You know those evenings where you don't feel like making dinner or you have NO IDEA what to make? Those nights where you kinda wish you could just skip over dinner time and go straight to bed time? THIS easy, tasty, vegan, one-pot cheesy taco pasta is the dinner you make on THOSE nights!
Just like my Taco Rice Bowls, Vegan Garlic Pasta, my Creamy Vegan Tomato Pasta, and my Lentil Bolognese Pasta, you can have this one-pot cheesy taco pasta on the table in under 30-minutes.
It's loaded with flavour, needs just a handful of simple ingredients, and can be made in your Instant Pot or on your stove top, directions for both methods are included!
This vegan pasta dish is:
- SO tasty
- a one-pot meal
- extremely easy to make
- super kid-friendly
- ready in no time (under 30-minutes!)
- pressure cooker-friendly
- vegetarian / vegan / gluten-free (if you use gluten-free pasta!)
- a meal that requires minimal prep
- an 8-ingredient dinner
It really can't get any better than that!
Vegan Cheesy Taco Pasta Ingredients:
This is a recipe I first discovered in my Pinterest feed on one of those nights. I typically plan out what I'm going to make for the week, in advance, but this week in particular, things fell by the wayside and I was winging it as the week was coming to an end.
The recipe I adapted to make this recipe is a very non-vegan recipe, but as you know from some of my other recipes, "veganizing" non-vegan recipes is something I love to do.
I also added a few extra ingredients to suit my tastes and I think what I've come up with is quite delicious.
Not to mention, the kids love it, and if you're a parent, you know that kid approval at dinner time is golden!
How Do You Make One-Pot Cheesy Taco Pasta?
(Note: I’ve outlined the step-by-step here, but find the full recipe, ingredients, and directions at the end of this post.)
The first step is to sauté the onions for a few minutes. You'll then add your vegan meat crumbles (you can use any brand you like, just be sure that if you are gluten-free, the brand you buy is actually gluten-free).
Next, the taco seasoning and salsa gets added to the pot.
You'll then add the rotini pasta and the broth. If you're using an Instant Pot, set the time to pressure cook based on your noodles (see more about this below).
If you're cooking on the stove, bring to a boil, cover, and then simmer until the pasta is cooked through.
Next comes the vegan cheese shreds and the cilantro or parsley (it's up to you which one you use!)
Give it all a quick stir, add some toppings if you'd like (see below for some ideas!), and your quick and easy taco pasta dinner is ready to serve!
How Long Does it Take to Cook Pasta In a Pressure Cooker?
The answer to this question depends on the type of pasta you're cooking.
The general rule of thumb, for wheat pasta, is to look at the boiling time on the pasta box and divide it by two. So if your wheat pasta needs to be boiled for 8 minutes, it would take 4 minutes in your pressure cooker. But...
How About Gluten-Free Pasta?
My family has had to endure quite a few mushy pasta meals while I figured this out! It's easy to fix undercooked pasta but once it is overcooked, there's no fixing that.
I've found that the best timing, for the brand of pasta I use, is to divide the boil time by 2 and minus 1. So if a pasta calls for 8 minutes of boiling time, the pressure cooking time would be 3 minutes.
My preferred gluten-free pasta for my all of my recipes, pressure cooker recipes included, is Barilla. It's rice and corn-based and holds up just like a wheat-based pasta. It also has the same texture as wheat pasta. (This is not sponsored, I just love their gf noodles!)
You know how some gluten-free pastas stick together unless you're constantly stirring the pot, or it creates a thick, pasty water as it cooks?
This brand does not do that. (These things usually happen with brown rice based pastas.) I would not recommend a brown rice pasta for one-pot pasta recipes.
I have only made this recipe using Barilla's rotini noodles, the noodles you see in the pictures, so I can only speak for that type of pasta. If you're using a different brand of gluten-free pasta, you may need to do a little experimentation to find the perfect time for that particular one, but using the guidelines above will help.
If you do end up trying another brand that works well for you, tell me about it in the comments!
And one more note about the pasta, I would stick to pasta shapes for this recipe and not use spaghetti or any other type of thin or long pasta. They require a whole other set of rules when pressure cooking that I haven't taken the time to figure out yet.
Toppings for Cheesy Taco Pasta
You can serve your taco pasta any way you'd like. Plain is perfect, but if you feel like taking things up a notch, then any of the following vegan toppings will complement your meal, very well:
- diced avocados (my favourite!)
- guacamole
- vegan sour cream
- more vegan cheese shreds or vegan Parmesan cheese
- more fresh cilantro or parsley
- crushed tortilla chips
- diced tomatoes
- diced red onions
- green onions
- jalapeño slices
- corn
- black beans
Basically, anything you'd put in or on a taco would go great with your easy cheesy taco pasta.
So...the next time you're dealing with the what to make for dinner conundrum, whip up this cheesy taco pasta in your Instant Pot or on the stove. After you taste it, you, and everyone else, won't believe that it took under 30-minutes to make!
If you make this easy one-pot cheesy taco pasta recipe, please let me know! Leave me a comment below and / or share a pic with me on Instagram! I want to see your dinner! (that's not weird, right? 🙂 )
You can also help me to help others find this recipe by pinning it to your recipe board on Pinterest. (thank you!)
If you like this easy vegan dinner recipe, you'll probably also like these!
- Mushroom Stew
- Lentil Sloppy Joes
- Creamy Vegan Mushroom Pasta
- Vegan Fried Rice
- Curried Instant Pot Split Pea Soup
- Instant Pot Vegan Recipes
- 15-Minute Vegan Peanut Noodles
- Roasted Veggie and Rice Bowls
One-Pot Cheesy Taco Pasta
Ingredients:
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 1 small yellow onion, diced
- 2 ½ cups vegan meat crumbles (gluten-free, if needed)
- 2 tablespoons taco seasoning
- 1 ½ cups prepared salsa
- 12 ounces dry rotini pasta (gluten-free, if needed)
- 3 ¼ cups vegetable broth
- 1 ½ cups vegan cheese shreds
- ¼ cup fresh cilantro or parsley finely chopped
Instructions:
Instant Pot Method:
- Set your Instant Pot to sauté and add oil. Once heated, add the onions and sauté until softened, about 3-4 minutes.
- Add the vegan meat crumbles and sauté for another minute.
- Add taco seasoning and stir to coat the onions and crumbles.
- Add salsa and stir again. Add rotini pasta and broth and stir to combine everything, be sure scrape up any bits that have stuck to the bottom of the pot.
- Place and lock lid onto the pot and close the pressure release valve. Set to pressure cook for 3 minutes (timing will vary based on type of noodles you are using, see info above). Pot will take roughly 10 minutes to come to pressure.
- When the pressure cooking time has ended, press cancel and carefully open the pressure release valve to manually release the pressure.
- Once pressure has been released and the float valve pin has dropped, slowly unlock and remove the lid.
- Add vegan cheese shreds and stir to combine. Add cilantro or parsley and stir again. Serve immediately.
Stove Top Method:
- Over medium high heat and add oil to a large pot. Once heated, add the onions and sauté until softened, about 3-4 minutes.
- Add the vegan meat crumbles and sauté for another minute.
- Add taco seasoning and stir to coat the onions and crumbles.
- Add salsa and stir again. Add rotini and broth and stir to combine everything, be sure scrape up any bits that have stuck to the bottom of the pot.
- Bring mixture to a boil, stir, lower temperature, cover, and simmer.
- When pasta has absorbed the liquid and is cooked through, remove the pot from the heat.
- Add vegan cheese shreds and stir to combine. Add cilantro or parsley and stir again. Serve immediately.
Recipe Notes:
- This recipe makes 4-5 servings (depending on how large you make each serving).
- Use your favourite prepared, jarred salsa.
- Use your favourite vegan cheese shreds. I like to use pepperjack flavoured shreds for the extra spice.
- If you're not gluten-free, one 340g package of Yves veggie ground round will work. You can also use the Mexican flavour and omit the taco seasoning.
- Cooking time above is based on the stove top method. Cooking time for the pressure cooker method is 10 minutes prep + 3 minutes cook time + 10 minutes to come up to pressure (23 minutes total).
- Nutrition info is for 1 serving (of 4) prepared as the recipe is written and without any toppings. I used cilantro, low sodium broth, low sodium salsa and gluten-free rotini. Data below is only to be used as a rough guide. Click to learn how nutrition info is determined on this website.
- Recipe adapted from Simply Happy Foodie.
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