Healthy Instant Pot Mac and Cheese
This Healthy Instant Pot Mac and Cheese with broccoli and white cheddar is a creamy, delicious comfort food favourite that comes together with less than 10 ingredients and in one pot!
GUYS!
Have I ever got a killer recipe idea for you today. And it's superrrrrrrr easy.
I'm talking Healthy Instant Pot Mac and Cheese. With white cheddar and broccoli.
OMG I'm dying this stuff is so good. And it's not bad for you either!
And I think it's pretty evident that I'm a HUGE mac and cheese fan. I'm talking Truffle Mac and Cheese, Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese and even a BUILD YOUR OWN Mac and Cheese Bar! I'm obsessed.
It's also an almost 5-ingredient recipe too, and no fail. Dump some butter, water, salt and macaroni spirals into your Instant Pot. Cook on high pressure for 2 minutes. Remove the lid, dump in your milk and cheese and stir. Add you broccoli and stir. Close the lid and wait another 2 minutes.
Then boom, dinner is ready. I can't get over how easy and delicious this is.
Now, I should warn you that this Healthy Instant Pot Mac and Cheese is more like a Kraft Dinner style mac and cheese as opposed to one you make with a roux using flour.
It's still pretty creamy and cheesy but it's definitely more liquidly than mac and cheeses that have a thicker sauce. The sauce is thinner, but it makes this dish feel lighter and it also takes way less time and is more hands off. I don't know about you but honestly sometimes I just want to dump everything into one pot, set it and forget it.
This is the mac and cheese for that!
The broccoli adds a little bit of colour and adds the health factor to this mac and cheese so you can rest easy knowing that you've made yourself at least a bit more of a well-rounded meal. Add in some extra greens like spinach or chard and you are practically eating a green goddess version of mac and cheese.
LOL I know, the irony of those two titles together.
If there's anything else you should know about this Healthy Instant Pot Mac and Cheese is that I also find that using the macaroni spirals (sometimes called Scooby Do at the grocery store) hold up a bit better because they're a bigger pasta shape. I wouldn't recommend you use the smaller macaroni pasta or even the shells but it's up to you.
Plus, spirals are just more fun anyway.
Let's also talk about white cheddar for a second and how amazing it is.
I really feel like you need to splurge and go all out on the cheese with this Healthy Instant Pot Mac and Cheese – I bought a $12 block of Balderston aged white cheddar (the one with the turquoise-green label and NO they didn't pay me to write about how much I love them lol!) and it was almost just enough cheese for the job.
I do recommend 4 cups of cheese for that extra gooey-ness but you can certainly use less (3 cups will do) so one block is usually enough. If you really wanna get fancy you can also use some grated parmesan or pizza mozzarella, or Swiss cheese would be nice too.
Even if you wanna do orange cheddar, it all works pretty well. I've just got a soft spot for white cheddar these days…
Will you be making this Healthy Instant Pot Mac and Cheese?
Anything white cheddar has my heart for as long as it's still acceptable to consume tons of comfort food! BRB while I go back to eating piles of this.
If you try any of my recipes be sure to let me know on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook or in the comments – I’d love to see what you come up with!
The Instant Pot DUO Plus 60
is the version I use in this recipe.
Grab some Glass meal prep bowls if you plan on packing this up for lunch!
Healthy Instant Pot Mac and Cheese
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp butter
- 4 cups water
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 lb macaroni spirals (sometimes call scoobi do)
- 1 cup 2% milk
- 4 cups white cheddar cheese, grated
- 1/2 head broccoli, finely chopped
Instructions
- Add butter, water, salt and macaroni spirals to Instant Pot in that order. Set to cook on high pressure for 2 minutes. Once complete, do a quick release of pressure and open lid when safe to do so.
- Stir in milk and white cheddar until fully blended, then add broccoli florets and stir. Replace the lid and let sit 5 minutes. Serve and enjoy!
Nutrition
Monique says
February 19, 2018 at 21:07Saw this on FB today, tried it tonight and loved it … 2 cups was to much water so I had to drain it but still amazing. I think next time I’ll used several types of cheese.
Taylor Stinson says
February 19, 2018 at 22:01Oh no! I’m sorry it was too much water – may be an excuse for me to do a third recipe testing session 😉 Thanks so much for your feedback Monique and happy you enjoyed it!
Janine says
February 26, 2018 at 08:21Can you do this just in a large saucepan? With the same method?
Taylor Stinson says
February 26, 2018 at 08:38Hey Janine! I haven’t tried this myself as the instructions would be a bit different but I’m sure it would turn out great on the stovetop! I would recommend cooking the pasta ahead of time, draining it, then doing the milk/cheese part and adding in the broccoli and steaming with a lid on top for 5 minutes. Let me know how it goes if you try it 🙂
Pelin says
March 9, 2018 at 07:28Hey, this looks really good. Do you think I can freeze the leftovers?
Taylor Stinson says
March 9, 2018 at 07:49You could definitely try! Most pasta dishes usually freeze well 🙂 I just haven’t tried it myself!
Shirley says
March 22, 2018 at 18:53The first comment notes that 2 cups of water is to much, you agreed. But the recipe calls for 4 cups of water what do you use. The recipe looks amazing would like to try it.
Taylor Stinson says
March 22, 2018 at 19:16Sorry Shirley, I didn’t notice that Monique said “2 cups” instead of 4 cups. I didn’t necessarily agree with her, I just apologized that it turned out that way when she made it. There are many reasons why this amount may have been too much water for her – maybe she used a different shape of pasta, or maybe she didn’t use one full pound of the pasta shape I used (I find people guesstimate quite a bit when adding pasta instead of following the recipe exactly, I often am guilty of this myself). Four cups of water is the right amount if you are using macaroni spirals as pictured and listed in the instructions. Hope this helps!
Shirley says
March 22, 2018 at 19:30Yes that does help. Thanks so much for replying so quickly. I will look for the pasta that you used. I’m sorry that I said you agreed I do see that you were apologizing.
Taylor Stinson says
March 22, 2018 at 19:34Thanks so much Shirley, and sorry I just wanted to clear that up (us Canadians apologize a lot I’m realizing haha)
Heather says
April 6, 2018 at 16:54Could I double this and use the same amount of time?
Taylor Stinson says
April 6, 2018 at 17:03To be honest I’m really not sure Heather, I haven’t tried it myself! I’ve heard of people just doubling a recipe and adding a minute to the cook time for different Instant Pot recipes, but I just can’t guarantee the results if that makes sense. Let me know if you try it!
Carrie Beth Abrell says
April 10, 2018 at 03:32How much is one serving?
Taylor Stinson says
April 10, 2018 at 08:12You will need to divide the pasta into 8 servings – I’m sorry I can’t give a more specific measurement but if I had to guess, I would say 1 1/2 cups. Hope that helps!
Morgan says
September 15, 2018 at 21:44Hi Taylor.
I’m new to your blog and have noticed that in the nutritional info section on your recipes it doesn’t say how much one serving is. What do you consider to be a serving?
Taylor Stinson says
September 17, 2018 at 13:14Hey Morgan…I provide number of servings at the top of each recipe! If something says 6 servings, divide it in 6 and that would be considered one serving. Unfortunately I’m not able to go measuring everything into exact portion sizes – it’s challenging enough just to calculate the nutrition facts. Sorry about this!
Sherry says
September 20, 2018 at 16:14Can I use whole wheat pasta? Will the recipe be the same?
Taylor Stinson says
September 20, 2018 at 17:26It should be yes 🙂
Jen says
October 9, 2018 at 18:28Made this tonight–quick and easy (and tasted great!). Only problem is that even after letting the broccoli sit in the pot for 10+ minutes, it was still raw 😕 Cover was closed and everything. Next time, I’ll add at the beginning, and cook with the pasta.
Taylor Stinson says
October 10, 2018 at 09:28So happy you liked it Jen! Sometimes it depends on how small you have chopped the broccoli..you could also try adding it in after and pressing the “keep warm” button to add a bit more heat. I wouldn’t add the broccoli in at the beginning to pressure cook because it will get really mushy!
Vicky says
November 26, 2018 at 13:10Hi Taylor! Love your website!! Quick question… the calories in the nutrition facts area reflect the caloric intake of one serving? Thanks in advance, <3
Taylor Stinson says
November 26, 2018 at 13:43Hey Vicky!! Thanks so much 🙂 Yes the nutrition facts are for one serving, hope that helps!
Jennifer says
March 22, 2019 at 11:12Hi Taylor,
I recently made this and it was absolutely delicious but the problem I had was that the cheese stuck to everything. Even the bowls were hard to clean. The only thing I changed was I used a three cheese combo instead of the white cheddar. Would that have made a difference? Based on that I didn’t want to make it again. 🙁
Taylor Stinson says
March 22, 2019 at 13:24Hey Jennifer – unfortunately any type of mac and cheese can be a bit more difficult to clean. Any time you use real cheese this can happen…one of the burdens of homemade mac and cheese 🙁
Jennifer says
April 7, 2019 at 12:56Sorry I am just seeing this now. Thanks for the reply. I thought I did something wrong but good to hear this about using real cheese. It was so good I hate to not make it again.
Aileen Day says
March 27, 2019 at 13:18Hi there, the recipe show total cook time as 20 min but it says to only cook maccaroni for 2 min and then add rest of ingredients and let stand for 5min. Is this correct?
Taylor Stinson says
April 3, 2019 at 10:30Hey Aileen – this is an Instant Pot recipe. The Instant Pot takes about 15 min to preheat and pressure cooks for 2 min so the total cook time once factoring in the preheating is closer to 20 min. Hope that helps!
Jessica says
June 17, 2019 at 15:48Excited to try this. I’m relatively new to the instant pot. Do you think if I throw in frozen broccoli at the beginning it will hold up and not get mushy?
Thanks for posting!
Taylor Stinson says
June 18, 2019 at 08:04Hey Jessica! I would not recommend that you add frozen broccoli in at the beginning – microwave it for 1-2 minutes to defrost then throw it in at the end and let it all sit for 5 minutes or so. That should do it 🙂