Taco Pasta
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Easy Taco Pasta is the best one pan dinner! Healthy, cheesy, and delicious, this recipe for taco pasta is great for a quick 30 minute dinner. This post is sponsored by my friends at ButcherBox.
This Cheesy Taco Pasta is going to be your new favorite weeknight dinner. It’s made with only 10 basic ingredients that you probably already have on hand AND it’s cooked in one pan!
Ground beef and pasta get cooked together in a rich cheesy sauce to make the perfect cozy one pan dinner.
This one pot Taco Pasta Recipe is a must try – here’s why we love it:
why You’ll Love this Recipe
- One Pan: This beef taco pasta is made in one pan. The beef, pasta and sauce all cook together which means easy clean up and only one dish to wash! If you want more one pot meals, check out these Healthy One Pot Meals!
- Budget Friendly Ingredients: Taco Pasta is an affordable dinner to make with basic pantry staples!
- Great for meal prep: This dish is great for meal prep, it’s one of the few meals that actually taste even better the next day after the flavors have melded together.
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Ingredients:
To make cheesy taco pasta you’ll need:
- ButcherBox Ground Beef – you can use ground turkey or lean ground beef too!
- onion, garlic
- red bell peppers – feel free to double the peppers for more veggies!
- taco seasoning – I like to make my own
- shells pasta
- tomato paste
- beef broth
- water
- cheddar cheese – sharp cheddar is best! We always grate it fresh because it melts better.
Substitutions
Ground Beef: We love using ButcherBox ground beef in this recipe. You can use ground turkey or ground chicken in this recipe as well, but it will not be as flavorful. If you prefer chicken breasts, try this Chicken Taco Pasta.
Onion/Garlic: Feel free to use more or less onion and garlic. If you don’t have fresh onion/garlic, add 1/2 teaspoon dried onion powder and garlic powder.
Bell Peppers: Bell peppers are optional, but a great way to add extra veggies. Feel free to add more peppers or add some chopped spinach in at the end to amp up the veggies.
Taco Seasoning: I like to make my own taco seasoning because it’s lower in salt and has less preservatives. Be mindful if making this with store bought taco seasoning and broth as it could be very salty! If you want a more mild flavored dish – try our Hamburger Helper.
Pasta: Shells work the best in this recipe, but you can use rotini or farfalle (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 you prefer rice, try our Chicken Taco Rice.
Broth: Any broth or stock (broth and stock are the same) can be used in any soup recipe. Beef Broth, Chicken Broth, or vegetable broth all work interchangeably. I always use low or no salt broth.
Tomato Paste: Tomato paste helps to add flavor to this recipe. You can skip it, but the flavor will not be as rich.
Lower Sodium: Be mindful of store-bought taco seasoning and broth as they can be very high in sodium.
Cheddar Cheese: You can omit the cheese from this recipe to make it dairy free if you’d like, but it really does add flavor! We haven’t tried this recipe with other types of cheeses but I think pepper jack or Monterey jack cheese would be delicious. Pro Tip: We recommend using a block of cheddar cheese and grating it yourself as pre-shredded cheeses don’t melt as well.
Other Mix Ins: Feel free to add black beans, corn, cream cheese or jalapenos to your dish!
We’ve been ButcherBox customers for many years and absolutely love it. Here are a few reasons why I always recommend it!
- Convenient: Every month all the meat we need arrives right at our door!
- Affordable: Grocery store meat is expensive. Per pound, I find it’s cheaper to get organic meat from ButcherBox (check out this post to see is Butcher Box worth It where I did a ButcherBox Price Comparison)
- Delicious: You really can taste the difference with ButcherBox meat!
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!
How To Make Cheesy Taco Pasta
Making taco pasta is SO easy! Here’s how to do it:
- Brown the ground beef, onion, garlic and peppers in the pan until cooked through- about 10 minutes.
- Add the pasta, taco seasoning tomato paste, broth, and water. Stir, cover and bring to a boil.
- Once boiling, remove cover and reduce to a simmer, stirring occasionally until pasta is done and liquid is reduced.
- Move the pan off the heat and add in shredded cheese. Stir until combined and enjoy!
Here’s a link to our favorite nonstick pan for one pot meals!
How to Make Your Own Taco Seasoning:
Making your own homemade taco seasoning is so easy! Check out our Healthy Taco Seasoning Recipe.
- 3 tablespoon paprika
- 2 teaspoon black pepper
- 2 teaspoons chili powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
Can you use leftover taco meat?
Yes! You can totally make this recipe with left over taco meat.
Warm your leftover meat in a pan, and skip directly to step 3 . You can skip the extra taco seasoning!
How to Serve This Recipe
Taco Pasta is a complete meal in itself and it really doesn’t need anything to go with it. However, if you’re looking for ideas on how to serve it try:
- Adding toppings: Extra cheese, sour cream, chopped cilantro or diced olives are all delicious additions
- Serve with a salad: If you’re looking for a yummy salad to serve with this try Avocado Ranch Salad, Blueberry Salad, Taco Salad, or Easy Kale Salad
- Add Extra Veggies: Feel free to add more peppers, chopped spinach or chopped broccoli into this pasta dish to amp up the veggies
You can use taco meat for so many things! Use it in Taco Skillet, Taco Casserole, Taco Stuffed Peppers, a taco salad, Baked 7 Layer Dip, or Taco Dip.
Storage, Freezing & Reheating Instructions
Storing: This taco pasta will last in the refrigerator for up to 4 days in an airtight container
Freezing: You can freeze this recipe for up to 3 months. We like these containers for freezing! The pasta might get a little soggy in the freezer, but it will still be delicious!
Reheating: You can reheat this recipe in the microwave or on the stove. If the pasta feels dry, add a splash of water or broth when reheating.
Other healthy one pan dinner recipes:
If you want more easy Healthy Recipes for Dinner, click here to grab our free healthy 30 minute dinners cookbook! Here are some of our favorite one pan dinners:
Taco Pasta Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 lb. ButcherBox Ground Beef
- 1/2 cup onion chopped finely
- ½ tablespoon minced garlic (2 cloves)
- 2 cups red bell pepper diced
- 2 tablespoons taco seasoning low sodium
- 3 cups medium shells pasta 10 oz
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 2 cups beef broth
- 2 cups water
- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
Instructions
- Spray a large pan or pot with olive oil spray. Heat the pan over medium-high heat for 3 minutes.
- Add ground beef, onion, garlic and bell peppers in the pan. Cook for 10 minutes or until beef is cooked through and no longer pink.
- Add the dry pasta, taco seasoning, tomato paste, broth, and water to the pan. Stir together. Cover the pan and bring to a boil. It should take about 5 minutes to come to a boil.
- Once boiling, remove the cover from the pan and reduce the heat to medium. Stir every few minutes for 10-12 minutes or until pasta is cooked and liquid has reduced.
- Move the pan off the heat and add in shredded cheese. Stir until combined and melted.
Video
Notes
- Storage: This taco pasta will last in the refrigerator for up to 4 days in an airtight container.
- Use other pasta shapes: Rotini, penne or farfalle all work in this recipe.
This is so so so good and so easy to make.
Thanks so much for sharing. You’ve made two people very very happy 😍
So tasty! Really loved the flavor and it was a hit with everyone. I put a little too much pasta so needed more liquid and some extra time. Will definitely make it again.
SO absolutely easy to make and very delicious! The cooking process was very similar to the Healthy Hamburger Helper which is a go to for our family, so I knew we would love this recipe too!
I seen this recipe on the Facebook page and though I’d give it a bash.. so glad I did! It was absolutely delicious and so easy to make, didn’t cost much at all to make it either! Husband absolutely loved it too! We have enjoyed it that much I have made it a good few times and made extra for lunch and everyone was saying how nice it looked and smelt! I would definitely recommend trying this recipe
We made this recipe for 20 at The Ronald McDonald House foundation and they LOVED it!!! It was easy to make and was delicious!
Don’t you drain the beef? Didn’t see that anywhere.
You can if you would like but I usually don’t.
Can you swap out Italian seasoning for the taco seasoning?
I haven’t tried that but I think it would be delicious! Maybe use mozzarella instead of cheddar cheese.
Amazing
This recipe is amazing!! I made it with gluten-free pasta (fusilli, based on rice) last night and it turned out perfectly! I’d maybe suggest adjusting the cooking time just a little a bit, but I forgot, so mine was a tiny bit overcooked. About to eat leftovers today and it’s still amazing!
So easy and delicious! This was my second time making it (and reading / following the directions more thoroughly). I chopped veggies ahead of time which made it even easier.
Making tonight has anyone tried this with gluten free pasta? Wondering if the cook time would be a little less! Thanks excited to try!
I would just watch it/check frequently – we don’t recommend GF pasta because it tends to be a little soggy/not cook the same as regular pasta- but if you try it let us know how it goes!
This turned out so good! I was happy that it made a good bit, so hubby has some leftover for lunches! The only tweak I made was I used a 3 cheese Mexican blend cheese. It was definitely quick and easy, so perfect for a weeknight meal!
NA
So so delicious and easy to make!! Definitely going to be a regular in our rotation!!
I’ve made this many times now and it’s delicious. I’m not a great pasta lover but this is amazing and fills you up and makes you feel good. Looking forward to making more very soon. On the plus side my son is type 1 and it’s a great good for him when he’s feeling he needs abit more carbs with added veg. Yum.
Made it tonight and my boys loved it. I added a bit more cheese and full cup of chopped onions. This recipe is going in the regular dinner rotation! Delish!
This recipe was so easy to throw together on a busy night and was absolutely delicious! We will definitely be making it again.
Another delicious recipe! Super easy and quick to throw together. Looking forward to making this in the winter as a fun snow day meal.
Thank you for sharing all your recipes.
We made this this week, and it was fantastic! I will say the recipe calls for too little taco seasoning for my taste, so I added a full packet of the thrive taco seasoning. Other than that, it’s a fantastic recipe we will be adding to our rotation!
This sounds good but watching my salt intake and the sodium numbers seem too low for the serving size –
especially without the recipe listing low sodium broth or low sodium taco seasoning. I will try making it with low sodium versions but could 282 mg of sodium be inaccurate? The calories and fat seem correct.
Sorry, just read the substitutions section where you say you always use no salt broth etc.
I’m sure the numbers would work out then & with homemade taco seasoning!
Will try it with those. Thx;)
East peasy and yummy! No leftovers. Loved the one pan clean up too.
This was so easy and so flavorful. I love that it’s a one pot meal. Will be making this regularly. One of my favorites.
Can you make it and serve later
Sure, just reheat it!
Very tasty! My husband had several helpings 😀. My bag of pasta was 16 ounces so I increased the amount of liquid and cheese – cheese I pretty much increase in any recipe, because..cheese. Love the ease of the one pot. I will chop veggies earlier in the day and put them in a zip loc bag in the crisper in the fridge so all I have to do at dinner time is cook. So that made it even less of an event on a Sunday night! Pretty certain I will make this again 🤌🏻
This taco pasta was fabulous! My momma is super picky! She lives ground beef, cheese and pasta! Boom! Win win! I think she licked the bowl clean! Thank you so much for making easy and clean recipes! 💜💜💜
I made this tonight and it was so good! It came together so quickly and was such an easy clean up. And my very picky niece even finished her plate. Definitely recommend this one!
Hands down , favorite recipe!! Tasty taco held in creamy pasta shells . Comforting and fun meal that will be a hit with everyone!!