For this recipe, you will need some equipment:

1. A blender, preferably a high-speed one
2. A nut milk bag, also called a juice bag.

The nut milk bags I use are extremely durable and work perfectly for making dairy-free milk alternatives such as this almond milk. I have been using the same ones for a few years now and haven’t had any problems with them breaking. If you take good care of your nut milk bags (don’t wring them in the same direction every time and always wash and hang to dry immediately after use) they should be a good investment towards a healthier diet.

For the almonds, they should be raw almonds – not roasted and salted. I get raw almonds from Aldi and they aren’t terribly expensive. You can also order them in bulk online.

I recommend soaking your almonds in water for about 8 hours or overnight. I usually soak mine in the fridge.

If you don’t have time to soak the almonds, you can pour boiling water over them and soak for about 5 minutes. Either way works!

Once you have soaked your almonds, you are ready to start making almond milk! Just add the almonds to your blender and add water, and blend until very smooth. Remember, you don’t have to do any peeling off of the almonds skins. The nut milk bag will take care of them.

When your almonds are blended silky smooth and you see only very tiny pieces of the brown skins left, you’re ready to strain it. Place your nut milk bag over a bowl as shown below, then pour in your blended almonds and start squeezing.

Of course, make sure you wash your hands very well before you start straining the bag. Almond milk is very easily contaminated so wash those hands well first.

• How To Make Oat Milk
• Vegan Milk Alternatives – 5 Nondairy Milk Options You Should Know
• The Best Vegan Instant Pot Mac And Cheese
• How To Make The Best Oatmeal
• Vegan Pancakes – Fluffy & Delicious Coconut Milk Pancakes (Oil Free)

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Almond Milk

Make fresh, delicious almond milk at home! Just blend and strain, no peeling required.

Course Drinks, Vegan Basics

Cuisine American

Keyword almond milk, how to make almond milk

Prep Time 8 hours

Cook Time 10 minutes

Total Time 8 hours 15 minutes

Servings 4 cups

Calories 206kcal

Author Shannon Hakala

Ingredients

• 1 cup almonds soaked 8 hours or overnight
• 3 cups water
• pinch of salt optional

Instructions

• Blend almonds and water in high-speed until smooth (about 1 minute).
• Pour mixture into nut milk bag and gently squeeze to extract all the liquid.
• Store almond milk in air-tight container for up to 7 days.

Video

Nutrition

Calories: 206kcal | Carbohydrates: 8g | Protein: 8g | Fat: 18g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Trans Fat: 1g | Sodium: 9mg | Potassium: 252mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 1IU | Calcium: 100mg | Iron: 1mg

The post How To Make Delicious Almond Milk appeared first on Instant Veg.

Stir fry is one of the weekly recurring recipes in our household, no matter what season it is.

I pretty much love any foods that involve a combination of vegetables, textures, and flavors. And, as a mom, I love seeing my kids enjoy eating their veggies, too. Our version of stir fry does the trick!

I say “our version” because, you know, I’m not exactly heating up my wok with hot oil and tossing around fresh veggies and sauces, like you would do to make a proper stir fry. I make mine in my Instant Pot!

Lately, I read The Engine 2 Diet, after tracking it down as the reason I keep spotting “no oil” recipes. I had no idea that “no oil” was a thing, so I was curious to read more about it. A few people mentioned this Engine 2 diet thing, so I checked it out from my local library.

In the book, Rip Esselstyn refers to his father Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn’s many years of researching the prevention and reversal of heart disease. Both the Esselstyns advocate a plant-based, oil free diet as the key to avoiding heart disease.

I was intrigued by this information. Heart diseases is the main killer in the United States, and sadly my family also has a history of heart attacks.

So after reading about this and deciding that I’d rather risk having slightly different tasting food than risk getting a heart attack in 20 years, I’ve been experimenting with making my recipes without oil.

So far, the results have been alright. If you’re sitting there scratching your head thinking, “Yeah but Shannon if you don’t use oil for sautéing and stuff, what do you use?”

Water, my friends. You use water. I know.

Obviously, sautéing in water is gonna yield slightly different results, but one of the surprising “pros” for skipping the oil for water is that you can actually taste the ingredients more when you don’t have everything coated in a little oil.

My first big “no oil” success is this stir fry that I made in my Instant Pot! I “sautéd” my veggies in water, added sauce, and then made the rice.

Vegan Stir Fry In The Instant Pot

The first thing you should know about making this vegan stir fry dinner is that it’s kind of a two step process.

First, we’ll be cooking up the veggies and sauce. We’ll transfer them to a serving dish, and then we’ll proceed to cook the rice in the Instant Pot.

No need to wash the pot in between cooking the sauce and the rice! Because, we have to wash the rice anyways, and when you wash the rice (in the pot) it washes out any remaining sauce bits.

It’s easy, it’s simple, it’s magical… okay, here are the detailed steps.

Stir Fry Vegetables

Practically any vegetables will work in a stir fry, although I would avoid using ones that break up when cooked such as potato, sweet, potato, or squash. Other than that, your stir fry veggies are your choice.

If you hate onions can’t stand broccoli, or are practically ALLERGIC to mushrooms, it’s okay. You can always just leave them out.

I always make my stir fry a little differently depending on which veggies I have lying around needing to be eaten up.

This time, the vegetables for stir fry that I used included: one medium sized white onion, one large carrot, a head of broccoli, and one particularly luscious-looking yellow bell pepper.

I also added some canned pineapple to this stir fry, since I made it with sweet and sour sauce. I use the juice from the pineapple can in the sauce, and then added the pineapples at the end.

I would have added the pineapples to the rest of the veggies when they were sautéing, but completely forgot about them until after I was finished cooking! So I just snuck them in at the end.

Other Ingredients For A Vegan Stir Fry

Traditionally, some type of meat, poultry, or even eggs would be a key point of a stir fry dish.

When making a vegan stir fry, you can get creative with your vegetables and meatless proteins to create something even healthier. Tofu, seitan chunks or sliced seitan, meatless “chicken” strips and the like are all great choices to add protein, texture, and more flavor to your meal.

Tofu For Stir Fry

Usually when I’m making some vegan stir fry, I’ll use something like extra firm tofu to add protein. The reason I like extra firm in stir fry is that it doesn’t break up as easily when stirred.

Even extra firm tofu will crumble apart if you aren’t careful, though. So remember to stir gently once you’ve added it.

The taste and texture of tofu go really well with stir fry because it absorbs some of the flavors of the sauce.

If using tofu in stir fry, you may want to let the water drain out of it a little bit first. There’s no requirement that tofu needs to be drained, but it will have more “tofu” taste if you don’t drain it, which is why many people prefer draining it first.

Draining tofu involves letting the water in the pack leak out, and then putting weight on the tofu so that the water starts to get pushed out.

Personally, I don’t mind the taste of unpressed tofu (actually I love it) so I don’t always take the time to press it first.

Vegan Chicken

In this stir fry I tried out something new, which is the vegan chicken from Aldi.

As far as “fake meats” go, I’d say this one is not bad. It doesn’t really taste like chicken, but that’s not a problem. It has a good texture and makes the whole stir fry more satisfying.

Chop Up The Veggies For Stir Fry

I cut the carrot into matchsticks, sliced the bell pepper, and roughly chopped up the onion. I love having huge pieces of broccoli in my food so I tried to break up the head of broccoli into larger chunks.

If you eat a lot of tofu, you can always get a special tofu press.

It’s a vegan stir fry, so feel free to go crazy with your vegetables! You could also add…. sliced water chestnuts, chopped cabbage (red or green), chopped celery, mushrooms, chopped zucchini, sliced green onions, diced potatoes, etc.

Stir Fry The Veggies In Water

I added some water to the Instant Pot along with my veggies. I suggest leaving the broccoli and carrots out until we add the sauce later, because they will cook very quickly.

I used the sauté button and set the timer to 5 minutes. The water will start to heat up and prevent the veggies from sticking. I also closed the lid on my Instant Pot to help the veggies cook up thoroughly.

Once the timer for 7 minutes beeps at you, it’s time to add your sauce and quick-cooking vegetables such as thinly-sliced carrots and broccoli.

(If you prefer a more well cooked broccoli, you can go ahead and add it in in the first sautéing).

Next, I set the timer for 5 minutes to sauté again. The sauce quickly started boiling up and thickening up. I was surprised that it didn’t seem to overcook or burn in the bottom of the Instant Pot.

Just to be safe, I recommend stirring gently while the sauce is cooking, which will also help the sauce distribute evenly on to all the veggies.

Once the timer beeps, you’ll carefully transfer the stir fry veggies and sauce to a large bowl or serving dish. I put mine in a bowl and covered it up with a plate. It will continue to cook a little bit from it’s own heat while the rice cooks.

Cooking Rice In The Instant Pot

I usually make sticky rice in my Instant Pot when I’m serving a stir fry. To make sticky rice, I start with some short-grain white rice such as Calrose Botan rice, which you can usually find sold in nice 15 pound bags at WalMart.

After measuring out the dry rice, I rinsed it out in my Instant Pot two times, then added the right amount of water.

When making sticky rice in the Instant Pot, I use a 1:1 ratio of rice to water.

Then I put the lid on the pot, set the valve to sealing, and press Pressure Cook (or Manual) and set the timer to 12 minutes on High Pressure. You can also press the rice button, but I think it comes out a bit stickier if you manually tell it exactly how to cook.

Once the rice is finished, your dinner is ready!

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Vegan Stir Fry

This tangy sweet and sour stir fry is ready in about 45 minutes by using your Instant Pot to cook the vegetables and the rice back to back. This recipe is vegan and oil free!

Course Vegan Dinner Recipes

Cuisine American, Chinese

Keyword instant pot stir fry, vegan stir fry

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes

Additional Time 5 minutes

Total Time 45 minutes

Servings 6 servings

Calories 146kcal

Author Shannon Hakala

Ingredients

For The Stir Fry

• Vegan Meatless Chicken
• or Extra Firm Tofu, etc
• 1 onion
• 1 large carrot
• 1 head broccoli
• 1 bell pepper
• 1 cup chopped pineapple

For The Sweet & Sour Sauce

• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 cup pineapple juice
• 1 Tbsp soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp ginger powder
• 1 Tbsp cornstarch
• 1/4 cup water

Optional Stir Fry Toppings

• 1 Tbsp toasted sesame seeds optional
• 1/2 tsp dry chili flakes optional

For The Sticky White Rice

• 2 1/2 cups short grain white rice
• 2 1/2 cups water

Instructions

• Chop up the onion and bell pepper. Slice the carrot into matchsticks. Cut up the head of broccoli and slice the pineapple if needed.
• Add 1/4 cup water to the Instant Pot, add the onion, bell pepper and vegan chicken. Press the sauté button and set it to 5 minutes. Keep the lid closed but NOT SEALING while it sautés.
• Open the lid and pour in the sauce, broccoli, and carrots. Sauté for another 5 minutes (use the Instant Pot timer to time the 5 minutes) with the lid open, stirring the pot to make sure the sauce doesn't burn. It will boil and thicken.
• Use a potholder to transfer the veggies and sauce to a serving dish.
• Then measure dry rice into the pot, and wash the rice.
• Add water to the rice. Secure the lid and set the valve to sealing, and press "Rice" or "Manual." Set the time to 12 minutes on high pressure if using manual. Do a quick release when done.
• Serve with toasted sesame seeds and chili flakes, if desired.

Notes

I used a standard, US dry cup to measure the rice, not the rice cup that came with the Instant Pot.

Nutrition

Serving: 1g | Calories: 146kcal | Carbohydrates: 31g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 27mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 7g

Pin this vegan stir fry recipe to save it for later! Tried it out? Leave your comments or review to let me know your thoughts. I love to hear from you.

The post Vegan Stir Fry – Sweet & Sour Veggies With Sticky Rice In The Instant Pot appeared first on Instant Veg.

I don’t personally love sweet breakfasts, but I like to make them every now and then for my family on Sunday mornings.

Our go-to weekend breakfast treat is muffins — like these vegan lemon poppy seed muffins — but I thought I’d try something even more delicious this time.

Make way for some eggless, dairy-free french toast!

After as out a few different egg substitutes, we settled on the flax egg as the best-tasting vegan egg replacement in this recipe. I always have my family do some taste-testing for me because 9 times out of 10 they are pickier about taste than I am.

I do want to say, though, that other vegan egg replacements such as JUST egg and aquafaba also worked just as well in this recipe.

Using the flax egg, you also get the added benefit of fiber, which is kind of the perfect way to make this “sweet fix” a bit more healthy.

Making French Toast In The Instant Pot

Before I go any further, I want to mention that it’s important to make sure your Instant Pot lid, silicone seal, gasket etc are all freshly cleaned prior to making french toast.

I learned the hard way — I had made my vegan chili the same day, and the lid didn’t “look” dirty at all, but the oils naturally occurring in the spices used in the chili had made their way into my silicone seal.

Since french toast easily absorbs flavors and odors, what I ended up with was a french toast that had an undertone of chili spice. So wash your lid, folks!

The next thing you’ll need in this recipe is some kind of pan that you can place into the inner pot. I used a 7″ spring form pan, but you could also use a silicone one.

You’ll also need to whip out the little wire basket thing that came with your Instant Pot, to hold the pan on.

We’ll be creating a water bath to cook the french toast, so you’ll place the wire basket in first, pour in a cup of water, and then add in your french toast pan when you’re ready to cook.

How To Make The Flax Eggs

Making the flax eggs is really simple and only takes five minutes.

First take 5 tablespoons of water and put it in a small bowl or cup. Then add 2 tablespoons of ground flax, and stir until all the flax is moistened. This is enough to make 2 “eggs” worth, which is how much you need for this french toast recipe.

Let the flax meal and water rest for about five minutes, then check it. It should have become slightly thicker and almost gooey.

I recommend starting with warm water when making flax eggs, because I think it helps the flaxseed meal soften up a bit quicker.

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Vegan Instant Pot French Toast

I like to make this vegan french toast in the Instant Pot the night before and store it in the fridge overnight. In the morning, it can be eaten cold or heated up!

Course Vegan Breakfast Recipes

Cuisine American

Keyword instant pot french toast, vegan french toast

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 12 minutes

Additional Time 5 minutes

Total Time 27 minutes

Servings 6 servings

Calories 126kcal

Author Shannon Hakala

Ingredients

• 6-8 pieces of bread preferably artisan bread
• 2 “flax eggs” JUST egg or aquafaba is fine too
• 1 1/2 cups oat milk or almond milk
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/3 cup brown sugar

Instructions

• Grease a 7" springform pan with coconut oil. Insert the steam rack into the Instant Pot and add 1 cup water.
• Place bread cubes into the pan.
• In a small bowl, whisk together egg substitute, almond/oat milk, vanilla extract, cinnamon, cardamon, and brown sugar. Pour over the bread and press the bread down into the pan until it is all completely moistened.
• Lock the instant pot lid in place. Using the manual setting, set the instant pot on high pressure to cook for 12 minutes. Once finished cooking, let sit for 5 minutes before quick releasing the pressure valve. Carefully open the lid and remove the pan from the instant pot using the foil strips. Loosely cover and let cool for 10 minutes to let everything settle before serving.
• Top with powdered sugar or maple syrup if desired.

Nutrition

Serving: 1g | Calories: 126kcal | Carbohydrates: 23g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Cholesterol: 19mg | Sodium: 176mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 11g

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