Breakfast can be so hard with food allergies! But the instant pot and I are here to rescue you! You say you want a hot breakfast, one that is easy, one that welcomes fall flavors and one filled with protein? I GOT YOU. Plus, this Instant Pot Pumpkin Quinoa Porridge is free of: gluten, wheat, dairy, egg, soy, peanut & tree nuts. It’s vegan and top-8-free too! An allergy-friendly, hot breakfast for all! (PLUS, there’s a buckwheat variation, if you’re into that kind of thing.)
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Breakfast has often been our nemesis. Especially with my son in all day school now, I want him to have a filling breakfast. But, when you can’t do eggs, and you can’t do wheat (goodbye cereal!) and you can’t do milk or nuts–it really limits the whole classic breakfast options.
To make things extra hard (because we’re fancy like that) we can’t do oats either. Not because they might have gluten (as some avoid them for that reason) but because my son straight up has an anaphylaxic allergy to oatmeal.
He’s never had a bowl of oatmeal in his life. And, I have so many memories of my mom making me oatmeal as a hearty, filling breakfast on cold fall and winter mornings.
I love pumpkin pie spice, so when I kept seeing overnight oats in pumpkin spice flavors I was starting to feel a bit jealous. I wished my son could have a breakfast like that.
Then it hit me–I could simply use a different grain! For the first few times we used buckwheat (which, although has “wheat” in the name is actually 100% gluten-free). I liked it as it was more textured and felt a little more filling to me. However, buckwheat does have more of a taste to it, so my kids didn’t like it as much.
My kids LOVE quinoa, and it’s such a fast cooking, light flavored seed that it takes on any flavors. They’re used to this texture more and my baby seriously gobbled this up!
You’ll notice that the buckwheat and quinoa each need a little different amount of the wet ingredients, so be sure to read the notes section for the buckwheat variation if that’s the one you want to try!
And, I love having some crunch with my faux oatmeal, because it’s already such a soft texture that I really want that bite to it. Since we are nut-free, I used some unsalted, chopped pepitas (shelled pumpkin seeds) and that worked great! For extra flavor, you can also sprinkle additional cinnamon on top as well.
Eat it as is, or drizzle some safe milk in the bowl (like I love to!). Either way, I hope that this will be one allergy-friendly breakfast that you make all fall and winter long! (Especially because it takes only 11 minutes to cook, and you can make a double batch and just re-heat it throughout the week.)
And, if you have leftover quinoa you need to use up, you can check out: Quinoa Salad Recipes by fellow blogger Fool Proof Living.
Instant Pot Pumpkin Quinoa Porridge
Breakfast can be so hard with food allergies! But me, and the instant pot are here to rescue you! You say you want a hot breakfast, one that is easy, one that welcomes fall flavors and one filled with protein? I GOT YOU. Plus, this Instant Pot Pumpkin Quinoa Porridge is free of: gluten, wheat, dairy, egg, soy, peanut & tree nuts. It's vegan and top-8-free too! An allergy-friendly, hot breakfast for all! (PLUS, there's a buckwheat variation, if you're into that kind of thing.)
Ingredients
- 1 cup uncooked quinoa
- ½ cup pureed pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
- 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
- ¼ tsp salt
- ⅓ cup brown sugar
- ¾ cup water
- ¾ cup full fat coconut milk (found in a can, in the Asian section)
- 1 Tbsp vanilla
- Chopped pepitas and additional sprinkles of cinnamon, for garnish (optional)
Instructions
Place the quinoa, pumpkin puree, spice, salt, sugar, water and coconut milk in the instant pot. Stir.
Close the lid. Set the pressure to "high". Move the valve to "sealing".
Hit "manual" and then use the plus and minus buttons until you reach 1 minute.
Once the timer has rung, allow the instant pot to sit (also known as naturally release pressure) for ten minutes. Once this is done, the timer will show "L:10".
Move the valve to "venting" to release any leftover pressure. Open the lid and stir to combine everything.
Serve warm, with additional drizzles of safe milk (I just use the leftovers from the can of coconut milk, or rice milk from the fridge.) Top with chopped pepitas and additional sprinkles of cinnamon for garnish, if desired.
Notes
For the Buckwheat version:
Use 1 cup buckwheat groats instead of quinoa
Use 1 cup of water instead of 3/4 cup
Use the entire can of full fat coconut milk (13.6 fluid oz)
Cook on high pressure for 10 minutes. Then, allow it to sit (also called "naturally release") for 10 minutes. Open, stir, and serve with any drizzles of safe milk on top, pepitas and additional sprinkles of cinnamon, if desired.
Adapted from: Damn Delicious, Pressure Cooker & Meaningful Eats
DON’T FORGET TO PIN IT, SO YOU DON’T LOSE IT. BE SURE TO ALSO CHECK OUT MY OTHER ALLERGY-FRIENDLY PINTEREST BOARDS.
Looking for other allergy-friendly breakfast ideas? Try these:
Gluten-free Vegan Cinnamon Applesauce Muffins (Top-8-free)
Gluten-free Vegan Blender Buckwheat SunButter Waffles (Top 8 Free)
Egg-free Dairy-free Frittata (Top 8 Free!)
Vegan Banana French Toast (Top 8 Free!)
Hi! I’m Megan, a mom to four kids, two with multiple food allergies & one with EOE. I’m a published cookbook author that constantly tweaks recipes to make them allergy friendly–it’s an addiction. I share every recipe & tip with the hope that they help you as you manage your food allergies & dietary restrictions. You can still be awesome, even with food allergies!
Related Recipes:
Healthier Gluten-free Vegan Double Chocolate Muffins (Top 8 free, too!)
Gluten & Dairy Free Patriotic Toast
Gluten Free Vegan Pasta: Creamy Lemon Basil & Avocado
Spiced Pumpkin Muffins with Cinnamon Glaze (Gluten, dairy, egg, soy, peanut & tree nut free; top-8-free; vegan)
Maple Cookies with Maple Glaze (Gluten free & Vegan Options!)
Gluten Free Vegan Orange Rolls (made with a mix!)
Heidi
I can’t do sugars, but I can do stevia and maple syrup. Do you know if it is possible to substitute these instead of brown sugar, and how much maple syrup would I use?
Megan Lavin
Hi Heidi. I’m not well versed in how to alter/substitute for sugars. I really can’t say, as I’ve never done it. I would think this would be a simple enough recipe to swap out, but hopefully some guide online can point you in a better directions than my guessing. Best of luck!
Jennifer
Do you have directions for this in a slow cooker? And thank you so much for all these recipes. My son has MULTIPLE food allergies and looks like we’re heading towards an EoE diagnosis. You have been super helpful with helping us have more alternatives. ❤️
Megan Lavin
Hi Jennifer. Good luck with figuring out if there’s EOE involved as well. I have never made it in anything but the instant pot, but I would assume the slow cooker could work too.
Michele
I’m so glad I found your site! I am vegan, with tree nut allergy, allergies to chia, flax and hemp, wheat intolerance and I avoid refined sugars. So I eat pretty healthy but I like to have a treat once in a while. I made the applesauce muffins last week and they were a huge hit! So now I’m here for recipes to use up ripe bananas when I stumble across this. Looks DELICIOUS! I have a kabocha squash i will sub for traditional pumpkin. Thank you thank you for understanding and catering to food allergies!
Megan Lavin
So happy to have you here, Michele. 🙂
Christine
I think I love you!! All jokes aside, thank you for what you do here. I am egg intolerant (it causes a digestive response) and I avoid gluten because it causes nose itching and sinus congestion. This has made breakfast a meal I hate because there isn’t much traditional breakfast I can eat. While I can eat oatmeal, it gets boring having the same thing every day. I google instant pot pumpkin quinoa and found your site! Just made this and it’s so delicious! I cut the sugar back a little and topped with nuts and I’m happy! Going to have to try more of your breakfast recipes because I miss enjoying a good hot breakfast. Excited to try the egg free frittatas and muffins! I’ll definitely repeat this porridge and might even try it with apple sauce 🙂 thanks again!!
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Well thank you so much Christine! Breakfast is DEFINITELY hard when you can’t do eggs and gluten. It’s been a meal we’ve struggled with as well, which is why I was determined to come up with a few to help others who might be in the same boat. Be sure to check out my egg-free french toast: https://allergyawesomeness.com/vegan-banana-french-toast-gluten-dairy-egg-soy-peanut-top-8-free/ & gingerbread waffles (two family favs): https://allergyawesomeness.com/vegan-banana-french-toast-gluten-dairy-egg-soy-peanut-top-8-free/ So glad to have you here 🙂