Best Instant Pot goulash recipe! This easy American goulash recipe turns pasta, ground beef, and tomatoes into a delicious electric pressure cooker meal in less than 30 minutes total.
Goulash is fun to say and it sounds pretty fancy, but this is really just good old-fashioned comfort food. If you aren’t familiar with it, Goulash or American Goulash, is a dish made of cooked macaroni, ground beef, tomatoes, and seasoning.
Cooking goulash in the Instant Pot makes it even easier because it turns the classic dinner into a quick and easy, one-pot recipe that’s can be made and on the table in less than 30 minutes.
It’s also made with pantry staple ingredients, and it’s a great recipe to have when you need a fast weeknight dinner.
How To Make Instant Pot Goulash
Brown the ground beef. Drain the fat and return to the inner pot.
Stir in the onion and let it cook until soft, about 2 minutes. Add the garlic and stir in.
Add the tomatoes, tomato sauce, water, seasoning, tomato paste, and soy sauce. Try to scrape up as much of the browned bits from the bottom of the pot as possible. This will help to prevent a burn error message.
Stir in the noodles and place the bay leaf on top.
Cook and then do a quick pressure release as soon as the goulash has finished cooking.
Tips
- Ground Beef: I make this recipe with 85% lean ground beef. You can use extra lean or even ground turkey if you prefer.
- Soy Sauce: I prefer to use lite soy sauce so that I can better control the salt level.
- Salt: I like to wait until the dish is finished to season with salt and pepper because I find that the pressure cooking affects the flavor.
- Toppings: You can serve the goulash as-is or top with a little parsley or cheese.
- Browned bits: It’s important to try to scrape up any browned bits from the bottom of the inner pot. This will help to avoid any burn error messages and help to keep the pasta from sticking to the bottom of the inner pot.
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Instant Pot Goulash
Equipment
- Instant Pot/electric pressure cooker
Ingredients
- 1 pound lean ground beef1
- 1 cup diced white or yellow onion
- 3 cloves garlic
- 2-15 ounce cans diced tomatoes
- 15 ounces tomato sauce
- 2 cups water
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 2 tablespoons Italian seasoning
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce or soy sauce2
- 3 cups elbow noodles
- 1 bay leaf
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Press SAUTE on the Instant Pot.
- When hot, add ground beef.
- Cook, stirring regularly, until meat has browned.
- Carefully drain fat and return meat to pot.
- Stir in onion and cook, stirring regularly, until onion has softened, about 2 minutes.
- Add the garlic and cook for about 30 seconds, stirring regularly.
- Press CANCEL.
- Stir in the diced tomatoes with juice, tomato sauce, water, tomato paste, Italian seasoning, and soy sauce. Try to scrape up all of the browned bits from the bottom of the inner pot if possible.
- Stir in the noodles.
- Place bay leaf on top.
- Close and lock the lid.
- Turn the pressure release valve to SEALING.
- Press MANUAL and adjust to high pressure for 4 minutes. It should take about 10 minutes for the Instant Pot to come to pressure.
- When cooking is finished, quickly release the pressure by carefully turning the pressure release valve to VENTING.
- Take out bay leaf.
- Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Stir the goulash and serve.
Video
Notes
- Can sub ground turkey or extra lean ground beef.
- I like to use lite soy sauce.
- Nutrition values are estimates.
Nutrition
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Comments & Reviews
Jean says
I have made this several times. I won’t make it any other way. I do add a 4oz can of mushrooms if I have them on hand. If not it’s perfect as written. As for leftovers we like to make sandwiches. We don’t heat it up just add some mayonnaise to the bread. Yum. Thank you.
Kate says
Thank you so much! We love the leftovers, but I haven’t tried it as a sandwich. We’ll have to give that a try!
Nita says
So easy and delicious! Came out very good.
Kate says
Thank you! I’m so glad that you liked it!
Marie says
A bite of nostalgia. I hadn’t thought about goulash in years. Great comfort food. Thanks!
Sally Foster says
You said it was great for leftovers but no directions. Please give me times. Thanks
Kate says
Hi! I’m sorry, but I’m not sure what you mean by times. I just store the leftovers in the fridge and reheat until warm in the microwave.
Linda says
Great recipe! Easy to follow and very tasty. Thank you for sharing.
Kate says
Thanks!! I’m glad you liked it. Thanks for commenting! =)
Christy says
How do I go about doubleing this recipe
In my instant pot
Kate says
When I’ve doubled recipes, I just double the recipe. I haven’t found a need to make any changes to the cook time for pasta dishes like this.