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.
?? When do you add the beef broth? It’s not listed. And is the pasta put in uncooked? It doesn’t say.
Thank you,
Linda
Glad you found the answers to your questions. Everything is in Step 3! Hope you enjoyed!
I’m planning to make this tonight. Instead of using water, can I use milk to make it creamy? Or is it already creamy as is?
I’ve never tried this so I can’t be sure. I wouldn’t recommend it. The recipe is great as is written without milk (50+ 5 star reviews) so I wouldn’t mess with it. It’s not meant to be a creamy dish
Made this for dinner tonight! It was soo good, my family loved it!
My family of picky eaters love this recipe!! I sub the whole wheat rotini for chickpea rotini.
So glad everyone enjoyed it!
This recipe was so easy and delicious! I used chickpea noodles and I personally loved it but family did not. When I cooked it with regular noodles they loved it! We have added this to our meal rotation.
This was so good and exceeded my expectations! I highly recommend for a super easy family dinner!
I loved the store-bought boxed Hamburger Helper.
However, I have not had the boxed Hamburger Helper for 10 years because it is so unhealthy to eat.
I would try this recipe and it turned out so good. It taste just like the boxed except with no unhealthy ingredients. Also it was so easy to make and took very little time to prepare.
This definitely is a 10
So happy you liked it!
My picky husband liked it and it’s worthy of making again! Kids liked it too! Thanks!
So happy you like it!
Made this Friday night and it was well-loved in my family! Taste just like I remember from childhood but much healthier! This will be a repeat in our house!
Thank you so much!!
This is delicious! Brings me back to college days with a much healthier option!
So glad you liked it, Taylor!
I always had hamburger helper from the box growing up and this recipe is spot on! So easy and quick. The whole family loved it! Definitely will make this again.
So happy you liked it, Katie! Thank you!
Easy, delicious and kid friendly
Love hearing that! Thanks, Cady!
Made this last night- prepped everything before and it was a breeze!! Quick, hot, delicious weeknight dinner!! I put mine over wilted spinach.. my kid kept her veggies separate- but both ways were delish.
So glad to hear this! Thank you!!
Was the perfect warm and comforting food after a day of snowboarding! Goes well with roasted broccoli on the side. Will definitely be making this again.
Love this! So happy you enjoyed it!
Picky kid approved! Quick and easy weeknight meal.
Love to hear that, Tonya!
One of my favorites. So easy to make. Very flavorful.
Thank you so much!!
So easy and yummy! Took no time and easy clean ingredients. Thank you for creating this recipe. Family loved it!
Thanks, Monica! So glad you liked it!
Love this recipe! I’ve made it several times and it’s always a hit. The only thing I find that make it even better is using large she’ll pasta instead of the ritoni. The meat and sauce mixed inside the shells and it really brings it together.
So glad you like it, Jess! Thank you!
This is the legit copycat of that preservative loaded fake box stuff! Added some diced tomatoes, this was so easy to make snd yummy! Will make again!!
So glad you liked it!!
This was such a good recipe. I made it because my husband has fond memories of hamburger helper. He loved it stating that you couldn’t tell it was healthy!
Looking forward to making this again using Mexican spices. So many options to try.
Thank you for sharing your recipes with us 💕
So glad you liked it, Jennifer! Thank you so much!
Made this tonight and it was inhaled by myself, my husband, and 4 out of 5 kids (there’s always gotta be one 🙄)
Will definitely make this again!
So happy that (almost!) everyone enjoyed it! LOL!
This was so easy to make and it was absolutely incredible. Please give this easy meal a shot.
Thanks, Michael! So glad you liked it!
New family favorite! Husband and 5 year old raved about how good it was!
So happy everyone enjoyed it, Courtney!
Just made this and have to say it’s so good and filling! My fiancé looked at me and said “babe this is really good,” so needless to say it will probably become one of our staples now.
I did use chickpea pasta and ground turkey as substitutions, but followed directions the same.
Love those substitutions! Thanks Abby!
This is absolutely delicious! My family loved it. It’s also quick and easy to make. Thank you!
Thank you so much, Kelli! I’m so happy you all enjoyed it!