An easy American goulash recipe with ground beef, pasta, green beans and bell peppers. It takes only a few minutes to make with your Instant Pot. Eat immediately or use as a freezer meal.
Happy Independence Day! The 4th of July is hands down one of the top 3 holidays. It’s always a fun time to gather, eat good food and enjoy parades and fireworks. I hope you have a safe and fun fourth of July!
Today’s recipe is an American goulash type of casserole recipe that can be made with easy ingredients you might already have at your house. It tastes super yummy and I will definitely be making this again soon. It’s simple and delicious!
The cool thing about this recipe is that it makes a really good freezer meal. We are staying at our cabin (yes! more on this later) and I made it ahead of time and put it in a foil pan, wrapped it tightly in foil and froze it. Then the day before I wanted to serve it for dinner I put it in the refrigerator. I cooked it at 350 for about an hour or so and served it. It was so easy to cook ahead of time and then have an easy dinner for a day I didn’t feel like cooking.
Ingredients/Substitution Ideas
- Ground turkey–or ground beef
- Diced onion–or 1 Tbsp of dried minced onion
- Kosher salt
- Pepper
- Chicken broth–or beef broth or you can use water and Better than Bouillon (1 teaspoon per 1 cup of water)
- Fusilli pasta–or another type of pasta like rotini, egg noodles, penne, cavatappi, elbow macaroni
- Canned green beans–or fresh green beans that have been washed and trimmed
- Pasta sauce–I used a Ragu sauce, but use whatever you like best
- Green bell pepper–or another color of bell pepper
- Italian seasoning–or make your own
- Mozzarella cheese–cheese is optional but tasty. You can also use shredded cheddar or another type of cheese you like.
- Parmesan cheese–cheese is optional but tasty. I let everyone put the amount of parmesan that they wanted on each of their portions.
Steps
- Brown the meat: Turn Instant Pot to sauté setting. When display says HOT add in the turkey and break it up. Add in the onions. Brown for about 5 minutes. Drain of excess grease. Stir in the salt and pepper.
- Deglaze the pot: Pour in the broth and scrape bottom of pot so that nothing is sticking.
- Layer in the ingredients: Sprinkle in the pasta, green beans, pasta sauce, bell pepper and Italian seasoning. Don’t stir.
- Pressure cook: Cover Instant Pot and secure the lid. Make sure valve is set to sealing. Set the manual/pressure cook button to 2 minutes (for the skinny fusilli pasta like I had) or if you have a different type of pasta then it might need longer, like 4 minutes (see note). When time is up let the pot sit for 5 minutes and then move valve to venting.
- Serve: Remove the lid, stir in the cheeses and serve.
Notes/Tips
- Serve with a side of garlic bread and a fruit salad.
- I used my 6 quart Instant Pot*. You can also make this in a 3 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.
- If you’d like to make and freeze for later: scrape the cooked pasta into a 9×13 dish and sprinkle the cheeses on top. Cover tightly with a couple layers of foil. Freeze until you’re ready to eat. If you thaw the casserole bake at 350 for an hour, remove the foil and bake for another 10 minutes. If you are cooking from frozen then bake at 350 for 90-120 minutes, remove the foil and bake for another 10 minutes.
- If you have extra fusilli pasta try making Cheater Lasagna.
More 4th of July Recipes…
Did you know you can filter the recipes on my website to search by meat type, IP or Crockpot, low carb, gluten free, etc.? Use the filter to find exactly what you are looking for.
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Merica Casserole (Instant Pot Recipe)
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 2 minutes (plus 5 minute NPR)
- Total Time: 22 minutes
- Yield: 4–6 servings 1x
Description
An easy American goulash recipe with ground beef, pasta, green beans and bell peppers. It takes only a few minutes to make with your Instant Pot. Eat immediately or use as a freezer meal.
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground turkey or ground beef
- 1/2 cup diced onion
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 2 cups chicken or beef broth
- 8 ounces fusilli pasta
- 1 (14.5 oz) can green beans, drained
- 1 (24 oz) jar pasta sauce
- 1 green bell pepper, diced
- 1 tsp Italian seasoning
- 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
- 1/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Turn Instant Pot to saute setting. When display says HOT add in the turkey and break it up. Add in the onions. Brown for about 5 minutes. Drain of excess grease. Stir in the salt and pepper.
- Pour in the broth and scrape bottom of pot so that nothing is sticking.
- Sprinkle in the pasta, green beans, pasta sauce, bell pepper and Italian seasoning. Don’t stir.
- Cover Instant Pot and secure the lid. Make sure valve is set to sealing. Set the manual/pressure cook button to 2 minutes (for the skinny fusilli pasta like I had) or if you have a different type of pasta then it might need longer, like 4 minutes (see note). When time is up let the pot sit for 5 minutes and then move valve to venting.
- Remove the lid, stir in the cheeses and serve.
Notes
A good way to determine how long to cook different types of pasta is to take the amount of minutes the package says to boil the noodles for and divide by 2 and then subtract 1. So if the pasta package says to boil for 10 minutes you would divide that by 2 (= 5 minutes) and then subtract 1 (= 4 minutes of pressure cooking time).
If you’d like to make and freeze for later: scrape the cooked pasta into a 9×13 dish and sprinkle the cheeses on top. Cover tightly with a couple layers of foil. Freeze until you’re ready to eat. If you thaw the casserole bake at 350 for an hour, remove the foil and bake for another 10 minutes. If you are cooking from frozen then bake at 350 for 90-120 minutes, remove the foil and bake for another 10 minutes.
- Category: Turkey
- Method: Instant Pot
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