Slow Cooker Sausage Pasta Stew: Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free

This slow cooker sausage pasta stew is the perfect weeknight meal or meal prep recipe. It only takes a few minute of prep work, has minimal ingredients, and then the crock pot does the rest! It’s also gluten-free, dairy-free and full of vegetables like onions, zucchini, carrots, peas and mushrooms. This hearty recipe is sure to be a family friendly meal you’ll have on repeat!

Slow Cooker Sausage Pasta Stew Ingredients

For this slow cooker sausage pasta stew you will need two categories of ingredients: pantry or dry goods and fresh. For the dry goods, you will need to have a 24 ounce jar of pasta (spaghetti) sauce, 1 can of cannellini beans, 1.5 cups of pasta noodles, and salt, pepper and garlic powder.

For the fresh ingredients you will need a pound of ground sausage. The sausage can either be mild or spicy, but I do prefer the spicy option for this soup. The spices season the soup really well so that the soup itself isn’t overly spicy. If you use a mild sausage, you may want to add additional spices to give the soup more flavor.

Looking for ground sausage that’s sugar-free? Check out this list of sugar-free brands!

You’ll also need 2 sliced carrots, a diced green pepper, white mushrooms, a white onion, and a zucchini. All will need to be diced or chopped and then they’ll be dumped them into the slow cooker. The final thing this sausage pasta stew calls for are frozen peas.

Slow Cooker Cooking Instructions

The first step to preparing your slow cooker sausage pasta stew is to brown your sausage until it’s cooked through and crumbled. You’ll then drain the grease from the meat. While the sausage is browning, you can use that time to add the vegetables to the slow cooker.

All of the ingredients will get added into the slow cooker except for the pasta and the frozen peas. When the sausage is done cooking and drained, add it into the slow cooker as well. Give it a big stir or two until the ingredients are incorporated with the pasta sauce and water.

Then the lid will get placed on the slow cooker and you’ll set it on high to cook for 3 to 4 hours, or on low to cook for 6 to 8 hours. 20 minutes prior to when you’re ready to serve you’ll need to remove the lid and add the frozen peas and uncooked pasta noodles to the stew. Stir it once more to immerse the noodles and peas with the stew and then cover and let it cook for the remaining 20 minutes.

At the end of the cook time, you may want to add more water or broth to the slow cooker if you want a thinner stew. The pasta will soak up some of the liquid and how much will depend on the brand of pasta used. It’s totally fine to thin it out though so it’s to your preference.

Serving and Storing

This stew is a whole meal all on it’s own, so it doesn’t need to be served with any kind of sides. It’s great topped with parmesan cheese, and red pepper chili flakes if you want a bit more kick. You can also add oyster crackers, saltines, or your favorite cracker option if you’d like.

To store your sausage pasta stew, you will first want to let it cool completely. Then you can either store in one large airtight container, or portion it out into individual containers for easier meal prep or reheating leftovers. This stew is good in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.

Substitutions and Additions

This stew is really flexible and works well with many different types of vegetables. If you have something you prefer more, or odds and ends of vegetables you need to use up, this recipe is perfect for swapping in and out different veggies. You could use potatoes instead of beans, or add vegetables such as celery, diced tomatoes, red peppers, or chopped cauliflower florets. Or, stir in kale or spinach at the end of the cook time.

How to Make This Gluten Free

You can use any type of pasta noodle of your choosing. Most all gluten-free pastas will work great here instead of regular noodles. The only exception is when it comes to gluten-free chickpea noodles. That type of noodle needs to be cooked on it’s own and doesn’t turn out well when cooked in a slow cooker recipe like this. If you want to use chickpea noodles, be sure to follow the cooking instructions on the package and then add the cooked noodles into the slow cooker at the very end.

How to Make This Dairy-Free

This slow cooker sausage pasta soup recipe only calls for parmesan cheese for serving, so it is completely dairy-free as is if you do not top it with cheese. There are many great brands of dairy-free parmesan cheese in many stores now, so if you want to pick up a vegan cheese to serve with this soup that would be a great dairy-free alternative!

Other Slow Cooker Recipes You’ll Love:

Slow Cooker Hamburger & Vegetable Soup

Slow Cooker Chicken & Chickpea Tikka Masala

Slow Cooker Beef Ragu

Slow Cooker Vegetarian Minestrone

Slow Cooker Pineapple Pork

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