Cheesy Instant Pot goulash turned out amazing in my Ninja Foodi pressure cooker! Regular or creamy goulash with two different cheeses and pasta shapes of your choice. Use ground beef or sausage, one of our easy Instant Pot casseroles, either way is delicious.
This cheesy Instant Pot goulash is just the twist you need to try. If you’re like me and enjoy easy Instant Pot recipes that take less than 20 minutes from start to finish. (affiliate links present)
Ninja Foodi Goulash
I bet you will add this into your new meal rotation after trying it. You can make it in your Crockpot Express, Mealthy, or as an easy Ninja foodi recipe too. With the latter you will use the lid that is not attached. Doesn’t matter what type of pressure cooker you have on your counter.
If I’m right, you will love this Instant Pot casserole of sorts. A quick and easy one pot meal packed with flavor and drowned in cheesy sauce.
If you are new to pressure cooking we have a lot of easy one pot meal recipes for you here. To begin with let’s start with a few basic tips:
- Make sure to Bookmark our InstaPot recipes page. We add new ones each week!
- Then PRINT this —–> Instant Pot cooking times cheat sheet that will help you understand how long meat, vegetables and beans take to cook in your pressure cooker.
- I HIGHLY recommend you buy this non stick pot.
- You should know how to deglaze a pressure cooker after sautéing but it won’t have as many issues with this better liner.
For reference, this is the model I have (a 6 quart) and use for all recipe creations.
How to Make Instant Pot Goulash
If you have made pasta, meat and sauce together then you are already familiar with how this is done. You saute the beef, add the noodles and ingredients for the creamy sauce and gently submerge (not stir). Then cook on high for just a few minutes to get everything tender, stir and enjoy!
It is definitely a favorite Instant Pot dinner recipe your kids will love. It seriously tastes even more amazing the next day for leftovers (if there are any). Maybe it’s just me but I love a good casserole. An easy one pot meal that has it all and really needs no side items to prepare is just my style. DONE!
I started my pressure cooker casserole journey with this Instant Pot chicken parmesan casserole. It’s a winner when I don’t need to heat up my kitchen during the summer months.
Creamy Instant Pot Goulash
I work from home so I like making meals that every one of us enjoys, but there is a bit left over so I have lunch for myself the next day, this was a great one (I would dare say even better the next day!). I have a 6 qt. Instant Pot and this recipe fit just fine. It made enough to feed I would say 6 people easily, 8 if you have kids.
It is filling with sausage (you could use ground beef), pasta, spaghetti sauce, diced tomatoes. Lots of cheese is needed too I tell you. You don’t need a heaping bowl to feel full and get that “oh my goodness is this good” feeling. Find even more like this on our roundup of Instant Pot pasta recipes.
Medium / Spicy sausage – I used Jimmy Dean in the sausage roll but you could add ground beef instead. Spicy sausage brings a tremendous amount of flavor without the need for seasoning and seasoning salt.
Yes you could use regular ground beef if you preferred. This is how to defrost Instant Pot frozen ground beef in case you forgot to thaw it out the night before. 😉
Instant Pot Ground Beef and Noodles
Pasta – We used this style but if you want a traditional looking goulash then elbow macaroni noodles could be used too, your choice
- Spaghetti sauce – I buy whatever is on sale
- Beef stock or broth
- Diced tomatoes – I like the petite style
- Cheddar and Parmesan cheese – you could use either or but I like a combo
- Heavy cream
- Noodles
- Groundd beef
Onion & bell pepper – optional but brings a lot of flavor and a bit of texture.
It is cheesy in the cheesy sauce kind of way, rather than the stringy you’re going to have a hard time eating it and the cheese is going to get all stuck in your hair when you try to eat it kinda’ cheesy. LOL. I like it thick so I added just a cup of heavy cream but if you wanted it saucier you could add 1.5 cups of that to thin it out.
Once you are done cooking it, open the lid and stir in the heavy cream and cheeses, stir so they melt, then it is ready to eat. BUT if you want it thick like you see here let it sit in your Instant Pot or pressure cooker for 5-10 minutes.
Dairy Free Goulash
I am sure this will become one of our favorite meals and a family favorite for sure. If you need it to be dairy free (like my husband does), just ladle out your goulash when the cooking is done for that person. Then add the cream and cheese for everyone else who wants it cheesy. Easy fix for that. 😉
Ours turned out perfect after 5 minutes with a quick release. More time will make noodles too soft.
How long to cook pressure cooker goulash?
You are looking at about 5 minutes once the meat is cooked which may take another 5. With the time to come to pressure it is about 20 start to finsih which is quick. Looking for other comfort food recipes? Here are a bunch of other Instant Pot sausage recipes to enjoy after you have fallen in love with this one.
- Here’s a great traditional goulash recipe if you don’t have a pressure cooker
- Looking for something similar, but vegetarian?
- Give our cheesy cauliflower a whirl.
- Pressure cooker lasagna casserole is similar to this goodie but tastes like lasagna
- Instant Pot dorito casserole is a family fave
Ninja Foodi Goulash Recipe
Note: You could make this gluten free with alternative noodles but I haven’t tested out the timing of this yet. If you do please share with us below so others can take advantage of the info. We hope this ends up on our weekly meal planning schedule!
Time needed: 10 minutes
Instant Pot Goulash
- Saute
Turn your pressure cooker to saute and add olive oil, sausage or ground beef, onions and diced bell peppers.
Cook until meat is no longer pink, turn Pot off/cancel button.
Pour in your beef broth, then spaghetti sauce, then diced tomatoes, then your uncooked noodles and DO NOT stir.
I repeat, Do NOT pour in your dry macaroni and stir or you’ll get the burn notice.
Push noodles down so they are submerged in liquid and close lid and steam valve. (if cooking on the stovetop do stir this and boil on low until noodles are soft enough for you and serve) - Cook
Set pressure cooker to high pressure for 5 minutes. Do a quick release.
- Cheesy Goulash
If you want to make it creamy: Stir in heavy cream and cheese, stir until cheese is melted.
Serve immediately or wait 5 minutes or so and allow goulash to thicken as it sits and then serve!
Cheesy Instant Pot Goulash
Equipment
- 1 pressure cooker
Ingredients
- 1 lb spicy sausage, or ground beef
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 large onion, diced
- 1 bell pepper, diced, optional
- 2.5 c beef broth
- 4 c uncooked pasta, 4 measuring cups full of uncooked pasta, we used rotini
- 24 oz spaghetti sauce
- 14.5 oz petite diced tomatoes
- 1 c heavy cream
- 3/4 c parmesan cheese, grated
- 3/4 c cheddar cheese, grated
Instructions
- Turn your pressure cooker to saute and add olive oil, sausage or ground beef, onions and diced bell peppers.
- Cook until meat is no longer pink, turn Pot off/cancel button.
- Pour in your beef broth, then spaghetti sauce, then diced tomatoes, then your uncooked noodles and DO NOT stir.
- Push noodles down so they are submerged in liquid and close lid and steam valve. (if cooking on the stovetop do stir this and boil on low until noodles are soft enough for you and serve)
- Set pressure cooker to high pressure for 5 minutes.
- Do a quick release.
- Stir in heavy cream and cheese, stir until cheese is melted.
- Serve immediately or wait 5 minutes or so and allow goulash to thicken as it sits and then serve!
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
So good and easy to make used Italian sausage and fire roasted diced tomatoes (what I had on hand)
Yes! I love using sausage in this.
This is great for my elderly mom who needs calories that taste good.
Four stars correction
Can this be made in a regular crock pot, and also, my husband cannot have tomatos, is there anything that could be used instead?
Made this and the kids and I loved it! Will definitely be making again!
Awesome!!
Oh my wow!!! This was soooo good! I’m single, so I have only the 3 quart size instant pot. I cut everything in half from your recipe & it turned out perfect! Thank you for this recipe!
OH good!!
Made this it was very good. Will be be our family dinner in the future.
I used Italian cheese instead of parmesan cheese. Used tomato & basil sauce too, helped to add some spices to it.
OH good!!
Hi there! The recipe looks delicious, but I have a question. You write, “Cook until meat is no longer cook, turn Instant Pot off/cancel button.” I’m not sure what that means. Do you mean to cook it until it’s all cooked?
Sorry I was typing too fast, fixed. I meant cook until meat is no longer pink.
@Deanna, it means cook on sauté until the meat is no longer. The veggies should be cooked with it. You have to turn it off the change the settings.l so add your noodles and broth to make the noodles are covered.then cooker insta pot and set to pressure cook for 5 minutes. If you don’t have an insta pot the seetings are pretty close. Hope this helps. I use my insta pot a lot. I’m alone , so I makes meals and then freeze the left overs right away. That way when I don’t feel like cooking I have something already cooked. Just to warm up.