one thing at a time, and honestly, I just use the pressure cooker settings on the Instant Pot way more frequently than the slow cooker settings (but if you are going to use the Instant Pot as a slow cooker, I highly recommend that you get the slow cooker lid. It’s way easier to clean.).
I have found that pasta is one of my very favorite things to cook in the Instant Pot (I’m sure you guys didn’t notice with my cheesy chili mac or my Instant Pot spaghetti). I love that it’s a total one-pot operation and I don’t even have to dirty my stovetop (I cannot even put into words how much I despise cleaning my stovetop). I had never planned to make my taco pasta (an idea that I wrote down ages ago) an Instant Pot recipe but it just kind of happened like that, because I am 100% obsessed with the Instant Pot. Seriously, can I say that enough? I use it at least weekly, usually more.
This Instant Pot taco pasta is literally just a sauté, dump, stir, and lid up recipe. It’s that easy. While the pasta cooks in the pot, you can grate your cheese and cut up your toppings, then just hand everyone a bowl and let them build their own taco pasta bowls. It’s as simple as that.
Instant Pot Taco Pasta is sure to be a weeknight crowd pleaser!
Shared on Meal Plan Monday on Southern Plate!
Recommended for this recipe:
Mary // Chattavore
Yield: 4-6 servings
10 minPrep Time:
25 minCook Time:
35 minTotal Time:
Save Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 small onion or 1/2 medium onion, chopped
- 1 pound ground beef (I used ground sirloin)
- taco seasoning (1 packet or use my recipe below)
- 14.5 ounce can crushed tomatoes (or puree a can of diced tomatoes, which is what I did)
- 8 ounces small pasta shape (I used shells, but bowties or rotini would work great here too)
- 2 cups water
- taco toppings: grated cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, avocado, sour cream
- tortilla chips, optional
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Instructions
- Turn the Instant Pot on "sauté". Add the oil and heat until shimmering. Add the onion and sauté until it begins to soften.
- Add the ground beef and cook, stirring constantly and breaking up the meat, until browned. Add the taco seasoning and stir until well combined. Turn the Instant Pot off.
- Stir in the tomatoes, pasta, and water. Place the lid and make sure the vent is set to "sealing". Select the manual pressure button. Leave the pressure and temperature at their default settings and set the timer for five minutes. Use the time that the Instant Pot is coming to pressure and cooking under pressure to prep the toppings.
- When the timer goes off, turn off or unplug the Instant Pot and open the vent to quick release the pressure. Open the lid, test the seasonings and add more salt if needed, and serve immediately with desired toppings and tortilla chips.
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