Beefy Tomato Penne Pasta in your Instant Pot!
Beefy Tomato Penne Pasta made in your Instant pot is sure to please those family members who love pasta and still keep you on plan. This is a one pot meal served with a nice leafy green salad.This post may contain affiliate links to Amazon or other programs. I do earn a small commission from the sales made through these links; however your price never changes.
Using Dreamfields Pasta in Your Journey
Using Dreamfields Pasta is a personal choice in your THM journey. Only 5 net carbs are counted when using this pasta due to the matrix coating. It is also very important not to over cook this pasta. The cooking time in in the Instant Pot is reduced by at least half. Most often I used 1/2 the time minus 1 minute to allow the pot to do a natural pressure release for a minute or two to help prevent spitting through the pressure release knob. This cooking time is important to avoid changing the matrix coating.
For those of us who continue to use it, count it as “5 digestible carbs” per serving, this recipe serves 6. While the product contains 41 carb grams, the premise is that they are not all digested, so it can be used as low-carb “frankenfood” even though technically, it’s not low-carb.
It’s best not to over do the pasta on the Trim Healthy Mama Plan. Be mindful and only use Dreamfields once a week but if you are experiencing stalls no more than twice a month.
Tips for Cooking Beefy Tomato Penne Pasta
When cooking this dish in your Instant Pot it’s important to follow the instructions as written. Being sure to de-glaze your pot is a very important step because these sauteed bits of fond (food particles) can cause your pot sensor to over heat. Fond is French for “base” and commonly refers to the browned bits and caramelized drippings of meat and vegetables that are stuck to the bottom of a pan after sautéing or roasting.
Also, DO NOT stir after de-glazing your liner. Layer your ingredients as listed in the recipe. Stirring after de-glazing the pot can also cause the sensor to over heat due to the crushed tomatoes.
Ingredients and tools used in Beefy Tomato Penne Pasta
Here some of the tools and ingredients that I used in this recipe:
- Serves: 8
- Calories: 505
- Fat: 19g
- Carbohydrates: 57g
- Sodium: 951mg
- Fiber: 8g
- Protein: 31g
- Cholesterol: 63mg
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil (refined)
- 1½ pounds ground beef, extra lean
- 1 cup onion (diced)
- ⅔ cup green pepper (diced)
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 teaspoon THM Himalayan mineral salt
- 2 teaspoons THM Gentle Sweet (or your favorite on plan sweetener)
- 2 cups low sodium beef broth (divided) or homemade beef broth
- 28 ounces crushed tomatoes
- 16 ounces tomato sauce (sugar free)
- 16 ounces Dreamfields penne pasta
- 1 cup water
- ½ cup grated fresh Parmesan cheese (optional)
- 1 tablespoon dried parsley flakes (optional)
- Set your Instant Pot to saute when screen reads hot add coconut oil then ground beef. Saute breaking into pieces. Add onion and pepper when the ground beef is nearly cooked through.
- Saute ground beef, onion and peppers until the onion starts to turn translucent, then add garlic powder, basil, Worcestershire sauce, sweetener and salt.
- Using 1 cup of beef broth, de-glaze the pot by scraping and stirring until all the bits of fond are removed fro the bottom of the liner.
- Press cancel on control panel
- Add crushed tomatoes and sauce, DO NOT stir.
- Next, add penne pasta, remaining cup of beef broth and water. Gently push the penne pasta down so it is covered with the water and broth.
- Cover, lock lid, set to vent to sealing. press [Manual] or [Pressure Cook] button, adjust time to 4 minutes. Once pot beeps allow to naturally release pressure (NPR) for 1 minute, then quickly release the pressure.
- Once the pressure pin has dropped, remove cover and stir.
- Serve garnished with chopped parsley and grated cheese if desired.
That looks amazing! I’ll need to add this to our menu! Oh, my!
I hope your family enjoys it as much as ours does!
I can’t wait to try this recipe!
Thank you for sharing!