This homemade Hamburger Helper recipe is a savory one-pot meal that’s better than the original boxed version! Made with tender elbow pasta, savory ground beef, cheese, tomato sauce, and veggies, it’s ready in 30 minutes or less and impossible to resist!
Cozy up with more comfort food recipes like Three Cheese Gnocchi Bake, One Pot BBQ Chicken and Bacon Pasta and Sausage Tortellini Soup.
Table of Contents
- Why we love it:
- Homemade Hamburger Helper ingredients:
- How to make Hamburger Helper
- Variations and Substitutions
- How to Store Homemade Hamburger Helper
- Can I freeze hamburger helper?
- Serving suggestions:
- More one pot pasta recipes!
- Homemade Hamburger Helper Recipe – easy one pot pasta! Recipe
- More one pot pastas you’ll love!
Confession time: I can’t honestly remember the last time I purchased or prepared a box of Hamburger Helper.
It’s not that I never have—like most moms, I’m familiar with the beloved boxed pasta (it’s one of my childhood favorites!). But somewhere along the way, I discovered that it’s actually quite easy to make homemade hamburger helper.
My recipe for homemade Hamburger Helper is the only one you need for a number of reasons: it comes together in one pot, with real ingredients, in roughly the same amount of time. Since then, I haven’t looked back!
Why we love it:
- Healthier than store-bought: This homemade version is a one-pot meal made with healthy whole wheat pasta for added fiber, and wholesome veggies like red pepper and spinach.
- Kid-friendly: Everything all cooks down together in the cheesy sauce (hello, comfort food!), so picky eaters won’t even notice (it’s a family favorite here!).
- One pot: Those two magic words means that dinner will be easy to make and easy to clean up!
- Simple ingredients: This is a great clean-out-your-fridge recipe! It uses simple ingredients that you probably already have laying around.
Homemade Hamburger Helper ingredients:
- Lean Ground Beef: Since this is a one pot meal, I usually use lean ground beef. That helps keep the pasta from being greasy.
- Onion: Almost any beef dish is better with onion! You can dice up fresh onion, or if you’re short on time, sprinkle in about a tablespoon of onion powder.
- Red Pepper: Dice up a medium bell pepper. We use red, but any color is fine!
- Red Pepper Flakes: To add a little heat, add a pinch of red pepper flakes. You can put more in, if you want it to be spicier.
- Garlic or Garlic Powder: Again, you can use fresh minced garlic, or go with garlic powder if you prefer. Use about ⅓ teaspoon for each clove of garlic.
- Salt and Pepper: I prefer to use red pepper flakes as opposed to black pepper, but you can use both if you prefer.
- Italian Seasoning: Store-bought Italian seasoning blend adds lots of flavor to the dish!
- Spinach: For frozen spinach, thaw it and squeeze out as much moisture as possible. For fresh spinach, just chop it finely. You can omit if you want but I promise no one will know it’s there!
- Beef Broth: The dish will be cooked in a mixture of broth and milk; I use beef broth, but vegetable broth and chicken broth would both work, as well.
- Milk: any kind of dairy or non-dairy milk will work. Higher fat dairy will yield a richer flavor.
- Pasta: Our favorite pasta for this recipe is elbow pasta, but basically any small shape would be good. Penne, farfalle (bowties), and fusilli are all good hamburger-helper-style shapes — just keep in mind the cook time may vary.
- Tomato Sauce: You can use plain tomato sauce, strained tomatoes, or pasta sauce, whatever you have.
- Cheese: To make this a cheesy, comforting meal, you’ll need plenty of shredded cheese! Try mozzarella, colby, cheddar, or any other melting cheese that you like. Garnish with fresh parsley if desired
How to make Hamburger Helper
Let’s take a quick look at how to make homemade hamburger helper! Find the detailed recipe down in the recipe card.
- Cook the ground beef, red bell peppers and onions.
- Mix in the seasonings, garlic and spinach.
- Pour in the milk, broth, noodles and tomato sauce. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and cook for 12-15 minutes.
- Stir in the cheese.
Variations and Substitutions
- Change the veggies. Feel free to swap out the veggies for others your family enjoys, like mushrooms, shredded carrots, zucchini, or anything else you have taking up space in the fridge. Also, shredded vegetables cooked down in the ground beef are a great way to get more vegetables into your diet.
- Use your preferred pasta. I use high fiber whole wheat pasta, but really any variety of wheat pasta works fine. If you are using gluten-free or alternative pastas, you may want to reduce the amount of liquid, or add more, depending on the type of pasta.
- Make it dairy-free. Swap dairy-free milk and dairy-free cheese for the whole milk and shredded cheese. Or simply make the recipe with no milk, substituting additional broth, and leave out the cheese altogether!
- Make it vegetarian. Swap out the beef broth for vegetable broth, and vegetarian crumbles, chickpeas, or simply extra veggies instead of the meat.
- Use another meat. Ground turkey, ground chicken, or even ground sausage all work well.
- Make it creamy. Stir in some sour cream or plain yogurt for an extra creamy pasta.
- Spice it up! Splash in some hot sauce or sriracha.
How to Store Homemade Hamburger Helper
Leftover Hamburger Helper will keep in the fridge for 2-3 days. Make sure to store it in an airtight container.
Add a splash of milk, water or broth and reheat for 30 seconds at a time in the microwave, stirring each time it stops, until warmed all the way through.
Can I freeze hamburger helper?
Yes! To freeze homemade hamburger helper, spread the cooked pasta into a foil or freezer-safe baking dish, and cover with a layer of plastic wrap and then a lid or a layer of tin foil. The plastic wrap helps prevent freezer burn (thanks Grandma, for that trick!).
To reheat frozen hamburger helper, uncover the dish, remove the layer of plastic wrap, and then replace the layer of foil. Bake the dish at 350°F for about one hour, removing the foil at about the 40 minute mark, to allow the cheese to brown somewhat.
Freezing Note: If you’re planning to freeze and reheat pasta, you can slightly undercook the pasta before freezing. That way, when you reheat it, it won’t turn out mushy.
Reheating Note: if you’re moving a glass dish from the freezer to the oven, it’s a good idea to let the dish sit out at room temperature for a couple hours beforehand to warm slightly. You may not have to cook it as long.
Serving suggestions:
You can serve this pasta all on its own! It truly is a meal all in one pot! However, if you’d like to add a few side dishes, these are some great, easy options:
- Broccoli Salad: If you don’t think you like broccoli, try this recipe—I promise it will change your mind! Classic Broccoli Salad is sweet, tangy, crunchy, and fresh, with bacon and cheddar for extra yumminess.
- Creamed Corn: Sweet, Homemade Creamed Corn is a side dish that my kids devour! It’s a fresh, crisp-tender veggie option that’s always a welcome addition to the meal.
- Glazed Carrots: My simple Honey Orange Glazed Carrots are another kid-friendly side dish, made from scratch and lightly sweet.
More one pot pasta recipes!
- Sun Dried Tomato and Spinach Orzo recipe — a fabulous side or meatless main dish.
- Three Cheese Gnocchi Bake — the cheesier, the better!
- Creamy Gemelli Pasta recipe — simple and satisfying.
- Orecchiette Pasta with Sausage — sausage adds so much flavor!
- Cajun Chicken Pasta — just the right amount of kick!
Homemade Hamburger Helper Recipe – easy one pot pasta!
written by Ashley Fehr
Ingredients
- 1 lb lean ground beef
- ½ medium onion diced
- 1 red bell pepper diced
- 2 cloves garlic (minced)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- ½ teaspoon paprika
- ½ teaspoon ground mustard
- ⅛ teaspoon red pepper flakes (or more, if you like it spicy!)
- ¼ cup frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry (or 1 cup fresh, chopped fine) optional
- 1 ¾ cup milk
- 1 ½ cup beef broth (low sodium)
- 2 ¾ cups dry uncooked macaroni (1 375g box)
- 1 ½ cups tomato or pasta sauce
- 1 ½ cups shredded cheese (mozzarella or cheddar)
Instructions
- To a large pot add beef, onion, and peppers and cook until vegetables are softened. Cook over medium high heat until beef is browned.
- Add garlic, salt, Italian seasoning, paprika, mustard red pepper flakes, and spinach. Cook 1-2 minutes to wake up the flavors.
- Add in milk, broth, macaroni and tomato sauce and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and cook 12-15 minutes, stirring often.
- Stir in 1 cup of cheese. Sprinkle remaining cheese on top, cover and let sit for 5 minutes before serving.
Notes
- Ground Beef: feel free to swap the beef for ground chicken, pork or turkey. I use lean ground beef so there is not much fat to drain, but if you are using regular ground beef you may want to drain the fat after browning.
- Vegetables: you can swap the peppers and spinach for other vegetables you have hanging around: finely chopped mushrooms, shredded carrots or zucchini, finely chopped kale — once it all cooks down the flavor melds together and you won’t really notice!
- Broth: I use low sodium beef broth so I can control the salt. If you have regular broth you may want to reduce the added salt and adjust as needed. Vegetable and chicken broth may also be substituted.
- Milk: I use low fat milk, but any will do here! Non-dairy milk works just as well.
- Macaroni: any short pasta will work here, but they may require different cook times or amounts of liquid. If you notice the liquid is mostly absorbed but the pasta is not cooked, just add a splash here and there and continue cooking until the pasta is al dente.
Nutrition Information
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Kimberly says
Super good! I doubled also- and it’s just the hubs and me! :))) I used gluten free pasta- and I’m not sure if that is why, but I didn’t quite need so much liquid… ours turned out more like a thick cheeseburger soup. ALL good, though- we loved it! Thanks for the nostalgia- we eat way too clean and healthy to ever have the real HH, but both remember it from growing up… with Grass Fed beef and organic ingredients, this was the perfect throw back!
Ashley says
I’m glad to hear you liked it! I might have to try with regular white pasta — I always use whole wheat so I’m wondering if the liquid would need to be adjusted for white pasta. I’ll have to test it out with different pastas!
Tesha says
I tried this tonight and if was soooo good. I didnt have beef broth so I used a bouillon cube. Also, i added too much liquid (totally forgot I wasnt boiling pasta LOL) so i added a teaspoon of corn starch. It looks and tastes like hamburger helper, but its so much healthier! Thanks for the recipe!
Ashley says
I’m so glad! Thanks for coming back and leaving a comment!
Mariah says
Have you ever frozen this? If so, at what stage would you freeze it?
Ashley says
I haven’t, but I think it would definitely work. I would just make sure your pasta is no more than al dente, or even a little less (I find freezing it and reheating makes it a little softer), and I would freeze it completely prepared. You could then reheat it in the oven.
Ashley says
Oh sorry — I have frozen this! Same directions as my first reply. This is supper tonight!
Kara says
SO GOOD is all I kept hearding from my 4 kids… some who are very picky! Came out PERFECT.
We didn’t have any beef on hand and there is a winter storm coming so we used 2 lb of left over taco meat… worked SO good!
Now I know what to do with our leftover taco meat!
Ashley says
That would be perfect! Glad you liked it 🙂
MaryAnne says
I’ve come up against that perpetual problem: language. In Australia, tomato sauce is what we call your ketchup. So now I’m confused. Do you mean passata? I honestly can’t see tomato sauce working as it’s too domineering for such a recipe. And the recipe calls for an awful lot of it. Passata makes more sense to me. Help! I’d love to try this recipe, but want to get it right.
Ashley says
Hi MaryAnne! I’m not sure what your passata would be, but I would use whatever you put on a tomato-sauce based pizza. Pizza sauce, or even plain crushed tomatoes and add in some extra herbs. Hope that helps!
MaryAnne says
It does. Thank you. Passata is an Italian light sauce made from sieved tomatoes. Here we buy it by the bottle. I’m slowly getting used to the culinary language differences (I now know that scones are biscuits and biscuits are crackers!) but am still baffled by some of the ingredients listed on many recipes. But people always answer my questions, which is generous.
Ashley says
I’m glad it helped!
max blood says
pasta is the noodles.. sauces is the sauce and ketchup is ketchup. plz don’t mix it up
Debbie says
I followed directions, but seems my milk curdled! Ugh! Still tastes ok but doesnt look very appetizing! Any suggestions?
Ashley says
Sorry to hear that! I’ve never had that happen with this recipe. I would maybe try simmering at a lower temperature? What kind of milk did you use? I always use 1%.
Dianna says
Just made it and it is totally soup! Will decrease the broth am
No milk next time! It does have a good flavor though!
Ashley says
That is strange — I’ve never had any issues with it being too soupy! I do usually use high fiber pasta, though, so that might make a difference.
Daisy Jetsfoeva says
I prepared this tonight for dinner and it was a hit. Added some chill powder and other spices to zip it up a bit and had it with hot sauce. Really good stuff! Thanks for the recipe.
Ashley says
Thanks Daisy! Glad you liked it!
Dyan says
I made this for dinner last night… followed the recipe except instead of 2 lbs of ground meat i used 1 and it was AH-MAZING!
kids didn’t complain of the spinach or anything! Thank you so much for sharing a great recipe. I also miss Hamburger helper but know now as an adult the sodium and preservatives that go into it are awful! This is way better!!!
Ashley says
So glad to hear you liked it!
Daisy Jetsfoeva says
When you say Tomato Sauce do you mean plain canned tomato sauce or tomato sauce for pasta? Just wondering cause I’m all jacked up over trying your recipe and I want to do it right. Thanks!
Ashley says
You can definitely do either! I would probably use one with some herbs and spices for extra flavour 🙂
Catherine says
Great recipe! You could definitely play around with ingredients a little to suit family tastes or to change it up. Hubby and I were just discussing that Hamberger Helper is something we miss from our less healthy eating days. And, here’s your awesome recipe. Thanks!
Sheri says
I have no tomato sauce in the house, would tomato soup be ok? Other suggestions?
Ashley says
You could try crushed tomatoes with some added spices? You could try tomato soup — as long as it’s a similar consistency I think it’d work fine.
Beth says
Turned out great! Didn’t add the spinach but other then that really good. Sometimes online recipes are a hit or miss. This was a hit!
Ashley says
Thanks! I’m glad you stopped by to tell me how it was!
Lindsay says
This looks yummy! What kind of tomato sauce did you use?
Ashley says
I personally love Classico — they have so many awesome flavours!
Brenda says
This is delicious!! I was afraid my grandson might notice the spinach so I sneaked in grated carrot instead – perfect – thanks!
Ashley says
Glad you liked it! Grated carrot is another awesome addition!
Cyndi - My Kitchen Craze says
This looks soo yummy! Gonna have to try this once school starts up again! Loved hamburger helper when I was little, but then learned what was in those boxes! Can’t wait to give this a try! Thanks! 🙂
Ashley says
Thanks Cyndi! It is super quick and easy! And you can’t go wrong with noodles, sauce and cheese 🙂
Liz says
Just made this tonight! Oh my goodness….SO good! The perfect Glamburger Helper recipe. We would get so stoked when our granola toting, no Little Debbie buying Mama would make Hamburger Helper because we never got “the good stuff”….this is way better than the boxed goodness I loved as a child though. A homerun in my book. Love that you doubled it….I have everything because of my teenage son…the neverending eater.
Thanks for the recipe!
Ashley says
Thanks so much Liz — we loved it too! Is it bad that I double everything even though it’s just my husband and I and our 2 year old? lol.
Liz says
Heck no! I love to have a back up plan! 😉
Ashley says
Haha, doesn’t everyone?! 🙂
Sherry says
Looks good. Kind of what our family calls ‘Goulash” I posted about it last week. Mine doesn’t have spinach though. Sounds good! Thanks for sharing your adaptation.
Ashley says
Thanks Sherry! Anything with meat, pasta and cheese is usually a winner!
dave says
Goulash has kidney beans in it. My mama said.
Evelyn @ My Turn for us says
Just pinned and will be sharing on FB!! #drooling
Hugs from Freedom Fridays!!
Jess @ On Sugar Mountain says
Hey man it might not be classy but it was my FAVORITE growing up and a homemade version sounds (and looks) fabulous! 😀
Ashley says
Lol, glad we’re on the same page!