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This One Pot Cheesy Beef Pasta is creamy, cozy, and surprisingly easy! Made in under 30 mins with only 7 ingredients, this savory dish is hearty and fuss-free. Vegan & Gluten-Free.
This post is sponsored by Nasoya.
I think we can all agree that the best recipe is the kind that marries ease with delicious flavor. This One Pot “Cheesy” Beef Pasta is just that! Sort of a mix between cheeseburger pasta and hamburger helper, this creamy one-pot recipe is made from hearty noodles, a cheesy plant-based sauce, and meaty “beef” crumbles.
INGREDIENTS FOR ONE POT CHEESY “BEEF” PASTA
This Cheesy “Beef” Pasta is made with just 7 pantry-friendly ingredients; in fact, the “cheese” sauce is made with only 4 ingredients (most of which are vegetables ????)
- Nasoya Plantspired Savory Tuscan Style Superfood Skillet: This flavor-packed superfood skillet is a mix of crumbled tofu combined with cauliflower rice, veggies, and seasonings for a hearty and protein-packed plant-based meat substitute.
- Cheesy Sauce: Soaked Cashews, Red Bell Pepper, Carrot, and Garlic, combined with a bit of Salt, Pepper, and Nutritional Yeast make the perfect creamy, hearty “cheese” sauce. Tip: If you don’t have time to soak your cashews overnight, see my tips in the recipe notes below.
- Optional Extras: I like to garnish this with a bit of freshly chopped parsley. If you’d like to add more veggies to this recipe, broccoli florets or baby spinach would be a delicious addition; just add them towards the end of cooking ????
HOW TO MAKE ONE POT CHEESY “BEEF” PASTA
The secret to a good one pot pasta is cooking the pasta in just the right amount of liquid – leaving perfectly cooked pasta and a creamy sauce!
- Add the soaked cashews, carrot, bell pepper, garlic, nutritional yeast, salt, black pepper, and water to a blender. Blend until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Set aside.
- Add the Plantspired Savory Tuscan Style Superfood Skillet to a large pot and sauté until slightly brown. Add the pasta, followed by the blended sauce mixture to the pot and stir well.
- Add water and bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce and simmer, stirring frequently. Test the pasta for doneness and remove from heat once it is fully cooked to your liking.
- Allow the sauce to thicken for a few minutes, then transfer to serving bowls, top with optional parsley or freshly ground pepper, and enjoy!
This is the perfect anytime dish—great for lunch or dinner any day of the week! Because it’s so easy to make, this truly fuss-free recipe is perfect for those days when your schedule is full and you can’t be bothered with a time-consuming recipe that ends up leaving you with loads of dishes to clean.
I like to enjoy this dish fresh on the day it’s made, but you can store any leftovers in the fridge for up to 5 days.
If you’re looking for more comfort-inducing one-pot recipes, you’ll also love this One Pot Mushroom Stroganoff, this One Pot Pumpkin Pasta, and this One Pot Quinoa with Butternut Squash!
Finally, if you make this recipe and decide to share it on Facebook or Instagram, don’t forget to tag me @FromMyBowl + #FromMyBowl! I love seeing your delicious recreations 🙂
PrintOne Pot Cheesy “Beef” Pasta
This One Pot Cheesy Beef Pasta is creamy, cozy, and surprisingly easy! Made in under 30 mins with only 7 ingredients, this savory dish is hearty and fuss-free. Vegan & Gluten-Free.
- Prep Time: 10 Minutes
- Cook Time: 15 Minutes
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: Serves 2 to 4 1x
- Category: Main
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup cashews, soaked overnight*
- 1 carrot, roughly chopped
- 1/2 red bell pepper, roughly chopped
- 2–4 cloves of garlic
- 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- Black pepper, to taste
- 3 3/4 cups (890 ml) water
- 1 package Nasoya’s Plantspired Savory Tuscan-Style Superfood Skillet
- 8 ounces (225 g) gluten-free pasta of choice*
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley, for garnish (optional)
Instructions
- Blend the Sauce: add the cashews, carrot, bell pepper, garlic, nutritional yeast, salt, black pepper, and water to a blender. Blend on high for at least 60 seconds, or until the sauce is smooth and creamy. Set aside.
- Sauté the Ground: bring a large pot to medium-high heat and add the Plantspired Savory Tuscan Style Superfood Skillet ; sauté for 3 to 5 minutes, until the crumbles begin to brown slightly. Add the pasta to the pot, followed by the blended sauce mixture. Stir well.
- Boil & Simmer: Bring the mixture to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to medium-low. Simmer the pasta for 12-14 minutes, stirring frequently to prevent anything from sticking to the bottom of the pot. Start to test the pasta for doneness after around 8 minutes, as different varieties of pasta will cook faster or slower. Turn the heat off once the pasta is fully cooked, and the sauce has thickened to your liking. Let the pasta sit for 3-5 minutes, to allow the sauce to thicken more.
- Serve: transfer the pasta to serving bowls and top with fresh parsley (optional) and/or freshly ground pepper. Serve warm; leftovers will keep in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Notes
- Cashews: if you forget to soak your cashews overnight, cover them with boiling water and let sit for 20 minutes. Or, place them in a microwave-safe bowl, cover with water, and microwave for 3 minutes; let sit for 15 minutes before draining.
- Pasta: I used a gluten-free chickpea-based pasta for this recipe, but any variety of gluten-free (or gluten-full) pasta will work! I would recommend using shorter shapes like shells, macaroni, or rotini to prevent breaking.
Keywords: vegan hamburger helper, one pot vegan hamburger helper, one pot cheesy vegan pasta, one pot vegan hamburger helper, vegan cheeseburger pasta
This was really good! I knew my pasta would be done in 8 minutes (rather than 12-14) so I reduced the water by 1/2 cup. This ended up being perfect. Also, I didn’t have any faux meat so didn’t include it, but I DID add broccoli when there was 3 minutes left on the timer, and some red pepper flakes. Yum yum. Will definitely be making again. 🙂
★★★★★
SO good, my husband couldn’t stop raving! I used the new Impossible ground beef, and it turned out amazing. Will make this again and again!
★★★★★
This was so easy and so good! Reminded me of my youth! I just used regular elbow pasta – didn’t have GF and used some crumbles I had in freezer. Served with steamed broccoli and I chopped up some Jalepenos on the top of mine. Both my husband and I loved it.
★★★★★
Ooh jalapeno sounds fun!
As someone who had never made any sort of vegan “cheese” sauce before, I was pretty wary of how this would turn out (especially with so few ingredients!). I ended up being very pleasantly surprised by how delicious this pasta was! The “cheese” sauce was actually pretty similar to cheese in taste, texture, and color. It did have a hint more sweetness to it than actual cheese due to the carrot, but honestly I weirdly liked the little bit of added sweetness. My only advice about the sauce is that if you have a food processor, I would recommend throwing the cashews, pepper, carrot, and dry ingredients into there first before adding water to get a smoother consistency. Regardless, the recipe was quick, easy, and tasty and I appreciate that it uses food I typically have on hand. This is definitely going to go into my regular comfort food rotation! Thanks for sharing!
★★★★★
Good note on the food processor! Using a high powered blender is a bit more thorough but food processors do best with dry ingredients vs wet. So glad you tried out the recipe and liked it!
Made this today subbing another “beefy” crumble I had access to, it came out creamy and delicious using gf pasta. Excited for the leftovers. Excellent weeknight meal. Love your recipes.
★★★★★
Awesome! Thank you for making it!
Delicious! I just made a big pot of this! I used red bell pepper strips from a jar as I didn’t have any fresh. Also, I very lightly steamed the carrot as I was afraid that my Nutribullet wouldn’t blend it well. I also used a new plant based ground that I found at Aldi. This turned out perfect and in my opinion it is better than the boxed version of hamburger helper that I ate as a kid. I definitly could see kids and meat eaters enjoying this dish! Thanks Caitlin!
★★★★★
Thanks so much! So glad you enjoyed it and could make it with what you had on hand!
This was pretty good! Even my meat and cheese eating husband enjoyed it. I was a little skeptical because of how foamy chickpea pasta normally gets but it turned out rich and velvety. Will definitely make again.
★★★★★
Happy to hear it! Thank you for making it!
Very delicious – made this recipe using grilled peppers from a jar and added one more carrot + 1 tsp veget. stock powder. For the amount of liquid we used 250g of whole grain pasta.
Turned out perfect and sooo good ????
★★★★★
Holy crud this is amazing! I have tried so many vegan cheesy pasta and this one by far is my favourite. Thank you 🙂
★★★★★
Yay! Thanks so much for making it!
Do u have to boil the carrots fork tender before blending?
Nope! Just add the chunks of carrot to a high speed blender.
Where do you get the Plantspired product from? I’d like to try this it looks really good.
That might depend on where you’re at! In the PNW it can be found at a few major places like Target, Walmart, Safeway or a few potentially less widespread places like Fred Meyer, QFC, Zupan’s.
Is plantspired actually for sale? As of today, I can’t seem to find it for sale online, and the “where to buy” links at https://nasoyaplantspired.com/products/superfood-skillet-savory-tuscan-style/ is broken.
I’m excited to try this!
I see what you mean! They may not have updated their site yet or maybe are slowly rolling it out. Hope you’re able to try it soon!
Cannot wait to make this!! Looks DELISH! Thanks for such awesome recipes this year!!
xo Madi
★★★★★
Thank you! Looking forward to another year of tons more recipes as well!