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.
This is so delicious! I haven’t had Hamburger helper for more than 10 years since being diagnosed with Celiac. I used GF pasta and GF Worcestershire and to save a few calories used a heaping spoon of light sour cream instead of cheese. Can’t wait to make again. Yummy
This recipe is great for the whole family!! We have been making it every week and everyone usually has seconds. Try this if you have a picky eater or want to get away from the nasty box stuff. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
This came together quickly and was perfect for a week day meal. It was absolutely delicious and kid approved. We’ll definitely be making this one again.
Super easy, minimal dishes, and delicious! My 2 year old approved of it as well 🙂
After chicken four nights in a row needed a little beef. Made this Hamburger Helper using my Butcher Box ground beef. It was easy and tasty. I’m expecting even more flavor in the leftovers at lunch tomorrow. Recommend this for anyone tired and short on time.
Feel so much better about making this for my family vs the box version! Lessened some of the spice amounts because of my kids but turned out great!! Also had to use soy sauce because I didn’t have Worcestershire but again, was great!
Delicious dinner! I used ground turkey and chicken broth, which were easy substitutes. Tbh, it doesn’t taste like the boxed hamburger helper I grew up with, but still delicious!!!
This is one of my favorite recipes! Not only do I love it, but my kids do as well! 10/10!
This is delicious! Way better than the boxed stuff in my opinion. I followed the recipe exactly as it was written, other than adding a few extra shakes of each spice and a little extra hamburger! Definitely will be in the rotation!
This was soo good, easy to make, and 1 and 4 year old approved!
I made it by the recipe the first time, and added dry ranch dressing/seasoning the second time (yum!!!)
This recipe was easy to make and was so good. Very flavorful and I felt good about serving it to my 2 year old as it didn’t come from a box. I did sub for shells, but only because our local grocery store was out of rotini.
Love this, 2nd time making! I added xtra tomatoes ( cherry) and some green beans for additional veges!
Late to the game on the review considering I’ve made this sooo many times because it’s that delicious! My boyfriend is such a picky eater and he requests this all the time! It’s so easy, so tasty, minimal clean up and so cozy and comforting. You will not regret making this!
The best recipe I have found online. My husband loves it and my TWO YEAR OLD always ask for seconds. This is a weekly meal for us. I follow the recipe to a T and just wow!! I’ve tried with a few different pasta types and I feel rotini actually cooks best with it. To the creator: can I freeze this meal? I would like to make this my new meal I take to friends and family. If so, what would be the oven temp and time?
So glad you liked the recipe! This recipe is not made for the oven, so I wouldn’t recommend cooking it in there. Sorry! We have a storage section in every post. It says: We haven’t tried freezing this recipe, but I wouldn’t recommend it. Freezing pasta can lead to a mushy mess!
This was so easy and so delicious!!! We used ground Turkey instead and it tasted so good!! Highly recommend making this for an easy week night meal.
Perhaps the tastiest hamburger helper recipe I’ve had so far. Loved it. I used 4 cups of broth in lieu of 2 cups broth and 2 cups water. I also added a bag of frozen green beans to get some green food in my roommate’s diet. Really good.
I started using this for meal prep during the week but I’ve know made it for countless friends and family who have children and they all rave about it. Especially when I’m making it for them, I always sneak in some chopped broccoli and shredded carrott
This was delicious and easy! I did sub for ground turkey since that is what I had on hand and it turned out great. Thanks for sharing a comforting dish that is healthy and still tasted great! Will definitely be making this again.
This is the BEST hamburger helper recipe. It seriously tastes identical to the real deal. The only difference is this one is better! My husband and I love it and share it with my parents and sister who also love it! It’s really saying something when my sister who hates hamburger helper loves this stuff. Plus, it’s super easy to make! Thank you so much for this recipe! 🙂
I made this today and it is really great recipe. On a scale of 1 -10 i would give it a 7.5
delicious and so easy to prepare! Don’t pass this recipe up!
I would only make this recipe if I added some vegetables to it even if only a couple of cups of frozen peas and maybe a cup of cooked pinto beans (or any other bean) to make it into a healthy family meal. It would still be a super easy family meal.
Hi Patty – This is a perfectly healthy meal as is. Feel free to add in whatever you’d like!
Can you sub the beef for Turkey meat and either use vegetable or chicken broth. Recipe sounds delicious. I will make it with chickpea pasta.
All of our blog posts have a green substitutions section where we outline every ingredient and substitutions for it. Please read it. Ground Beef: You can use ground turkey in this recipe if you’d like, but we really recommend ground beef! 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. 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. This recipe is a one pan pasta recipe and gluten free pasta can get very mushy. Use at your own risk!
If i made the gluten free pasta separate, how much would I need to reduce the liquid? I can mix it when I eat it. My family loves it but I want to try it. I am the only one that eats GF. Thank you!
I’m sorry but I really don’t know because I’ve never tried it. Gluten Free pastas all cook at different times and I find that they get very mushy/gummy when cooked in a pot with other things. I’m also confused if you want to cook all the pasta separately or just the pasta for your portion so I unfortunately don’t really know how to answer this question. Sorry I couldn’t be more help!
my family loved this recipe and gobbled it up first time i made it,, making it again!!
Finally made this! It was so easy and delicious. So much better than the boxed hamburger helper crap! I did use brown rice penne which needed to cook a little longer so I did add extra broth and it was the perfect texture!