These delicious vegetarian Instant Pot recipes are crowd-pleasing meals, from hearty soups and creamy pasta! A pressure cooker makes meal-time simple.
I eat a mostly vegetarian and plant based diet (in fact, I wrote a book about it!). When I heard about the Instant Pot, I assumed it was just for meat. It wasn’t until a friend shared that she cooked sweet potatoes in her Instant Pot that I started to reconsider.
Fast forward to today and I’ve made dozens of vegetarian Instant Pot recipes! The pressure cooker is extremely versatile: it works for staples like beans and rice, or meals like soups and pastas. Here I’m sharing all of my favorite vegetarian Instant Pot recipe, proving that this little appliance is absolutely worth its place in your cabinet.
30 Vegetarian Instant Pot Recipes
This pressure cooker pasta is genuinely life-changing: tender noodles coated in a luscious marinara sauce swirled with tangy goat cheese. It's so simple: throw everything in the pot, set it for 5 minutes, and dinner is ready before you've even finished setting the table.
I've tested this recipe countless times, and it's become my absolute favorite way to make chili with beans, vegetables, and lentils for extra plant-based protein. Unlike slow cooker versions that can turn soggy after hours of cooking, this pressure cooker method makes perfectly textured vegetables and a savory flavor in a fraction of the time.
These vegetarian tacos feature smoky Instant Pot lentils and rice that taste so good, even meat-eaters request seconds. Set out all your favorite toppings like cilantro sauce and fresh salsa, and let everyone build their own perfect taco.
The Instant Pot creates the most incredible pasta texture: soft, supple, and reminiscent of childhood comfort food. Just add your ingredients, press go, and watch as this becomes your new favorite weeknight dinner that even beats boxed mac and cheese.
This fan-favorite recipe is so hearty and delicious: the pressure cooker cooks dried white beans and wild rice at the same time, creating naturally creamy goodness without any dairy. It's completely hands-off and tastes like you spent hours stirring at the stove.
Fire-roasted tomatoes give this lentil soup its vibrant red color while fresh fennel adds an unexpected smoky undertone to this hearty meal. I love serving it with a side of the best cornbread for a complete, comforting meal.
This truly is a "set it and forget it" dinner where you throw all the ingredients in the pressure cooker and walk away. The vegan spaghetti comes out perfectly cooked with amazing flavor that always has me scraping my bowl clean.
Here's a healthy soup that's incredibly tasty: minestrone! This classic Italian soup is full of chunky vegetables, baby kale and pasta in a tomato-y broth. Serve garnished with fresh herbs, or take it up a notch with a dollop of basil pesto (or vegan pesto).
Creamy potato soup loaded with chunks of tender potato and no heavy cream shows the Instant Pot is great at comfort food! Old Bay seasoning gives it an irresistible undertone, and you don't even need a blender: just top with cheese, sour cream, chives, and smoky vegan bacon.
Why wait over an hour for oven roasted spaghetti squash when the Instant Pot cooks it in just 8 minutes? Add the preheat and drain time, and you're still looking at only 25 minutes total for tender squash ready to become spaghetti squash spaghetti with marinara or pesto spaghetti squash.
This filling, plant-based soup needs nothing more than chopping three vegetables: onion, celery, and carrot. The lightly smoky flavor and creamy texture make it taste satisfyingly deliciou without the meat.
Homemade refried beans taste so much better than canned, and the Instant Pot makes them so easy by skipping the soaking time entirely. Throw dried beans in with some seasoning, and in just 1 hour you have perfectly tender, flavorful beans. Eat them as is or make them into easy refried bean dip.
Tender acorn squash stuffed with herb-laden pecan and rice filling transforms into a feast that makes your entire kitchen smell incredible. The pressure cooker handles both the rice and the squash, making this dish surprisingly simple to make.
Steaming bowls of slurpable ramen with savory miso and soy sauce broth, tender noodles, and runny soft-boiled eggs rival what you'd get at a restaurant. Making ramen at home is so much easier when the pressure cooker handles the heavy lifting.
These basic but flavorful lentils seasoned with onion powder, paprika, garlic powder, and oregano work perfectly in bowl meals, tacos, or simply served with pita and a dollop of Greek yogurt. They're completely hands-off and come out tender every time.
This simple apple crisp uses granola instead of traditional oat topping and cooks in just 5 minutes in the Instant Pot. The fresh apple flavors really shine through, and it makes your kitchen smell absolutely incredible.
Sage, cinnamon, and a smoky undertone transform butternut squash and carrot into an orange soup that's pure gold in a bowl. The addition of potato and apple brings sweetness that makes this one of my favorite butternut squash recipes.
Here’s a fun trick you can whip up with your pressure cooker: Instant Pot hummus! Sure, it’s easy to buy store-bought hummus. But for the very best creamy chickpea puree: homemade hummus is where it’s at! It’s a great trick using your Instant Pot, and perfect if you whip up a big batch of chickpeas.
Lemon zest, Italian seasoning, and olive oil give this pressure cooker cauliflower Mediterranean flair. It makes a quick, healthy side dish that feels special enough for company.
This vegetarian Instant Pot recipe has a cook time of 0 minutes! That's right: all you need is 0 minutes to cook this broccoli (though of course it takes 5 minutes for the Instant Pot to preheat!). Mix it up with feta cheese crumbles and red onion, and it's a showy side dish that takes no time at all.
I thought crispy roasted Brussels sprouts were the only way to eat them until I tried this pressure cooker version. They come out crisp-tender rather than soggy or bitter, and the butter, chives, and Parmesan cheese make them taste delicious.
This has become my go-to method for cooking sweet potatoes because they come out so moist with minimal effort and much faster than the oven. Use them as a simple side dish or transform them into a plant-based main like sweet potatoes with Thai peanut butter sauce.
Creamy, tender steel cut oats cook hands-off in about 30 minutes total including prep, preheat, and cool down time. Just throw in the oats and let the Instant Pot work its magic while you get ready for your day.
Here’s an easy, healthy breakfast recipe for weekdays or entertaining guests: Instant Pot oatmeal! If you’ve got a pressure cooker, oatmeal is even easier to make. The oats are toasted in butter until fragrant, then mixed with milk and cooked for just 3 minutes.
The Instant Pot is a fast way to make applesauce! This applesauce recipe is tangy sweet and depending on the apples you use, you don't even need sweetener. All you need is a bunch of apples and a cinnamon stick. It comes together with no added sugars in under 30 minutes!
Roasting beets usually takes over an hour. But this Instant Pot beet recipe takes about 30 minutes total and they come out tender and juicy every time! It's so fast and easy, you won't be able to stop making beet recipes. Use these beets in my Beet Salad with Balsamic Dressing! It's a show-stopper.
This totally hands-off method makes hard-boiled eggs without waiting for water to boil or worrying about overcooking. Pop the eggs in the Instant Pot for 7 minutes, and you'll get easy-peel eggs.
Making quinoa in the Instant Pot is quick and hands off! It's nice to not have to babysit the stove and it comes out with perfect texture.
You also can use an Instant Pot to cook dried beans from scratch! There's no soaking required: just pop in the beans and water. It takes only 1 hour to cook dried beans! It's vastly quicker than on the stovetop.
After cooking dried chickpeas for years, I’ve found that Instant Pot chickpeas is the quickest method! The first time I made them, I was amazed at how tender they get in only 1 hour. It’s so much easier and faster than cooking them on the stovetop!
Instant Pot Types
For all of these vegetarian recipes, I use an Instant Pot brand Instant Pot (Instant Pot is the brand name; Instapot is a slang variation). The Instant Pot I use is the Instant Pot DUO60 6 Qt 7-in-1 Multi-Use Programmable Pressure Cooker.
I have used this Instant Pot to test all of the Instant Pot recipes on this website. There is definitely variations between pressure cooker brands and sizes, so you may see some variation in cook time.
Understanding Instant Pot Cook Times
When you look at cook time with any pressure cooker, you’ll need to factor in a few more things than just the actual cook time. Keep the following in mind:
- “Preheat” time: Once you add the ingredients to the pot, the pressure cooker requires about 5 to 10 minutes for come up to pressure. This time can vary depending on the recipe.
- Natural release: Some recipes call for a Quick Release: here you’ll immediately release the pressure and open the lid. But some recipes call for a Natural Release method, where you wait with the cover on after the cook time for the pressure to naturally release from the pot.
Cleaning the Instant Pot
The plastic sealing rink inside the Instant Pot can pick up odors when you use the pot to cook vegetarian recipes. To remove the smell from an Instant Pot sealing ring, soak it in vinegar for a few hours. Another option is purchasing two sealing rings. I have 2 Instant Pot sealing rings and use one for savory recipes and one for sweet recipes.
A good practice is to store the Instant Pot with the lid upside down so the sealing ring is exposed to air, instead of with the lid closed onto the pot. This allows the sealing ring to air out between uses.
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