Instant Pot Vegan Pumpkin Tahini Linguine

Thanks to this wonderful  site  I was able to prepare a pasta dish in the Instant Pot without any burnt residue at the bottom as I experienced previously. This method I adopted gives pasta cooked al dente. This texture is maintained even when the sauce is added at the end of the steps enumerated in the recipe below.

The short cooking time of the pasta as it is cooked separately from the sauce is key as well as how the pressure is released at the end of cooking. An additional factor is adding the sauce to the pot at the end of cooking of the pasta rather than with it.

The sauce is delicious and creamy that coats the linguine with its velvety texture.  The combination of miso and nutritional yeast gives it its umami flavor while the pumpkin and tahini paste imparts the creaminess which your tongue will relish in every bite. These latter two ingredients are more for achieving a thick sauce. You hardly detect their flavor but they successfully achieve the goal of imparting creaminess to the dish without the use of fat laden cream or beans or cashews.

Instant Pot Vegan Pumpkin Tahini Linguine

See this site for more on cooking pasta in the Instant Pot.  This recipe was inspired by this.

Ingredients: 

Sauce 

• 1 15 oz can pumpkin puree
• 2 cups unsweetened, unflavored almond milk or other similar non dairy milk
• 2 tbsp white miso
• 2 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 4 tbsp nutritional yeast
• 1 lemon juiced
• 4 tbsp tahini paste
• 1/4 tsp black pepper Fresh or dry basil for topping

Pasta

• 1 lb (16 oz) linguine or other pasta
• 4 cups cold water
• 1 tsp salt

Directions:

• Place all the sauce Ingredients in a bowl and whisk together. Set aside.
  

• Place the water, salt and pasta in the Instant Pot. Close the lid and put the valve to the Sealing position.

• Press the manual or "Pressure Cook" button and set the time for 1 minute on High Pressure setting for al dente (2 minutes for softer pasta).

• At the end of cooking, allow the pressure to release naturally for five minutes.

• Then quick release the steam that is left by putting a towel over the vent as you switch the valve to venting position.

• Then immediately add two thirds of the sauce to cooked pasta in pot and mix using the residual heat of the pot. Add the rest of sauce if you want pasta laden with a lot of sauce.
  

• Top pasta with fresh or dry basil.

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