Easiest Casserole Ever

Easiest Casserole Ever–an easy and delicious Instant Pot one pot dinner with pasta, ground beef, tomato sauce, veggies and cheddar.

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Easiest Casserole Ever

This is an easy one-pot-dinner that you can make fast in your Instant Pot. You’ll get your protein, carbs, and vegetables all in one dish. I love the pop of color from the vegetables and I love that it freezes well if you want to save half for an upcoming meal. Enjoy!

This recipe is adapted Dylan Dreyer’s Easiest Casserole Ever on Today.com. The author, Dylan, states, “‘Casserole’ can mean all sorts of things, as I now know, but growing up, ‘casserole’ meant one thing: this recipe. It’s my mom’s casserole recipe for a super quick weeknight dinner. I’ve snuck in a few veggies, but it’s just as easy, and my kids will literally eat bowls of it. Brian and I do, too, so I’m going to have to start making a double batch!”

Ingredients/Substitution Ideas

• Olive oil–or canola, vegetable
• Zucchini–or summer squash
• Lean ground beef–or ground turkey
• Onion–white, yellow
• Kosher salt
• Black pepper
• Beef broth–or chicken broth, vegetable broth, bouillon and water
• Cavatappi–or macaroni, another short cut pasta
• Carrot
• Crushed tomatoes–or tomato sauce
• Sharp cheddar cheese–or colby, mozzarella

Steps

Turn Instant Pot to saute setting. When display says HOT add in the oil and zucchini and saute for 4-5 minutes. Move the zucchini out of the pot and set aside for later. Add in the beef and break it up. Add in the onion. Brown the beef for about 5 minutes. Drain off excess grease. Stir in the salt and pepper.

Pour in the broth and scrape bottom of pot so that nothing is sticking. Turn off Instant Pot. 

Sprinkle in the pasta evenly.

Add the carrots and crushed tomatoes over the top.

Cover Instant Pot and secure the lid. Make sure valve is set to sealing. Set the manual/pressure cook button to 4 minutes. When time is up let pot sit for 5-10 minutes and then move valve to venting. Remove the lid.

Stir in the zucchini and the cheese.

Serve and enjoy!

Notes/Tips

• Serve with a green salad and a side of garlic toast.
• Feel free to switch up the vegetables to whatever you have on hand. Try cauliflower, broccoli, peas, green beans, etc.
• I used my 3 quart Instant Pot*. You can also make this in a 6 or 8 quart pot.
• Store leftovers in an airtight container* in the refrigerator for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
• Other recipes you can make with cavatappi pasta are spinach artichoke mac and broccoli chicken mac.
• If you use another type of pasta you may need to adjust the cooking time. Here is the formula: look at the back of the box of pasta and see how many minutes it says to boil the pasta. If it’s 10 minutes you divide that number by 2 (=5) and then subtract 2 minutes. So you would pressure cook for 3 minutes. I usually use a 5-10 minute natural pressure release for pasta.

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*Karen Petersen is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.