Instant Pot Cajun Goulash is hands down one of my husbands favorite meals!
Goulash is one of those recipes I honestly had never tried until I got married! It was something that my mother-in-law made for her kids growing up. It was a must have for my husband so I adapted one of her more traditional recipes and came up with this tasty Cajun Goulash!
It’s an instant family favorite but the best part is the whole dish is made right in the Instant Pot so clean up is minimal!
In this recipe I use Elbow Chickpea Pasta (Corkscrew works great too!) because it is packed full of protein and fiber! You are welcome to use regular pasta if your family prefers.
This is a perfect meal to make when you running short on time and need to get dinner started. It can also be made ahead of time and reheated!
I make my own Cajun Seasoning, using spices you probably already have on hand! If your family isn’t as accustomed to spice it’s okay to cut the cajun seasoning in this recipe to 3 teaspoons. Click here for my cajun seasoning recipe!
I hope your family enjoys this Cajun Goulash as much as mine does!
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Brittany Williams has taken the weight loss world by storm with her best-selling Instant Loss Cookbook. After reaching a peak weight of 260 pounds and spending a lifetime struggling with obesity, yo-yo dieting, autoimmune diseases, and chronic fatigue, Brittany changed her relationship with food and lost an astonishing 125 pounds in a year through diet alone.
Brittany’s latest book, Instant Loss Eat Real, Lose Weight shows how to make this a sustainable lifestyle with kid and family-friendly meals—from Strawberry Shortcake Oatmeal to Cowboy Chili to Easy 2-Minute Pork Chops. Members of her growing community have reported losing 50 and even 100 pounds themselves! This cookbook will help others achieve similar success with simple, delicious meals, nearly all ready in 30 minutes or less.
Instant Pot Cajun Goulash
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons salted butter or ghee
- 1 red bell pepper, sliced thinly
- 1 green bell pepper, sliced thinly
- 1 large yellow onion, sliced thinly
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 pound ground turkey or pork sausage
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 4 roma tomatoes, diced
- 2 cups chicken or vegetable broth
- 1 cup canned coconut milk
- 8 oz chickpea pasta
- 5 teaspoons cajun seasoning
- cayenne pepper, for serving
- green onions, for serving
Instructions
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Pre-Heat your Instant Pot using the SAUTE function. When the display panel reads HOT add the butter, bell peppers, onion, sea salt, and black pepper. Sauté for 3 minutes, stirring periodically, then add ground turkey and minced garlic.
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Cook the until the turkey has browned, about 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes, broth, coconut milk, chickpea pasta, and cajun seasoning. Stir to combine.
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Put the lid on the pot and turn the vent valve to the SEALING position. Press CANCEL and select the MANUAL/PRESSURE COOK function. Use the +/- buttons to set the pot for 4 minutes.
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When the pot is finished cooking open the vent valve to quickly vent the pressure. Once the pin drops remove the lid, press the CANCEL button and let sit so that the noodles absorb all of the yummy juice. It will be a bit soupy when you remove the lid, the longer it sits and cools the more water is absorbed. Top with cayenne pepper and green onions or chives, Enjoy!
Excellent and so easy. Couldn’t find pasta noodles so I used regular macaroni. Great! Will be making this again. How do up pin this or save it to a recipe box?
Could you use unsweetened Almond milk?
Sure!
There isn’t ANYTHING Cajun about this!
No coconut milk and no chickpea pasta.
This is more Indian goulash.
When I name a recipe I name it based on taste, ingredients take a back seat in the naming process. I encourage you to try it! 🙂 It doesn’t taste like Indian cuisine but cajun. I use coconut milk as a substitute for heavy cream and chickpea pasta because it tastes the same as regular pasta but doesn’t contain gluten or grain.
This tastes 100% Cajun and 110% delicious!!! Pure perfection!!
Where can I buy that pasta? The amazon listing says by the case..
Thanks
Whole Foods, Walmart, Target, etc 🙂
Fresh Thyme and Whole Foods has the pasta
So this pasta really holds up in the IP?? I just bought some of this brand and was wondering if I can use it in there for meals. So many GF pastas go all weird and yucky just on the stove top.
Hi Dee! It held up great! I was impressed. 🙂
Wonderful !! I’ll let you know how it goes. I look forward to trying your recipe and this new pasta
This is a wonderful recipe. I used brown rice quinoa pasta and it turned out great. I made the spice mix that you linked to, next time not so much cayenne, but it is nice that I can adjust that easily. Great job!!!
Can regular pasta be used here?
Absolutely!
Just made this! It was so easy and so delicious. Definitely a Cajun kick to it! I just bought your week three meal plan and some other stuff that you have posted on your amazon account. Your weight loss is inspiring! Hopefully I can get disciplined like you have, and stop my bad habits!
3 words….Best. Recipe. Ever!
Is there enough room in the 6 qt. to double this? It sounds like a good meal to have leftovers of!
It’s a fantastic meal to have leftovers of! It’s so funny that you ask, I just doubled it tonight for dinner, so yes! 🙂
I have this in my instant pot right now. I used grass fed hamburger and put 2 lbs. in and just left the rest like it was. Can’t wait to taste it. I’ve been eating pretty healthy but still need to lose about 30 pounds. I’ve been making more of your recipes and they are all good. Thanks.
Hi Mary! I hope you enjoyed it! It’s one of my husbands favorites! 🙂
Brit, what brand ground turkey are you using now? Jennie o’ used to be 1 lb plus but they changed it and now only 1 lb. That’s the only one we seem to like.
I use the organic Foster Farms from Costco. 🙂
Can I used coconut oil instead of butter? we can’t use butter
Sure!
Yummo! This goulosh was eaten up by everyone but the picky 10 year old who eats with his eyes, wink wink. Thank you Brittany!
This was delicious! I made this last night and everyone loved it, including my 19 month old. It was so good that I’m making it again right now (I’m making a double batch this time). Thank you!
YAY! That makes me so happy! I am so glad ya’ll liked it! It’s my husbands favorite. 🙂
what is the specified order to place the ingredients in the pot after sauteing everything?
Made this last night. Very tasty!!!! I don’t have access to the chickpea pasta (but will definitely purchase online) and need to figure out where to buy grass-fed butter (I live in Germany…and looking online…I should have no problem finding it here). Will definitely make this again!!!!
Oh my goodness! Just made this tonight and it was totally delicious! Don’t have an Instant Pot, but it was super easy to make on the stovetop 😊 Love it!
I don’t have an instant pot so will try to make this old school. Is this still good for weight loss? Your story is inspiring!
Okay, so I really want to try this because of all the comments, but I’m assuming that its spicy right? We have a few people in this house that aren’t fans of spicy (including me). How do I adjust that?
If you don’t want spice, just leave out the Cajun seasoning and cayenne completely. I would replace it with a big spoonful of sweet paprika plus a big dash each of garlic powder and onion powder. That’s a more traditional goulash anyway 🙂
I only have a crockpot. Thoughts on what changes I’d need to make to make it in the crockpot? Thanks for any tips.
Can you use a can of diced tomatoes with liquid if you don’t have fresh tomatoes on hand?
Also, would cumin work instead of cajun seasoning or cayenne pepper? We have a cayenne pepper allergy in the house 🙁 He’s not too happy about it.
Thanks for sharing and all you do! So far, my family has loved all the recipes of yours that I’ve tried 🙂
I tell you what; your recipes do not disappoint! So happy I found you. Love this dish and all the others as well!
Is that really 1LB 10 oz turkey? That seems like an odd amount but very specific. It is in between 1.5 lbs and 2 lbs. Just wanted to make sure I’m reading that correctly?
Thanks for this awesome recipe! My husband loved it so much that half an hour after dinner, he said, “Thanks again for dinner, it was really super. Can I give you a hug?” Too funny. 🙂
I used Banza Cavatappi (my store was out of the Banza Elbow pasta) and it worked great; I think I’ll probably use that in the future. For the Cajun Seasoning, I used a Creole Seasoning I had handy. To get close to the 1 lb 10 oz for the meat, I bought a 3 lb. chub of 90% lean ground turkey and used half, froze the rest.
Thanks again – I really appreciate your recipes and plan to purchase your cookbook.
I have made this recipe many times. We like it very much. It is easy and has a lot of flavors.
This is AMAZING. My favourite Instant Loss recipe so far (and I love all of them!). Perfect amount of flavour and is just so simple to make.
II just made this and am enjoying my first bowl! I am using My Fitness Pal food diary and want to enter tonights dinner. Is the nutritional info per serving available somewhere?
No, you would need to enter it into My Fitness Pal one ingredient at a time.
Made the Cajun Goulash tonight. Huge hit. Because I am sensitive to spice I only added 1 teaspoon of Cajun spice. My husband can be very picky about pasta, so I didn’t tell him it was chickpea. I also didn’t go into details about the ingredients. Husband went back for seconds.
I make this a lot in the fall and winter. It’s so good and it’s super easy to pack up and take to work for lunch.
I’m allergic to coconut. What non-dairy option can I use in the place of coconut milk?
Hi Vickie, You can use any other milk 🙂
This was amazing! The entire family agreed! It has a ton of flavor. I will definitely be adding this to my recipe book. Thank you so much for everything you do!
Do you have the calorie information for your recipes? I bought your cook book and would line this information.
Hello Toni,
I do not include the calorie count on any recipe. All ingredients have different nutritional information so it will always vary depending on the exact ingredients you’re using. If you need to track nutritional information it’s best to calculate the nutritional information for each recipe with your own ingredients into a program like MyFitness Pal because it can vary A LOT.
Wish you all the best!
Can you use regular whole milk in place of the coconut milk?
Yes you can 🙂
Just curious…on the saute setting can I use a little water rather than butter…trying to utilize your recipes and adjust to a plant based style. Also without the ground turkey. FYI…I have had my IP for almost 2yrs and haven’t used it yet!!! Your cookbook has inspired me and I plan to use it this weekend.
Is there a way to crockpot this instead?
Hello Becca, I am not sure. I have never made this recipe in a crockpot before.
My family loved this!
Can a can of diced tomatoes be used? Our store never seems to have good tomatoes and hardly ever any Roma tomatoes. We will be having this a lot!
Hi Leslie,
Yes you totally could use diced tomatoes instead! Thanks so much for reaching out!
I just started looking at your recipes and I am going to try some of them. They sound amazing. My question is do you list the nutritional value of the recipes anywhere? Thank you
Hello Janice,
Thank you for reaching out! I do not include the calorie count or nutritional information on any of my recipes. All ingredients have different nutritional information so it will always vary depending on the exact ingredients (brands) you’re using. If you need to track nutritional information it’s best to calculate it for each recipe with your own ingredients into a program like MyFitness Pal because it can vary A LOT.
Wish you all the best!
What kind of ground pork sausage would you use? I’ve seen Italian sausage and the breakfast ones. I’m assuming Italian, but wondered if the seasoning would conflict. Thanks for all your info, and for being real about food.
Hi Audrey,
I use ButcherBox heritage free pork and I purchase it here: http://butcherbox.go2cloud.org/aff_c?offer_id=6&aff_id=3859&aff_unique1=email
Holy cow this was soo good! I did sub sausage for the turkey smoked sausage cause it needed to go. I wish i had read this from the site and not the book bc i left the lid on for the ten minutes at the end instead of sitting with it off, so mine was probably brothier and pasta a little mushier, but the spice level is perfect without adding extra cayenne as a topper. I will definitely make this again. I used almond milk instead of coconut and regular large size mac.