Healthy Hamburger Helper
This post contains affiliate links. Read our disclosure policy.
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.
Want free ground beef? Right Now when you join ButcherBox you can get free ground beef for a year and $10 off! That’s up to 24 pounds of ground beef for free!
You can learn more about ButcherBox in this ButcherBox Review post!
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 my first recipe from your site and it was delicious. I think next time I will try adding mushrooms. It is definitely a keeper!
I made this for my son, who can be a picky eater, and he loved it. This dish is now one of our go to meals.
So easy and instantly became a weekly staple in our home!!! I shared the recipe with a neighbor and now they make it all the time too! Thank you for the great recipe!!
Love this recipe! I’ve made it a few times and it’s been great both times. It also is super quick and easy and all the ingredients are common household items. Highly recommend!
Loved it and teenager approved. Excellent!
My son LOVES boxed hamburger helper, with a healthy lifestyle change, I was so glad to see this recipe! It was so good and son approved!
My husband and I love this recipe. It is our new go-to recipe when we want a hamburger helper type of meal.
I enjoyed this. Very easy to make. Tasted good the next day, would recommend draining off the grease from the beef. I did use a cheaper, more fatty percentage of beef though. Definitely needed salt and pepper before serving. Would make again, bet it’s good for kids too.
I just made this and it’s amazing!!! I made a few changes… ground turkey instead of beef, gluten-free pasta, and I added peas. YUM!
Oh my goodness, I can’t even begin to describe the flavor! It was beyond what I expected!
After working in the yard all day I came in and made this quick and easy dinner. I served it with a salad and rolls. The hubby asked for seconds! I definitely will be making this again! 😋😋
This was soooooooo good. I had leftover pork sausage so I used that. I also used the whole can of tomato past cuz I didn’t wanna save the rest. So easy and so delicious! It turned out so creamy and we loved the taste of the worstershire sauce. (I never would have thought to add that on my own).I will definately make again!
This turned out so yummy. Inhad about 1/2 lb cooked pork sausage leftover so I used that. I also added the whole can of tomato paste cuz what do you do with leftover paste? So good! I will definately make this again!
We love this dish in our house!
I made this the other night and my husband and I LOVED IT!!! It didn’t call for a ton of ingredients or cook time which is great for this busy Momma! I will be making again today for our meal prep for the week.
Made this for my family last night and everyone loved it! I subbed the hamburger for ground turkey and it was great. My two year old devoured it and my husband, who isn’t keen on original hamburger helper, was eating it out of the pan. Highly recommend for a weeknight meal!
Hands down the only “hamburger helper” I’ll make at home. Not because I’m too good to buy the boxed stuff, but because this recipe is just as easy and tastes wayyy better. I typically just use whatever noodles I have on hand and add peas— they add extra nutrients and brightness. I have a 12 and 8 year old and they lick their bowls clean. We almost never have left overs. Thanks for such a tasty dish!
I followed this recipe to a T while my baby was in the high chair eating and it was super easy! I magically had all the ingredients in my pantry and added some streamed broccoli at the end. It was DELICIOUS!! It seriously took me about 30 minutes! I can’t wait to make this again!
I know you said no gluten free pasta, but do you also include chickpea pasta in that no go list?
Unfortunately yes. I find that all gluten free pasta (chickpea, gluten free, grain free, etc) cooks very differently than regular pasta. The water creates a gluey mixture and can lead to slimy, mushy pasta. I would attempt it at your own risk!
I haven’t made boxed HH in years. Wish I had this recipe way back when! Kids are all grown now so it’s just me and the hubby and it was a hit tonight! My husband is recently gluten free so I made it with GF rotini (corn & rice flour) and added broccoli florets. I’m finding that the brand of GF pasta I’m using is only good for reheating once, otherwise it gets mushy. We have enough to finish for leftovers tomorrow. Thank you!
Hit the easy button for dinner tonight…and made a homemade meal that my family loves! This tastes so much better than Hamburger Helper. THANK YOU!
I am new to cooking, and I recently found the clean eating couple on Instagram. I’ve tried a handful of her recipes, and they’ve all been great. This hamburger helper is my new favorite though. I love how detailed the instructions are and the substitutions she adds as well. This took me no time to make, and I appreciated that after my 8-5 job. This site is so fun to browse when looking for meal ideas. Nicely laid out and lots to choose from!
Thank you!!
This is a staple in our house, even for our pickiest eater. Delicious and so simple with ingredients we usually have on hand. And so easy to make substitutions- I’ve used different pastas, cheeses, beef, turkey. Can’t recommend this enough!
My daughter isn’t necessarily the pickiest eater like some kids, which makes me proud, but you can definitely tell when there is a meal that she absolutely loves. This is one of them. I made her a plate and before I could even sit down with mine, she was already halfway through her plate. She finished that plate along with a second and eventually went through for thirds. We are definitely adding this to our collections of regular rotation meals.
This was absolutely delicious, even my husband liked it.
This is amazing! It’s a family favorite.