Instant Pot Hamburger Helper (30 Minutes, Dairy-Free, Gluten-Free Option)

This easy instant pot hamburger helper recipe gets dinner on the table in 30 minutes! It’s perfect for a busy weeknight, uses minimal ingredients and is a healthier option for a much loved family favorite! With an option to make this gluten-free and dairy-free, you can feel good about serving this instant pot ground beef recipe as a go-to staple made with real ingredients.

Instant Pot Hamburger Helper Ingredients

What’s so great about this recipe is that it’s got really minimal ingredients and minimal prep work! For fresh ingredients, you’ll just need a pound of ground beef, a yellow onion, and shredded cheddar cheese.

The rest of the ingredients are common pantry type ingredients. These include canned diced tomatoes, beef broth, milk (or almond milk), tomato paste, macaroni noodles and spices. There are no fancy or specialty ingredients needed to make this family favorite!

How to Cook Hamburger Helper in the Instant Pot

There are only a few easy steps to follow to make hamburger helper in the instant pot. The instant pot is an awesome cooking method for this recipe because it’s all done in one pot, and you don’t need to stand over it like when it’s on the stovetop.

To start, you’ll add the onion and ground beef to the instant pot on sauté mode and brown the beef until it’s no longer pink. Then you’ll mix in the tomato paste, diced tomatoes and all of the spices into the crumbled beef.

Once the spices are mixed in, simply pour in the broth, milk and dry noodles. You’ll want to stir it around so the pasta is mixed in and covered with the liquid. Then place the lid on, set it to sealing, and cook on manual high pressure for 4 minutes.

That’s right! Only 4 minutes. The instant pot will take about 10 minutes to come to pressure, which is time that the noodles are cooking, too. Then you’ll do a quick release, remove the lid, and stir in your cheese until it’s melted into the sauce.

Give it a taste and add any additional salt and pepper as desired. Garnish with some chopped parsley or more shredded cheese and that’s it!

Making Hamburger Helper Gluten Free

This is a very easy recipe to make gluten free because you only have to choose a pasta that is made without gluten! There are many popular brands now that offer their noodles in gluten-free varieties. You can also use a brown rice pasta, but I would avoid using chickpea pasta.

Chickpea pasta does not work well when it’s not boiled and cooked on it’s own. It gets too foamy and doesn’t give you the end result for the noodles or hamburger helper sauce we want. For gluten-free hamburger helper, use any type of gluten-free noodle except those made from chickpeas.

Making Hamburger Helper Dairy-Free

If you want to keep this instant pot hamburger helper totally dairy-free, there’s only a few simple changes to make. First, you can use almond milk in place of dairy milk, which is the way our family always makes it. Or you can just replace the milk option completely by swapping it with additional broth. It just won’t look as “creamy” as it would with dairy-free milk.

The only other substitution you need to make for making this dairy-free is to use a nondairy shredded cheese. There are quite a few options for vegan cheese out there that are quite good and melt well. Or simply omit altogether.

How to Serve and Store

This recipe is great served all on it’s own, but if you’d like to pair it with a vegetable, roasted or steamed green beans are our favorite. You can also serve with roasted broccoli, or a simple side salad.

Instant pot hamburger helper can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. The noodles will absorb some of the sauce, so if you want to thin out the sauce a bit, add a splash of milk (or almond milk) to the container prior to reheating.

Other Instant Pot Recipes You’ll Love:

• Instant Pot Ground Turkey Sloppy Joes
• Instant Pot White Chicken Chili
• Instant Pot Chicken Lo Mein
• Instant Pot 5 Minute Chicken Meatballs
• Instant Pot Broccoli Cheese Soup
• Instant Pot Pot Roast and Vegetables

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