Healthy Hamburger Helper
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Ditch the box and make our healthy Hamburger Helper recipe for dinner instead! It’s a one-pot lean ground beef pasta dinner that’s a family favorite comfort food!
If you love easy one pan dinner recipes and crave the comfort foods you grew up with, this healthy Hamburger Helper is for you!
Many of us grew up eating the delicious cheesy pasta dish, but I’m here to tell you it’s so much better when you make it from scratch!
Ready to eat in less than 30 minutes, this cheesy hamburger helper is the perfect quick dinner that everyone will love!
One pan, 30 minutes, simple ingredients.. there’s a lot to love about this easy hamburger helper recipe. But maybe you’re wondering, what’s the difference between store bought and this homemade hamburger helper recipe?
What Makes This a Healthy Hamburger Helper?
- A lot less sodium. When you make it from a boxed mix, 1 cup of cooked hamburger helper has over 1200 mg of sodium! Our healthy hamburger helper recipe has less than 400 mg of sodium for a 1.5 cup serving.
- No preservatives. The store-bought version is loaded with preservatives, added colors, and anti-caking agents. While these aren’t bad in small quantities, they’re totally unnecessary.
- Better for you – Our recipe calls for lean ground beef, pasta, some spices and real cheese, unlike the packaged mix that includes powdered cheese and preservatives.
Ingredients
Substitutions
Pasta: For pasta you can use rotini, penne or medium shells (cook time is all similar). We don’t recommend gluten free pasta for this recipe.
Ground Beef: To ensure that this recipe is truly a healthy hamburger helper, we recommend using 85% lean ground beef or ground turkey.
Worcestershire sauce: To substitute 1 tablespoon of Worcestershire, use 1/2 tablespoon of soy sauce or ketchup, and 1/2 tablespoon apple cider vinegar.
Salt: You can cut the amount of salt in half if you’d like, then add more to taste.
Beef Broth: We recommend using homemade bone broth in this recipe but any broth will work. Chicken or vegetable broth/stock can be used interchangeably. We recommend using a low or no salt broth.
Cheddar Cheese: You can omit the cheese from this recipe to make it dairy free if you’d like. We haven’t tried this recipe with other types of cheeses. We recommend using a block of cheddar cheese and grating it yourself as pre-shredded cheeses don’t melt as well.
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How to Make Homemade Hamburger Helper
- Heat skillet over medium-high heat. Spray the pan with cooking spray. Brown ground beef and onion in the pan until cooked through-about 10 minutes.
- Add in the seasonings, pasta, broth and water. Stir and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce to a simmer, stirring occasionally for 12-14 minutes.
- Move the pan off the heat and stir in the shredded cheese.
- Once combined, serve and enjoy!
What to add to Hamburger Helper
This healthy hamburger helper is delicious on its own, but you can add other things the ground beef pasta to make it taste even better. Here are some suggestions:
- Pickles: Similar to adding pickles to a burger, they are delicious in this dinner, too!
- Veggies: You can add sautéed veggies to this recipe. Zucchini, mushrooms, onions, and bell peppers are all great additions to this recipe
- Cheese: You can never go wrong with extra shredded cheese!
- Hot Sauce or Red Pepper Flakes: If you like spicy pasta, stir in a splash of hot sauce, or add a pinch of crushed red pepper flakes.
Hamburger Helper Recipe FAQs
We don’t recommend using gluten free pasta for this recipe. With one pot ground beef pasta dishes like this, gluten free noodles tend to become very mushy. Use at your own risk!
Serving Suggestions
This healthy hamburger helper is a great meal on its own, but we like to serve it with bread on the side and freshly shredded parmesan cheese on top!
If you’re looking for some veggies to serve with it, here are a few healthy options:
Storage and Reheating
Keep any leftovers in a covered container in your fridge, and use them up within 3 days.
Freezing: We haven’t tried freezing this meal, and we don’t recommend it. When you freeze and thaw cooked pasta, it often ends up in a mushy mess!
Reheating: You can reheat hamburger helper at 80% power in the microwave for a couple of minutes, or in a sauce pan over medium heat on the stove top. We recommend adding a couple of tablespoons of broth or water to prevent the ground beef and pasta from drying out.
Other healthy one-pan recipes
Here are some of our other favorite dinner recipes that only require one pan. Click here to grab our free healthy 30 minute dinners cookbook.
Healthy Hamburger Helper
Ingredients
- 1 pound lean ground beef
- ½ cup finely chopped onion
- 3 cups dry rotini pasta sub penne or medium shells (10 oz)
- 2 cups beef broth
- 2 cups water
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- ½ tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 ½ teaspoons garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
Instructions
- Heat a large saucepan or pot over medium-high heat. Spray the pan with olive oil cooking spray.
- Brown the ground beef and onion in the pan for about 10 minutes, until the beef is completely cooked and onions are translucent.
- Add in the pasta, beef broth, water, Worcestershire sauce, tomato paste, garlic powder, chili powder, onion powder, paprika, black pepper and salt. Stir together, cover the pan and bring to a boil.
- Once boiling, remove the cover and reduce to a simmer, stirring occasionally for 12-14 minutes or until pasta is done and liquid is mostly reduced.
- Move the pan off the heat and add in the shredded cheese. Stir until combined.
Super quick dish that was easy to throw together. It tasted great, too! Definitely one that I’ll be adding to the rotation especially on those nights I don’t feel like cooking.
So happy you liked it, Jennifer! Thanks so much!
Hamburger Helper was a weekly dinner when I was growing up so when I saw how easy this recipe was I had to try to recreate the “healthier” version of the boxed favorite. I know the recipe said not to use gluten free pasta but I broke the rules and tried at my own risk. I used lentil rotini and although it probably wasn’t as good as regular pasta, it was still delicious. I’ll definitely be making this recipe a regular part of my rotation this fall & winter.
So happy you liked it, Meg! Thank you so much!
Absolutely delicious! So much flavor and so easy to make! Fed our family of 5 well and even the kids went back for seconds! Served it with some steamed broccoli and it was a yummy, quick to cook dinner that everyone loved! I’ll definitely be making it again!
Thanks, Hayley!! So happy your family liked it. Love the addition of the broccoli!
Made this for dinner tonight because I saw all the hype on Instagram. I asked my husband what he thought because he was a huge buyer of Hamburger Helper back in his college days. And he liked it!!!! The only thing was that I slightly overcooked the noodles as I was reducing the liquid. But the taste was ON POINT! I thought it was good and will be making it again – at least for my husband. I will keep exposing my kids as the more exposure, the better! I’m sure they will come to love it some day! 😉
So happy your family liked it, Kelly! Thank you so much!
My whole family loved this. Will definitely be making this again!
So glad you liked it, Becca!
So delicious and easy to make!
Just made the hamburger helper last night and it was a hit! I cook for my grandma, husband, and two kids. We loved it. I substituted the beef for ground turkey, and used vegetable stock instead of beef and it was perfect. Would like to try with the original recipe when I have all the ingredients on hand. Delish!!!
So glad you all liked it! Thank you so much!
SO EASY & delicious! Will definitely be making it again.
So happy you liked it, Mikenna! Thank you!
Way better than boxed hamburger helper. Perfect week night meal the whole family enjoyed.
My family loves Hamburger Helper, but I have never been a fan. Our dinner plans fell through last night and made this in a pinch-it was quick and delicious. I will make it again.
So glad you liked it, Megan!
Delicious and easy to make! Will be a go to!
So happy you enjoyed it, Megan!
I’ve been anxiously awaiting this recipe! My husband loves hamburger helper but I always hated that it was straight from the box with some much extra stuff in it. I was getting a bit nervous while I was making it that he would totally hate it but after the first bite I knew I found a winner. The taste is SO similar if he didn’t see me making it, I’m pretty sure he would have thought it was out of the box. I’m excited to have a healthier alternative for this family favorite.
So happy you all enjoyed it, Adrianne! Thank you!
This recipe is so good! My whole family loved it!
So happy you all liked it!
This was so good! I’m not even a huge hamburger helper fan, but this is so much better than the box stuff. My husband, who loves boxed hamburger helper, thought this was better too. I was told to make this as often as I felt like making it for him haha. I am also cooking challenged so I had reached out to Liz for some additional clarification and I am so glad that I did. It turned out perfect
So happy you liked it, Berni!
Delicious! I added some grated zucchini for a green and it was so good
Great idea, Chelsea! Totally going to try this!
Loved this recipe! Actually the whole family did. So easy to make in one dish and so delicious!
So happy you all enjoyed it, Natasha! Thank you!!
This was delicious! Loved by the whole family. Easy and quick and I feel good knowing I used quality ingredients. Thanks for the great recipe!
Thanks, Carrie! Glad you liked it!
SO GOOD!!!! My 4 & 7 year old kiddos even loved it!
I was getting nervous that there wasn’t enough liquid to cook the pasta but so glad I followed exactly as the recipe states because it came out perfect!!
DEFINITELY making this again! Thanks for another great meal 😊
Side note, I used ground venison and mini farfalle pasta
So glad your family enjoyed it! Love those substitutions 🙂
Love this! Made it today and love how easy the recipe is. It doesn’t feel like the amount of sodium is gonna kill me afterwards.
Thanks for another great addition to my recipe book!
I made this last night and all 4 of my kids loved it! I doubled the recipe (family of 6) and now we have leftovers for another night. It was so easy and so tasty! This will be on repeat in our house!
So glad you liked it, Heather! Thank you!
Delicious and so simple to make! I love one pot meals! The whole family enjoyed this meal!
So glad you liked it Karen!
So easy and had everything already at home, so no need to go out and grab any ingredients! Made for the boys and they loved it! Can’t wait to make it again!
Thanks, Blake! Glad you and your family enjoyed it!
I made this tonight and my family loved it, including two little boys who aren’t afraid to tell me if something I make isn’t good! They both happily ate it with no complaints. Definitely adding to the rotation. Super quick and easy weeknight meal!
Love to hear that, Katie! So glad you and your family enjoyed it!
Make this recipe if you want comfort food. The seasonings and meat to pasta ratio are spot on. I used whole grain penne. So nice to have a delicious dish with clean ingredients.
Thanks, Mary! So happy you liked it!
Really delicious! I used ground turkey because that’s what I had on hand and elbow noodles. Cook time was a little less due to smaller noodles – but my whole family loved it!
So glad you liked it, Karen! Thank you so much!
10/10 Dinner ! You need to make this. So good and easy with ingredients you probably already have.