Instant Pot Pumpkin Macaroni and Cheese - Dump and Go Dinner
4
Servings
16
Ingredients
16
Comments
This pumpkin laden macaroni and cheese dish is creamy, supremely cheesy, and comes together in less than 30 minutes! It's perfect for an easy fall dinner that's sure to please the whole family.
4
Servings
16
Ingredients
16
Comments
Ingredients
- 4 ounces Elbows
- ½ cups Water
- ⅛ cups Butter
- 1 ½ tablespoons Flour, All-Purpose
- ½ teaspoons Cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoons Nutmeg
- 1 ¼ cups Skim Milk
- ¼ cups Pumpkin, Canned
- 1 cup Cheddar Cheese, Shredded
- ⅛ cups Swiss Cheese #1
- ½ teaspoons Brown Sugar
- ¾ teaspoons Salt
- ¼ teaspoons Black Pepper
- 1 tablespoon Olive Oil
- ½ cups Bread Crumbs
- ½ cups Swiss Cheese #2
Containers
Supplies
Cooking Instructions
Freeze For Later Cooking Day Directions
Easy Assembly/Dump and Go
These directions help you cook or prepare this meal PRIOR to being frozen for serving later (see Serving Day Directions when you are ready to prepare it to eat).
Why would I want to freeze this?
- Divide all ingredients among indicated number of round freezer containers.
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Make From Frozen Serving Day Directions
Bake
These directions help you cook or reheat this meal AFTER it's been frozen for when you are ready to eat it.
- Prep from frozen
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Make It Now Cooking Directions
These directions are for cooking this recipe to serve immediately and NOT to freeze for later.
- **Due to the nature of pressure cooking there is always room for inconsistency. The times given here are based on 4 servings fresh. If you are using more servings you may need to increase your cooking time.**
- Place all ingredients except the olive oil, breadcrumbs and swiss cheese #2 in the Instant Pot.
- Ensure noodles are covered with liquid, if not, add additional water.
- Lock lid into place and seal steam nozzle.
- Cook on high pressure for 10 minutes.
- Quick release pressure.
- Spoon mixture into an oven safe pan.
- Mix olive oil, bread crumbs and swiss cheese #2 in a small bowl.
- Top macaroni and cheese with topping.
- Broil for a few minutes until topping is browned.
Nutrition Facts
- Servings Per Recipe
- 4 Servings
- Serving Size
- about 1/2 cup Amount Per Serving
- Calories
- 472
- Total Fat
- 26g
- Saturated Fat
- 13g
- Trans Fat
- 1g
- Cholesterol
- 61mg
- Sodium
- 695mg
- Total Carbohydrates
- 40g
- Fiber
- 0g
- Sugar
- 6g
- Protein
- 20g
- WW Freestyle
- 16
16 Comments
Join the discussionAre the ratios of the ingredients correct in this recipe? 4 ounces of pasta to 1 1/4 cup milk and 1 cup cheese?? Is this a typo? I’m thinking it should be 16 ounces of pasta, which would also make sense for a recipe which is supposedly for four servings.
Hi Alexandra!
According to the original recipe this is correct. There are lots of rave reviews so it looks correct.
Please let us know if for some reason it doesn’t turn out for you.
Where are the rave reviews? I’d love to see them. Thank you 🙂
A standard serving of pasta is 2 ounces. I would expect this to use 8 oz of pasta (4 cups cooked) for 4 servings, especially as this is listed as the dinner version.
We encourage you to adapt the recipe however you see fit. Please feel free to double if you like!
I love this recipe, but it doesn’t work for me in the IP. Both portions burned on the bottom and the pot wouldn’t come to pressure.
Lori, I’m so sorry this recipe didn’t turn out for you. Do you have this issue when you make it from fresh or frozen or both? If you get some of the contents stuck to the bottom during the saute part, that could definitely cause the burn sign to come on. I usually scrape off those bits before turning it on to avoid that. I will definitely pass this feedback on to our Menu Builder team.
IP did come to pressure either time I cooked this. First time from frozen, second time from totally thawed. The liquid bubbles and cooks the pasta but it is too thick to create proper stream for pressurizing. I also had to double the entire recipe to make a dinner-size portion. Flavor is excellent but recipe itself really needs improvements.
Hi Ashley, I’m so sorry this recipe did not come to pressure for you. We will pass this feedback to our Menu Builder Team to review this recipe. A quick follow up question Ashley too, since you doubled the recipe, did you also increase your cook time for this dish?
Didn’t work for me either. Made from frozen. Couldn’t get pressure to build unless added up to 2 cups water. When it was done, had a soupy mess. Boiling out the extra water made for soggy noodles. Bummer. I hate wasting food.
Hi Bethany! So sorry to hear of your frustrations. Do you mind sharing with us what your serving size was and what size of Instant Pot you were using?
I made the recipe above as is in a 5L instant pot. Any ideas?
Hmm, 2 cups of water is quite a bit for a 5L Instant Pot. When you say that you couldn’t get it to come to pressure, do you mean that it was taking a lot of time or were you getting an error or burn notice? If you weren’t getting a burn notice, we would suggest just waiting it out until it comes to pressure. Some dishes take longer than others. This recipe should also thicken up a little when transferred to the broiler. So sorry it didn’t turn out first time, Bethany! We hope another try goes better for you!
This did not come out right for me either time I made it, both from frozen. The milk separated both times, which doesn’t affect the flavor, but it made it look not-so-appetizing. The first time it was my fault because I missed the step of adding 1c of water before cooking. It burned slightly on the bottom, but the pasta wasn’t even close to being done. I was able to add water and get it to finish cooking on saute though.
The second time, I added the water and it still burned to the bottom. The pasta was done cooking at the end, but it was very soup-y. We were waiting for some squash to finish roasting, so the mac and cheese just sat for a while – the pasta soaked up the liquid so it wasn’t soup, but then the pasta was overcooked.
I really love the flavors though, so I’ll probably just add them to my regular cheese sauce instead of trying to make it in the Instant Pot.
Thanks for your feedback, Rachel! You might enjoy this great article on making substitutions and adjustments for the Instant Pot if you decide to try it, again. 🙂
My kids loved this. Like. A lot.
Both times it burned to the bottom of the pot HORRIBLY. ugh! I don’t think the IP came up to pressure because when I went to release the pressure there was nothing to release. But the countdown worked. When I opened the pot my heart sank– it looked absolutely disgusting. BUT I stirred it up and poured it into the oven dish and after a few minutes it thickened up and turned into something tasty. Cleaning the pot, on the other hand… never again.