One Pot Beef Enchilada Pasta

One of my favorite ways to change up pasta night is to bring enchilada flavors to a pasta dish. Rich and intensely flavored One Pot Beef Enchilada Pasta takes advantage of convenience ingredients like canned enchilada sauce to make a truly delicious meal fast.

This easy but tasty pasta dish is not our only one pot pasta you can have from freezer to table in twenty minutes or less. Another great recipe to try is One Pot Creamy Mushroom Chicken Pasta. Another example of surprising combinations that work is found in this One Pot Cajun Chicken Pasta.

Spend one weekend each month putting a few of these dishes into gallon-size freezer bags and over time, you develop a well stocked freezer to take the meal planning stress out of busy weeknights. Without this approach, I could not have survived our hardest years raising a family!

One Pot Beef Enchilada Pasta Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 lb. ground beef, browned and cooled
• 1/2 cup minced onion
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 Tbsp. taco seasoning
• 2 cans red enchilada sauce
• 1 cup tex mex or cheddar cheese, shredded

Ingredients for the Day of Cooking

• 1 1/4 cup water
• 340 g pasta – penne or fusilli

How to Make One Pot Beef Enchilada Pasta

Assembly Instructions

1. Place all ingredients except cheese in a large resealable freezer bag.
2. Squish to combine.
3. Place cheese in a medium bag.
4. Remove excess air, seal, staple bags together above the seal, and freeze.

Cooking Instructions

1. Thaw overnight in the fridge.
2. Place large bag contents in a large stovetop pot.
3. Add water.
4. Bring to a boil.
5. Stir in the dry pasta.
6. Cook until pasta is al dente, stirring frequently.
7. Stir in the cheese and allow it to melt. Serve.

What is “al dente” mentioned in the recipe?

The literal definition of this Italian phrase means “to the tooth”. I’ve heard chefs describe it as a pleasant “toothiness”. It refers to the proper and traditional way to cook pasta. It should be cooked until it is just ready to let your teeth sink fully into the pasta and before it gets too soft or turns fully white.

The beautiful thing about al dente pasta (besides being the correct way to enjoy this ingredient) is that when it softens up a bit over time, the leftovers are still fully edible. Overcooked pasta falls apart, has an unpleasant texture, and doesn’t reheat well.

One Pot Beef Enchilada Pasta Recipe Ideas

Sometimes, cooks think that the flavors of an enchilada do not lend themselves to the addition of vegetables. This couldn’t be further from the truth! Yellow squash, green squash, zucchini or mushrooms will all actually take on the flavors of the sauce when they are cooked in it.

That makes these additions an excellent way to increase the number of servings in your dish without paying for more meat or changing the overall impact of the dish. You also naturally increase the nutrients in the dish by adding veggies. You can add any of these veggies or fungi to the bag at the time of freezing the dish or to the pot on the day of cooking the dish. Either approach will work.

One other way you can change up the dish to add variation is changing the heat or spice levels with red pepper flakes, ancho chili powder, diced hot peppers like habenero or jalepeno, or crushed, dried hot peppers.

Instead of cooking with water, you could substitute beef broth to amp up that flavor further.

You or your children might not be big fans of beans, but I do find the small and firm black beans are a nice alternative to the traditional kidney bean and more palatable to picky eaters. Drained and rinsed canned black beans can be added to this dish in the last five minutes for a nice textural contrast, flavor, and extra protein. It’s also a non-threatening way to introduce beans and expand your palates. They are easy to find and pick out if needed!

How do I store One Pot Beef Enchilada Pasta?

Leftovers can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to five days. Reheat your leftovers on the stovetop or in a microwave.

What to Serve with One Pot Beef Enchilada Pasta

The beauty of this dish is that you are only messing up one dish in your kitchen, so you might be wondering what to do about veggies. That’s a great question! You might find it important to serve veggies with each meal, so you have the option of messing up one additional dish to mix up a fresh store-bought bag of salad or roast a sheet pan of green beans or asparagus or broccoli. All of those would be a nice contrast to the pasta dish.

Another low-mess way to serve a green vegetable is to get a steam-in bag of veggies in the produce department or from the freezer case. Bread such as garlic bread, French bread, Italian bread, or any homemade bread would be nice additions to this meal.

Print

One Pot Beef Enchilada Pasta

Prep Time

15 mins

Cook Time

15 mins

Total Time

30 mins

 

Servings: 4

Calories: 787 kcal

Ingredients

Ingredients for the Freezer Bag

• 1 lb ground beef, browned and cooled
• 1/2 cup onion minced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 Tbsp taco seasoning
• 2 cans red enchilada sauce
• 1 cup tex mex or cheddar cheese, shredded

Ingredients for the Day of Cooking

• 1 1/4 Cup water
• 340 g pasta – penne or fusilli

Instructions

Assembly Instructions

1. Place all ingredients except cheese in a large resealable freezer bag.

2. Squish to combine.

3. Place cheese in a medium bag.

4. Remove excess air, seal, staple bags together above the seal, and freeze.

Cooking Instructions

1. Thaw overnight in the fridge.

2. Place large bag contents in a large stovetop pot.

3. Add water.

4. Bring to a boil.

5. Stir in the dry pasta.

6. Cook until pasta is al dente, stirring frequently.

7. Stir in the cheese and allow it to melt. Serve.