One-Pot Cheeseburger Pasta
This easy One-Pot Cheeseburger Pasta is creamy, rich, and decadent tasting. You’ll be surprised to find it’s lightened up! My 4-year-old daughter even asked to eat leftovers the next day without any prompting. It was a big hit in my household! She thinks she doesn’t like turkey, so I didn’t mention that this recipe contains ground turkey instead of ground beef. Between the beef broth, Worcestershire sauce, and hamburger seasoning, this dish has great cheeseburger flavor and she couldn’t even tell! The ketchup and mustard give the flavor a tangy twist and I love biting into the juicy tomatoes throughout. This One-Pot Cheeseburger Pasta combines two comfort foods into one, so if you’re craving pasta and a cheeseburger all at once, there’s no need to choose. Plus it all cooks in one pot for minimal clean-up! A serving of this dish is just 308 calories or 7 WW Points on the current Weight Watchers plan. To view your current WW Points for this recipe and track it in the WW app or site click here!
Recipe Notes
- Serving Size: This recipe makes eight cups total, so I did eight servings of one cup each. If you’d like a larger serving, you can divide it into six servings (1 & 1/3 cup each) for 410 calories or 10 WW Points each.
- Pasta: I used radiatore, which is one of the pasta shapes I buy most frequently, but you can use any medium-sized pasta shape like rotini, orecchiette, or medium shells.
- Water: The liquid totals in this recipe worked perfectly for me, but since all stovetops and burners cook a little differently, feel free to add a bit more water toward the end when cooking the pasta if needed.
- Meat: I use lean ground turkey breast in this recipe to lighten it up, but you can certainly substitute ground beef or another ground meat if you prefer (will affect nutrition estimates and WW Points).
More Tasty Lightened-Up One-Pot Meals
One-Pot meals are one of my favorite types of recipes. I love the ease and simplicity, and I really love not having to wash a pile of pots and pans. If you’re looking for more tasty One-Pot recipes like this One-Pot Cheeseburger Pasta, check out my One-Pot Creamy Tomato Pasta with Chicken and Spinach, Chicken Taco Rice Skillet, One-Pot Turkey and Veggie Spaghetti, One-Pot Chicken Florentine Mac and Cheese, Maple Dijon Chicken and Squash Skillet, One-Pot Cajun Chicken and Sausage Pasta, One-Pot Buffalo Chicken Mac and Cheese, Turkey Sloppy Joe Pasta, One-Pot Spicy Dirty Rice with Chicken and Sausage, Chicken Pot Pasta, Lemon Chicken Orzo, Beefy American Goulash, Rustic Sausage and Potato Skillet, and so many more in the One-Pot Meals category of my recipe index!
One-Pot Cheeseburger Pasta
Ingredients
- 1 lb uncooked 99% lean ground turkey breast
- 1 tablespoon hamburger seasoning, (I use McCormick Grill Mates Hamburger Seasoning –recommended!)
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 small onion, diced
- 1 medium garlic clove, minced
- 3 cups reduced sodium beef broth
- ½ cup water
- 8 oz can tomato sauce
- 12 oz medium-sized pasta, (I used radiatore, but rotini, medium shells, orecchiette, or any pasta of a similar size will work great)
- 2 oz ⅓ less fat cream cheese
- 4 oz shredded 2% milk sharp cheddar cheese
- 1 tablespoon ketchup
- 1 tablespoon yellow mustard
- ½ cup halved cherry tomatoes
Instructions
- Lightly mist a 5 QT Dutch oven or a large pot with cooking spray and bring over medium heat. Add the ground turkey and cook, breaking up with a spatula or cooking spoon until it starts to brown a bit and break into small chunks. Add the hamburger seasoning and Worcestershire sauce and stir together. Add the chopped onion and stir. Continue to cook for another 4-5 minutes until the onions are softened and the turkey is cooked through. Add the minced garlic and stir. Cook for another 30-60 seconds until fragrant.
- Add the beef broth, water, and tomato sauce and stir together. Add the pasta and stir again. Use the back or your spatula or spoon to flatten out the ingredients to be just under the surface of the liquid as best you can. Turn the heat up to med-high and bring the mixture to a boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat to med-low to simmer. Simmer for 12-15 minutes, stirring the ingredients every few minutes to make sure the pasta gets rotated and doesn’t stick to the bottom.
- When the pasta is cooked through and most of the liquid is absorbed, remove the pot from heat. Stir in the cream cheese, cheddar cheese, ketchup and mustard until well combined and melted into a sauce. Add the halved tomatoes and stir to distribute them throughout (they will get warm from being amongst the other ingredients). Serve warm.
Notes
308 calories, 38 g carbs, 6 g sugars, 6 g fat, 3 g saturated fat, 24 g protein, 2 g fiber, 738 mg sodium (from myfitnesspal.com) Weight Watchers Points Plus:
8 per (1 cup) serving (PP calculated using a Weight Watchers PointsPlus calculator and the nutrition info below)
If I were to try this with lean ground beef, would you still add the hamburger seasoning?
Definitely!
You had me at one pot! This sounds so delicious and like it would be a great weeknight staple.
I made this last night and it was delicious! Tastes exactly like a cheeseburger and one of those meals that makes you think it’s really bad for you even though it’s not! Would definitely make again!
Goodness! SO GOOD! It is hard to believe this is a lightened-up recipe! You never disappoint!
It is my favorite food. Really really want an instruction video here.
My sister made this last night for dinner and it is INCREDIBLE! The flavors are so delicious and it’s like having the best of both worlds: pasta and a cheeseburger. I can’t wait to have this one again!
Any suggestion on what spices could be added / substituted for the hamburger seasoning?
Long time fanboy here. I’ve been making recipes on this site since I fell in love with the beer cheese risotto, which was almost 10 years ago. I made this recipe last night and it was so good that I had to review it today. Although it sounds strange to have a hamburger flavored pasta, I found it to be delicious! The ingredients were perfectly proportioned to ensure that each flavor came through in each bite and none of them overpowered the rest. Each bite was like biting into a big cheeseburger with cheese, catsup, mustard and pickles. Thanks Emily!
This made my day!! I’m so happy to hear you loved it. Thanks for leaving a review and for cooking with me for so long!
Another thumbs up vote for this recipe. It was so delicious. The whole family loved it. I substituted fat free cream cheese for the light cream cheese to reduce the WW points and it was still so delicious. I couldn’t even tell I had used fat free cream cheese. Thanks Emily for all the great recipes.
My God I just made this up just now It’s going to be for dinner tonight overheat it in the toaster oven but it literally tastes exactly like a cheeseburger! I used gluten-free pasta, I added some dill pickle seasoning when I serve it I’ll chop up a dill pickle to put on top for garnish! Delicious though!
This was sooo good! Super easy too! Absolutely adding to our dinner rotation!
I just made this and it was delicious, even my very picky husband liked it! I omitted the tomatoes but diced up some dill pickles and topped some on right before servicing. YUM. Thank you for sharing the delicious and easy recipe!!
At one kettle, I was sold. It’s easy to imagine this becoming a regular part of your weeknight dinner rotation.
We had this for dinner tonight and loved it. Great flavors.
There are only 2 of us so I’ve portioned the leftovers out and wondered if it would freeze well ?
Really had a distinct cheeseburger taste! Everyone loved it including the kids. This will become a regular menu item for sure.
Question – can I substitute the beef broth with something else? I have a non-beef eater child.
Just made this recipe tonight and it was fantastic! I also added some baby spinach towards the end and instead of cherry tomatoes, I used a can of (rinsed) diced tomatoes. The whole family loved it. I will definitely be making this again. Thank you for all of your recipes! I have made several and they are always a hit, helping us with our weight loss journey!
Super easy and fast to make, this was actually one of my fav recipes to make so far. Super tasty and my roommates all loved it (plus healthy!)
This is a crazy good recipe, Emily! It’s one of those I-don’t-want-to-stop-eating-this dishes. I used whole wheat rotini which needed a few more minutes to fully cook. I only had a large roma tomato, so I diced that up and added it at the end. We sprinkled dill pickle relish over the top of each portion. Sooo good! We are looking forward to leftovers tomorrow!
I like that it uses ground turkey instead of ground beef to reduce calories, and I also like that it includes simple ingredients like ketchup, mustard, and diced tomatoes. I thought this would be a great dish to make on a busy weeknight.
Do you think this could be done in a slow cooker or placed in a slow cooker after cooking on the stovetop? I’d like to serve this at the end of a meeting but don’t want the pasta to be overdone.
Shubham Visual a and me is also a good day to all of you for your
Just made this and wasn’t quite sold it what going to live up to it’s name, but I was wrong! Fantastic and delicious! I added a little dried parsley on top for color and herb flavor. Perfecto!
It’s a good start, but overall kind of bland. I seasoned the beef beforehand with salt, pepper, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, hot sauce, and ketchup, and let that sit for a few hours. Doubled the onion and garlic, got rid of the water, added bacon bits, doubled the cream cheese and cheddar, and I’m thinking I’ll need to add more tomato next time I make it and less bacon bits. Overall though, not bad and makes a lot of food.
This is absolutely delicious!!!! Very easy to make a true comfort food dish. I topped with chopped dill pickles and shredded lettuce. Both my husband and I love a good cheeseburger and this was much better than anticipated. I didn’t have hamburger seasoning, use steak seasoning and came out wonderful. Will definitely make again.