Instant Pot Creamy Turkey Spinach Penne–saucy penne pasta with ground turkey, tomatoes, green chiles, cumin, cream cheese and spinach. A perfect family friendly weeknight meal. Make it fast in your electric pressure cooker.
Instant Pot Creamy Turkey Spinach Penne
I got the idea for this recipe by watching this video on Instagram. The video shows the recipe being made on the stove top. I knew that the recipe would be a perfect candidate for the Instant Pot. I was right. I love the way that pasta turns out in the Instant Pot.
The flavors from this pasta are so good! My whole family loved this pasta and we had some leftovers for lunch the next day too. I used penne rigate pasta but you could also use rigatoni pasta or orecchiette pasta. I used ground turkey but you could also use lean ground beef or ground chicken.
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What Pressure Cooker Did You Use?
To make Instant Pot Creamy Turkey Spinach Penne I used my 6 quart Instant Pot Duo 60 7 in 1*. I love this Instant Pot because it has the yogurt making function which I use almost weekly. It has two pressure settings (high and low), and there are also little slots in the handles so that you can rest the lid there instead of putting it down on your counter-top.
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Instant Pot Creamy Turkey Spinach Penne
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 4 minutes
- Total Time: 19 minutes
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
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Pin RecipeDescription
Saucy penne pasta with ground turkey, tomatoes, green chiles, cumin, cream cheese and spinach. Make it fast in the electric pressure cooker.
Ingredients
For the turkey:
- 2 tsp olive oil
- 1 pound ground turkey
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp oregano
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
For the penne:
- 10 ounces uncooked penne rigate
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 1 (10 oz) can diced tomatoes with green chiles (rotel)
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp pepper
- 2 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp chili powder
For after it has pressure cooked
- 4 ounces cream cheese (half a brick)
- 4 cups spinach (2 big handfuls)
- 1 cup grated monterey jack cheese
Instructions
- Brown the turkey. Turn your Instant Pot to the saute setting. When it says HOT on the display add the olive oil into the pot. Swirl the oil around. Add in the ground turkey and break it up with a wooden spoon. Add in the onion. Stir. Add in the salt, garlic powder, cumin, oregano and pepper. Brown the meat for about 5 minutes. There will be extra liquid that cooks off of it and that is okay. We will use it to help cook the pasta.
- Pressure cook. Pour in the penne pasta, broth, tomatoes, salt, pepper, cumin and chili powder. Don’t stir. Cover the pot and secure the lid. Make sure valve is set to sealing. Set the manual/pressure cook button to 4 minutes. Once the time is up perform a quick release by moving the valve to venting. Remove the lid.
- Finish the dish. Turn the Instant Pot to the saute setting and stir in the cream cheese, spinach and cheese. Stir until the cream cheese is melted and fully incorporated. Turn off the saute setting. Scoop the pasta onto serving dishes and enjoy.
Notes
I used my 6 quart Instant Pot Duo 60 7 in 1*.
You can also make this with lean ground beef or chicken.
Feel free to use whatever pasta you like best. To figure out how long to cook your particular pasta in the instant pot check the back of the pasta box. Divide the number of stove top cooking minutes in 2 and then subtract one minute. For example if the pasta says to cook for 10 minutes you’d divide 10 by 2, which is 5, and then subtract 1, which is 4 minutes in the instant pot.
To make gluten free: Double check your broth to be sure it does not contain gluten. Substitute noodles for GF noodles and decrease cook time by 1 minute.
Recipe inspired by Foodie Crush
- Category: Ground Turkey
- Method: Instant Pot
- Cuisine: Mexican
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/6 of recipe
- Calories: 441
- Sugar: 5 g
- Sodium: 1303 mg
- Fat: 21 g
- Carbohydrates: 36 g
- Protein: 24 g
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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.
Jeannette says
May 13, 2019 at 7:06 pmThis was a huuuge hit in my house. And so easy to make. It’s a great rainy day, weeknight meal. I doubled the recipe in my 8qt. But used the same amount of cream cheese and extra pepper jack/Monterey. Also added sautéed mushrooms (because we put mushrooms in just about everything.) This will be happening again!
★★★★★
Karen says
May 14, 2019 at 10:37 amOh I love the idea of adding mushrooms!
Kristin says
May 11, 2019 at 11:21 pmI’ve made this a handful of times, but not recently – do you think I could double this in a 6qt? I just can’t remember if there’d be enough room! Thanks!
Karen says
May 13, 2019 at 2:01 pmYes you could, I believe. the one thing I would be worried about is it foaming a bit. I would cut the pressure cook time down to 2 minutes and then use a 10 minute npr.
Maria says
May 9, 2019 at 6:42 pmI made this for dinner with out the spicy and still was delicious, definitely a keeper
★★★★★
Karen says
May 10, 2019 at 4:44 pmGlad you liked it!
Angie says
February 2, 2019 at 8:19 pmThis was my first instant pot meal and it was a total hit! I followed the recipe as is and it all worked out great. Will definitely be putting this into our meal rotation. So good!
★★★★★
Karen says
February 4, 2019 at 4:12 pmHooray! I’m sure you’ll love your Instant Pot!
Amy says
January 16, 2019 at 5:38 pmWe loved this recipe! I used a whole 14 oz box of Barilla protein pasta, so I added an extra 1/2 cup water. I also cooked it for 5 minutes because I know that works for that kind of pasta. I used 1/2 of an 8 oz tub of spreadable cream cheese. And I used pepper jack cheese because we like things spicy. It still wasn’t particularly spicy, but it was great!
★★★★★
Karen says
January 17, 2019 at 11:28 amWow that sounds great! I haven’t tried the protein pasta yet. I will give it a shot 🙂
Robin says
January 6, 2019 at 7:27 pmMy family loved it!
★★★★★
Bruce says
January 6, 2019 at 4:15 pmThis recipe is wonderful. I only had 1/2 C of jack so I added 4 oz. more cream cheese in hopes it would work out. My turkey was dark meat chunks from a leftover roast. Otherwise I followed the recipe as listed. I found I had to pressure cook a bit longer to get the pasta tender, but the end result was delicious
Patricia says
December 31, 2018 at 2:22 pmAny suggestions on how to cook this recipe using chicken breasts instead of turkey?
Karen says
January 3, 2019 at 10:25 pmYou can cut the chicken breasts into bite size pieces. No need to saute them before hand. They will cook at the same rate as the pasta since they are small pieces.
LaSara says
December 30, 2018 at 4:35 pmI made this with gluten free noodles. And it turned out perfect still! Not too spicy and I can’t take much spice at all!
★★★★★
Karen says
December 30, 2018 at 6:28 pmGood to hear it works with gluten free!
ken says
November 13, 2018 at 6:30 pmI tried this dish again. This time dumped the whole box of pasta 16 oz, the whole brick of creme cheese, the entire bunch of spinach ( didn’t want a bunch of small portions laying around), then added a little more broth and only used 1/2 tsp of powder. It was delicious again. For me just the right amount of spice. Four bites per drink of water.
this is a winner
Karen says
November 13, 2018 at 8:34 pmGood! Thanks for sharing. I love the 4 bites per drink of water!
Courtney says
October 1, 2018 at 6:16 amWould the recipe need to be altered at all if making in a duo-8 quart rather than the 6 quart?
Karen says
October 1, 2018 at 2:42 pmI’m pretty sure you can keep it exactly the same.
Michelle says
September 25, 2018 at 4:14 pmMy only suggestion: omit the second teaspoon of salt in the pasta part. Maybe contemplate using low sodium broth. I LOVE salt and even I find it a little too much. Otherwise this is GREAT!!!! Next time I’ll reduce the sauce and then add the entire 10 ounce bag of raw spinach instead of the couple handfuls. You CANNOT TASTE THE SPINACH WHICH IS SNEAKY HEALTHY WITCHCRAFT!!!!! Haha but seriously this was so good I can’t wait to eat the leftovers tomorrow! <3
★★★★★
Karen says
September 26, 2018 at 1:58 pmGood ideas! Thanks Michelle 🙂
Missy says
September 1, 2018 at 4:44 pmI gave 4 stars bc I didnt realize that his was a pressure cooker recipe only. Could it be made stove top?
★★★★
Karen says
September 3, 2018 at 6:47 pmYes, it would be easy to make it on the stove top. Brown the turkey with onions and seasonings on the stove. In a separate pot make the pasta according to package directions. Drain the pasta and stir it in with the turkey. Add in the cream cheese and spinach. Stir until creamy.
Holly Swinea says
April 7, 2019 at 2:04 pmThanks! I don’t have an instant pot so I was going to “wing it”. This really helps
Janelle says
August 27, 2018 at 7:20 pmHi, I was hoping to try this recipe out but had one question- my family is not crazy about spicy meals, do you think if I skipped the cumin and chili pepper all together it would eliminate the kick to this dish’? Thanks in advance!!
Karen says
August 29, 2018 at 12:22 pmMaybe you could just cut the spices in half? I’d hate to eliminate all the flavor!
Kristen says
February 10, 2019 at 3:09 pmI used a little smoked paprika instead of chili powder and it was so good!!!!
Karen says
February 11, 2019 at 12:22 pmYum! I love smoked paprika.
JoFi says
August 1, 2018 at 7:38 pmThis was easy and quite good! One of the meals where my husband ate it all, then asked, “What was that?” In my household, that is ALWAYS a sign of a winner. I accidentally dumped in the whole box of penne. Upped the broth by a little bit, but left everything else about the same. Still worked.
★★★★★
Karen says
August 2, 2018 at 7:44 pmNice!!! Love the approval of the family members. It always makes me so happy
Amy says
July 25, 2018 at 6:35 pmThis was so good and easy!! It was a little spicy, but you can always lessen the cumin and chili pepper.
★★★★★
Karen says
July 26, 2018 at 1:59 pmI’m glad you liked it and yes a tad spicy but that’s why I like it 🙂
Kenneth Sharp says
July 25, 2018 at 4:35 pmThanks for the reply. Just realized I used the Mexican Style Ro-tel with lime and cilantro which probably has a bit more kick than the mild.
ken
Karen says
July 26, 2018 at 1:59 pmOh well that sounds good!
Kenneth Sharp says
July 25, 2018 at 11:55 amMade this last night. Loved it. Had some spice to it which may bother some people. It registered for me one sip of water per 5 bites.
As a rookie, have a question. In step two after adding the ingredients you say not to stir. Curious as to why?
Ken
Karen says
July 25, 2018 at 2:21 pmSometimes when tomato products are on the bottom of the pot they cause the burn notice to come up. Glad you liked it! I like how you said it was 1 sip of water per 5 bites 🙂