Pressure Cooker "Tomatoey" Pasta
Ingredients (serves 4)
- 1 lb. lean ground meat (beef, turkey, chicken, pork, etc.)
- 1 tbsp. olive oil
- ½ medium onion, diced
- 2 carrots, sliced thin
- 2 zucchini, chunked
- ½ tsp. salt
- 1 24 oz. jar of spaghetti sauce (low-sodium)
- 8 oz. canned sliced mushrooms
- 8 oz. whole wheat or whole grain pasta
Directions
- Turn your pressure cooker on. If you're using a stove top pressure cooker, place it on the stove and begin heating it at medium high. Add the oil and bring it to temperature and then add the onions, carrots, and zucchini and cook until softened a bit. Be sure to stir constantly.
- Add the lean ground meat and cook until the pink is almost gone. To remove the excess grease, place a paper towel over the mixture and press down using the back of a wooden spoon to absorb some of the grease. Carefully lift the paper out of the container and discard.
- Add the spaghetti sauce, pasta, mushrooms and 2 cups water to the cooker. Gently push the pasta down so it is covered by the water. Do not stir.
- Secure the lid of the pressure cooker and set the time for 10 minutes. If using a stove top cooker, bring the cooker to pressure over medium-high heat and then cook for an additional 9-10 minutes.
- Quick release the pressure, gently remove the lid and stir.
Tips
- Use this recipe as a guide on the proportions of ingredients to use and then vary them. For example, replace the whole wheat pasta with egg noodles, the water with broth, the sauce with stewed tomatoes, the vegetables with frozen peas and carrots, and the ground meat with diced chicken breast -- put the lid on and you have a quick soup.
Thinking Outside the Box
The trend still continues! Americans aren’t eating enough vegetables. Ideally, it would be great to our waistlines and the overall nutrition quality of our diet if vegetables made up the majority of our diet. Yet, even with years of promoting the extraordinary benefits to health, Americans still don’t eat the minimum recommended amount of 2 to 21⁄2 cups per day. This is alarming considering tomato sauce, salsa, French fries and legumes are counted as vegetables. We, as Americans, can’t even make the minimum consumption of vegetables when we are eating pizza, spaghetti, and burritos? Read more on how easy it is to sneak more fruits and vegetables in your diet.