This super easy Goulash Recipe is a comfort food classic! It’s filled with hearty ground beef and tender pasta in a rich tomato-based sauce and comes together in about 30 minutes!
I’m always looking for new and exciting ways to turn ground beef into dinner, but sometimes I just love the good old classics that bring me right back to my childhood. This Goulash Recipe is just that. It’s super affordable, quick to make and tastes like a warm hug on a cool evening.
Classic Goulash Recipe
Are you familiar with Goulash? If not, let me introduce you to this old fashioned recipe! This recipe is an American Goulash that’s great for busy weeknights, but I love to take this recipe to potlucks and parties because it makes a ton and is super affordable. It’s also great for picky eaters, I haven’t met one kid who doesn’t love this dish!
Goulash is filled with ground beef, onion and bell peppers along with macaroni noodles in a tomato-based sauce. I like to stir in some sharp cheddar cheese at the end to give it a creamy texture. My family loves it!
Goulash Ingredients:
- Onion – I like to use either a white or yellow onion
- Green Bell Pepper – you can use other colors of peppers if desired
- Ground Beef
- Garlic
- Tomato Sauce
- Diced Tomatoes – I love using the petite diced tomatoes here
- Beef Broth
- Worcestershire Sauce
- Seasoned Salt
- Italian Seasoning
- Bay Leaves
- Dry Macaroni Noodles – other small pastas would work too
- Cheddar Cheese
How To Make Goulash
- Start by browning the ground beef along with the onion and bell pepper. Drain any fat and then toss in garlic until fragrant.
- Pour in tomato sauce and diced tomatoes along with beef broth and Worcestershire sauce for some added depth of flavor.
- Add in the seasonings as well as dried macaroni noodles and let simmer until the noodles are cooked through.
- Finally stir in the cheddar cheese and dig in!
Tips and Variations:
- Make sure you use a big pot, as this recipe does make a lot!
- You can swap out the macaroni noodles for any other small pasta you have on hand.
- To make this an even leaner meal, you can use ground turkey in place of ground beef.
- Try adding in extra veggies like: corn, peas, diced carrots, green beans or even stirring in baby spinach at the end!
- Stir in a cup of sour cream at the end to give this recipe an even creamier base!
- The goulash is not quite soup consistency, but if you would like to add extra beef broth to make it more soupy you can definitely do that!
More Comfort Food Dinners
- Chicken Noodle Casserole
- Cabbage Soup Recipe
- Instant Pot Beef Stew
- Ground Beef Cheesesteak Pasta Skillet
Helpful Products To Make This Recipe
Here are some of my favorite tools to make this American Goulash Recipe:
- Cast Iron Dutch Oven (6 quarts)
- Wooden Spoon Set
- Cheese Grater
Easy Goulash Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 cup onion, diced
- 1 green bell pepper, diced
- 2 lbs. ground beef, lean
- 3 tsp garlic, minced
- 2 15 oz cans tomato sauce
- 2 15 oz cans petite diced tomatoes
- 3 cups beef broth
- 3 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
- 2 tsp seasoned salt
- 2 tbsp Italian Seasoning
- 3 bay leaves
- 2 cups macaroni noodles, uncooked
- 1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
Instructions
- Add olive oil to large pot over medium-high heat. Add in the onion, bell pepper and ground beef then cook until beef is no longer pink. Drain any excess fat and return pot to stove top. Add in garlic and stir until fragrant (about 30 seconds).
- Pour in the tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, beef broth, Worcestershire sauce, seasoned salt, Italian seasoning, bay leaves and dried macaroni noodles. Stir and bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat to a light boil and stir occasionally until the pasta is tender, about 20 minutes.
- Remove the bay leaves and stir in the cheddar cheese just before serving. Enjoy!
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Amazing! Definitely will eat it again!
I made this recipe with a few tweaks by using my own homemade pasta sauce (so it already had most of the seasonings, an additional diced red pepper. This was absolutely delicious! Thank you!
Loved this recipe!!! Thank you
This turned out so good – great flavor. And it was easy to make!
Can you freeze this recipe with the pasta. I’m single and I cut this recipe in half, but it’s still too much to eat immediately.
Hi Karen. I am not who you asked but I’ve been cooking dinner daily for longer than I care to admit, lol, so here’s my advice. You can count on cooked pasta having a texture change post freezing in any recipe containing liquids. Fully cooked pasta will certainly get mushy… but if willing to put in the effort we can mitigate mushiness. One thing that helps is to only cook the pasta to a firm al dente point in the first place, but that alone won’t do it. Following cooking you’ll want to quickly chill and freeze the leftovers, stoping the liquid absorbstion issue as quickly as possible. This can be acheived by spreading the leftovers very thin. This could be done in one or two freezer/zipper bags, or a large covered pan/dish, though flat bags store easier in my freezer. It is imperative that you begin storing and cooling right away… do not let the hot goulash sit in the pot or serving dish while you eat and then put away. Instead, start the cooling, chilling, freezing process started immediately. In the meantime, the serving you do not freeze will have time to cool a bit and that pasta will continue cooking a bit, so it will not be as firm as when you finished cooking. With all this in place, still, the stored pasta won’t be as al dente as the first night, but you will reduce overall mushiness. All that said, I tend to not freeze most pasta dishes… I just cook enough to feed the family twice, 3 – 4 days apart, and call it good.
I made a half recipe for myself and my husband, with a few tweaks, but nothing serious. My Bigdaddy worked in a school lunchroom in the 60s and 70s…he was the official goulash maker there, and we begged for it at home. Delicious, filling, cheap and…memorable. Thanks for the recipe!
This is the recipe of my childhood and so perfect. My dad was gone for work for months at a time so when he was home he cooked and cleaned and chauffeured us kids everywhere. Mom was an RN who worked nights and raised 4 kids mostly by herself. Anyway dad was a good cook and he often made this but he’d throw in leftovers and called it Refrigerator Soup. Thanks for the memories with this recipe!
Can you freezer this?
This is a far cry from Hamburger Helper! Haha, So much better and the kiddos loved it too. I always cook my pasta separately and add to each bowl as needed. Put the rest in a baggie, refrigerate and used the next day with leftovers.
Yummy, Thanks!
This is Comfort food! So yummy Looking forward to leftovers
Mom made Goulash when we were coming up, we all loved it. Supper to nite! Next to her tacos, or pinto beans with pork hocks, fried chicken,… well it was all good. My wife sure ain’t my mom. I’m the cook, after 32 years I’ve learned.