This Healthier Instant Pot Mac and Cheese with broccoli and white cheddar is comfort food that comes together with less than 10 ingredients!
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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!
Meal prep tools
- 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!
is the version I use in this recipe.
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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
Aileen Day says
Hi 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
Hey 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
Excited 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
Hey 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 🙂
Dominique says
This is a great recipe! I had frozen broccoli and peas so I added those at the end and it turned out great. I used the exact same pasta shape with 4 cups of water and found the pasta to be the right consistency. It wasn’t quite al dente but still great nonetheless; definitely not mushy as some Instant Pot recipes can be.
Mary says
Do you drain the pasta before adding the cheese? I couldn’t find the kind of pasta in the recipe and used rigatoni but the pasta doesn’t seem cooked completely; I’m hoping that putting it in the oven will finish cooking the pasta.
Taylor Stinson says
The pasta soaks up all of the liquid! Using a much larger pasta may affect the amount of liquid you need to add so that is why it may be undercooked.
Victoria S Lytton says
I’m wondering the same thing. I have water left in the pot and a few noodles that weren’t cooked. I turned the instapot back on for 3 mins and it was perfect. It’s still standing….. So I’ll post my review of it after I get to try it. 🤣 It was super easy….. I will say THAT…….. AS WELL VERY CHEAP
Shobee says
Hi Taylor! Can’t wait to make this for a family at church. Would I be able to make it, freeze it in a casserole dish after and they can heat it back up in the oven when they’re ready to eat it?
Taylor Stinson says
Hey Shobee – for sure! I would sprinkle some water overtop and reheat in a 350 F oven from frozen for 30-40 minutes.
Dee K says
Do you think whole wheat pasta would work?
Taylor Stinson says
Hi Dee – I have not tried it myself but I imagine it would work!
Theresa Weileman says
414 calories per serving, is a cup a serving?
Taylor Stinson says
I don’t provide servings by weight/cup unfortunately! You will need to take the number of servings listed and divide into portions. Each portion is a serving. If I had to guesstimate, 1.5-2 cups is a serving.
Amy says
How does this do reheated?? Any recommendations for reheating? Usually reheated pasta is no longer creamy and is dry.
Taylor Stinson says
Hi Amy – you can sprinkle some water or even some milk overtop to prevent the pasta from drying out. It’s usually good to reheat within the first 3 days!
Dana says
Would you need to change anything if you use protein pasta like Banza?
Taylor Stinson says
Hi Dana – unfortunately I haven’t tested this recipe with different types of pasta. You could give it a try though!