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Slow Cooker Mince Pasta Bake. Let me introduce to you one of the best, most delicious, hidden veggie loaded, mince pasta bake recipes. Loaded with seasonal vegetables, minced beef, pasta, and plenty of cheese this is a weeknight meal come true in the slow cooker.
Even better, this makes a large portion, leaving plenty of leftovers for another day that you can reheat in your slow cooker.
Table of Contents
- Mince Pasta Bake
- Can You Put Uncooked Pasta In Slow Cooker?
- Do You Have To Brown Mince Before Putting In Slow Cooker?
- What To Put In Pasta Bake?
- How To Make Pasta Bake With Mince?
- Your Beef Pasta Bake
- How Long To Cook Pasta Bake?
- What To Serve With Pasta Bake?
- Recipes Using Minced Beef
- Slow Cooker Mince Pasta Bake Recipe
- Can’t make it now? Then pin it for later!
Mince Pasta Bake
I had a bad reminder recently about cooking before I fell in love with my kitchen gadgets. A time before I cooked all the time with my instant pot, slow cooker, soup maker and air fryer. A time when you had lots of pots and pans when you cooked dinner and food was not as quick to cook as it is today.
It was from one of my readers.
She had looked in Google for a recipe for mince pasta bake.
The recipe she found told her to:
- Boil the pasta = one pan
- Make the sauce = second pan
- Bake in casserole dish = extra dish
By the time she had finished she would have had loads of washing up. Plus, as she mentioned she wanted a mince beef pasta bake recipe that was loaded with hidden veggies, because her hubby was so fussy about his vegetables.
A few days later, I had the slow cooker out, was making a slow cooker mince pasta bake and giving her an advance copy of the recipe before it was published for her to try herself.
It was a HUGE hit, and the hubby didn’t realise it was loaded with veggies. And her washing up was limited to the slow cooker, and utensils for prepping the ingredients. Plus, she didn’t have to wash up her slow cooker on the day because she reheated the leftovers the next day instead.
Today I wanted to share with you the slow cooker much easier version of a beef mince pasta bake.
Can You Put Uncooked Pasta In Slow Cooker?
I get asked this a LOT! And YES, you can. It is often referred to in recipes as no boil pasta bake and basically means you are loading dried pasta into the slow cooker and it cooks with the rest of the food.
Its like a totally different way to achieve a creamy mince pasta bake because you are not having to worry about boiling the pasta first, because the mince and pasta cook at the same time.
Do You Have To Brown Mince Before Putting In Slow Cooker?
No, you don’t. You can load minced beef directly into a slow cooker with your other ingredients and it will cook without being browned first.
But there are things to note, before you do this:
Don’t do this with a high fat mince. Go with minced beef or other minces such as chicken, turkey or veal that is low in fat. Otherwise, you will get a fatty pasta bake.
It can slow down the cook time. You will often brown mince first and then its finished in the oven. As you are not browning it won’t be as quick. But that is perfect for this recipe because we are slow cooking.
What To Put In Pasta Bake?
Pasta – You can use any pasta. Though for an even cook I recommend a medium shell or something like pasta twists or penne.
Sauce – A mince and pasta bake is not the same without the creamy sauce. We make a hidden veggie pasta sauce in the slow cooker first, before adding in pasta and mince. You can do the same or add a jar of tomato sauce.
Mince – We recommend that you use low fat mince. Avoid mince that says 25% fat because it will make your mince pasta bake way too fatty.
Seasoning – There is nothing worse than bland boring beef mince pasta bakes. I recommend oregano, thyme, basil, either one of these or all. Along with salt, pepper, and garlic. You can also add extra seasoning at the end if it doesn’t taste like it has enough flavour.
Then for the kitchen gadgets that we have used in this minced beef pasta bake recipe in the slow cooker, it has just been our Ninja Foodi. We have this one and it does an amazing job with its slow cooker function and is also ideal for sauteing first.
How To Make Pasta Bake With Mince?
- Sauté. We sauté the onion first in the slow cooker. We purposely bought this slow cooker, (you can see it here) so that we can do this.
- Prep. Slice and dice your hidden veggies and load into the slow cooker. These will the cook on slow on their own first. Skip this step if using a jar of tomato sauce.
- Blend. Use a hand blender, to quickly blend the homemade sauce and then season if needed.
- Load. After blending and seasoning add in the rest of your pasta bake ingredients apart from the cheese in the order mentioned in the recipe card below.
- Slow. Now slow cook and stir. Add cheese and allow to melt before serving.
Your Beef Pasta Bake
When you follow our beef pasta recipe it’s all about making the beef pasta bake with your favourite ingredients and your favourite add ins.
In fact, I like to call it your beef pasta bake.
You can choose which vegetables to add if you want a mince and vegetable bake or you can avoid vegetables and forget our homemade tomato sauce. Then go straight to a jar of Dolmio and then skip the sauce making.
It just depends on how healthy you are feeling and how healthy you want your beef mince pasta bake to be.
How Long To Cook Pasta Bake?
Our slow cooker beef pasta bake recipe is 3 hours to make the homemade tomato sauce, then a further 2 hours for creating the pasta bake.
If using a jar of tomato sauce, then you can achieve a perfectly cooked pasta bake in 2 hours on high or 3.5 hours on low.
What To Serve With Pasta Bake?
I love to have a pasta bake with homemade garlic bread. I recommend you try our air fryer garlic bread, with homemade pizza dough, or alternatively you can load the air fryer oven with an air fryer frozen garlic bread.
Or here are a few other ideas:
Recipes Using Minced Beef
Here are even more recipes using minced beef. Or as they call it in the US ground beef:
Slow Cooker Mince Pasta Bake
Ingredients
Kitchen Gadgets:
Minced Beef Pasta Bake Ingredients:
- 1 Small Onion
- 1 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 500 g Pasta
- 300 g Low Fat Minced Beef
- 100 g Soft Cheese
- 50 g Grated Cheddar Cheese
- Fresh Basil, optional
Hidden Veggie Tomato Sauce Ingredients:
- 1 Celery Stick
- 1 Small Courgette
- 1 Medium Parsnip
- 4 Medium Tomatoes
- 1 Can Tinned Tomatoes
- 1 Tbsp Garlic Puree
- 1 Tbsp Thyme
- 1 Tbsp Basil
- 1 Tbsp Parsley
- Salt & Pepper
Instructions
- Prep your vegetables. Peel, dice and clean them.
- Peel and slice an onion and sauté in the slow cooker with extra virgin olive oil. Cancel sauté and then stir your vegetables in the onion and oil. Add tinned tomatoes and cook for 3 hours on high in the slow cooker.
- When it is done, blend the hidden veggies with the seasoning and garlic, and add more tinned tomatoes if needed.
- Remove half the sauce from the slow cooker and nix with the mince. This is your slow cookers bottom layer.
- Then add a layer of pasta. Followed by a layer of sauce. Finally add an extra layer of mince mixed with sauce. Then add your soft cheese on top.
- Place the lid on your slow cooker and cook for 2 hours on high. After two hours stir, add grated cheese on top and some fresh basil. Allow to sit for a couple of minutes for the cheese to melt or put back on low for 20 minutes and then serve.
Notes
Nutrition
Can’t make it now? Then pin it for later!
