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Turkey & Kale Stuffed Manicotti + VIDEO

Making stuffed manicotti in your slow cooker or Instant Pot couldn’t be any easier. This simple recipe uses uncooked manicotti shells.

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I know I don’t have too many pasta recipes on this blog. I honestly don’t eat a lot of pasta but I appreciate a good (and easy) Italian meal every now and then. If you have my 1st cookbook, you might recognize this recipe. A slightly modified version of this appeared in The Easy & Healthy Slow Cooker Cookbook.

What Is Manicotti?

The word manicotti means little muffs or little sleeves in Italian. It’s a tubular-shaped pasta that’s stuffed and baked. Manicotti tubes are 4-inched long and 1-inch wide. Usually they’re boiled first before being stuffed and baked. In this recipe, there’s no need to pre-boil; the pasta is stuffed uncooked and slow cooked until tender. The thing I love about manicotti is that you can tailor it to suit your taste buds.

turkey & kale stuffing for slow cooker or instant pot stuffed manicotti

the turkey & kale stuffing

The Manicotti Stuffing

Manicotti is usually stuffed with a combination of spinach, and cheeses. To switch things up a bit, I used ground turkey and chopped kale. Yes, of course you can use ground beef & spinach if you want. Think of this recipe as a base. Use your favorite or preferred ingredients to make your stuffing. Onions, bell pepper, mushrooms, sausage…there are so many other ingredients you can add. You can seriously make this 5 times and have it be different every single time. Regardless of what ground meat you use, it does not need to be browned first. Mix together the raw ground meat in a bowl before stuffing.

stuffed shells in the slow cooker before the sauce is added for slow cooker or instant pot stuffed manicotti

What Size Slow Cooker/Pressure Cooker To Use

I used my 3.5-quart Crock-Pot Casserole Crock Slow Cooker but you do not need a casserole-specific slow cooker for this recipe. Any 5 to 6-quart slow cooker or pressure cooker (Instant Pot) will work just fine. Yes I used a 3.5-quart and told you to use a 5-6 quart. The shape really makes a difference. If you try to use an oval-shaped 3.5-quart slow cooker you will not have enough room to fit all the stuffed manicotti and the sauce. Trust me, if you don’t have a 3.5-quart casserole-shaped slow cooker, use a larger oval one. Or cut the recipe in half and use your oval 3.5-quart.

sauce on top of the stuffed manicotti in the slow cooker for for slow cooker or instant pot stuffed manicotti

before (slow cooker)

What Kind Of Cheese To Use

For the cheese, I used a combination of low-fat cottage cheese and mozzarella. Ricotta and Parmesan cheese are other good cheeses that you can substitute here. If you’re using a Crock-Pot brand of slow cooker, you can put your slow cooker insert directly into the oven to brown the cheese after it’s done cooking. This is not the case with all slow cookers. If you’re not using a Crock-Pot, please check your manufacturer’s instructions before adding it to the oven. To my knowledge, there aren’t any pressure cookers (Instant Pot) that can go into the oven.

Other pasta recipes you might enjoy:

Slow Cooker Mac & Cheese

Slow Cooker/Instant Pot Gnocchi, Sausage & Kale

Greek Chicken & Pasta Salad

cooked manicotti with cheese added on top to cook some more for slow cooker or instant pot stuffed manicotti

add remaining cheese and cook a little longer

The Tomato Sauce

The key to using uncooked manicotti (or any pasta) in the slow cooker is that you need enough sauce to cover the pasta completely. You’ll need enough sauce to cover the pasta in order to cook until it’s tender but without drying it out. For me that’s a whopping 56 ounces. Jazz up the sauce to your liking or just dump the crushed tomatoes on top as-is. For my tomato sauce, I added Italian seasoning, salt and pepper to my sauce. Other suggestions include garlic and some onion (raw or dried onion flakes). Diced tomatoes or your favorite marinara sauce can also be used in this recipe in place of crushed tomatoes.

cheese on top of cooked for slow cooker or instant pot stuffed manicotti

after (slow cooker)

[adthrive-in-post-video-player video-id=”2h7uA8Jt” upload-date=”2019-08-25T05:50:05.000Z” name=”Slow Cooker Stuffed Manicotti” description=”Making stuffed manicotti in your slow cooker or Instant Pot couldn’t be any easier. This simple recipe uses uncooked manicotti shells.”]

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cover pic for slow cooker or instant pot turkey & kale stuffed manicotti

{VIDEO} Turkey & Kale Stuffed Manicotti

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star

5 from 1 review

  • Total Time: 3 hours 20 mins
  • Yield: 4 servings 1x

Ingredients

Units Scale
  • 8 ounces manicotti shells, UNCOOKED
  • 2 28ounces crushed or diced tomatoes (56 ounces total)
  • 1 cup water (for pressure cooker)

Stuffing:

  • 1 lb lean ground turkey
  • 1 egg
  • 1 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 cup kale, chopped
  • 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided in two
  • 1 cup low-fat cottage cheese
  • 1 tbsp Italian seasoning
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp pepper

Instructions

Slow Cooker

  1. In a large bowl mix together raw ground turkey, chopped kale, garlic, egg, cottage cheese, 1 cup of the mozzarella cheese, and Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper.
  2. Add mixture to a large plastic bag and close. Cut one of the bottom corners of the plastic bag to make a piping bag.
  3. Squeeze mixture into manicotti shell until full. Repeat until all the shells are stuffed.
  4. Pour 1 cup (or enough to cover the bottom) of the 56 ounces crushed tomatoes in the bottom of the slow cooker. Add the stuffed manicotti shells on top. Pour the remaining 55 ounces of crushed tomatoes on top of the shells until all she shells are covered.
  5. Cook HIGH 3-4 hours or LOW 5-7.
  6. Add remaining 1 cup of mozzarella cheese on top and cook and additional 15-30 minutes or until cheese is melted.

Instant Pot

  1. In a large bowl mix together raw ground turkey, chopped kale, garlic, egg,  cottage cheese, 1 cup of the mozzarella cheese, and Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper.
  2. Add mixture to a large plastic bag and close. Cut one of the bottom corners of the plastic bag to make a piping bag.
  3. Squeeze mixture into manicotti shell until full. Repeat until all the shells are stuffed.
  4. Layer in the crushed tomatoes and manicotti – pour water and 1/3 of the crushed tomatoes in the bottom of the pressure cooker. Add half of the stuffed manicotti shells on top. Pour another 1/3 of the crushed tomatoes on top, add the remaining manicotti, then add the remaining crushed tomatoes.
  5. Close lid and seal valve. Set high pressure and cook 10 minutes. Quick release pressure.
  6. Add remaining cheese on top. Close lid and let sit 5-10 minutes or until cheese is melted.
  • Author: Fit SlowCooker Queen
  • Prep Time: 20 mins
  • Cook Time: 3 hours

Nutrition

  • Serving Size:
  • Calories: 581
  • Sugar: 5.2 g
  • Fat: 20.7 g
  • Saturated Fat: 8.5 g
  • Carbohydrates: 50.3 g
  • Fiber: 2.4 g
  • Protein: 47.9 g
  • Cholesterol: 159.5 mg

My other cookbooks that you might enjoy:

The Low-Sodium Slow Cooker Cookbook

The Healthy Low-Carb Slow Cooker Cookbook.

plated pic of slow cooker or instant pot stuffed manicotti

This post contains affiliate links, which means I receive money if you make a purchase using one of the links. For more about my disclosure policy see here: https://fitslowcookerqueen.com/about/disclosure-policy/

Turkey & Kale Stuffed Manicotti + VIDEO
Recipe rating 5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star

Susan Harris

Monday 26th of August 2019

I’ve made this recipe several times since I got your 1st cookbook. The first time it was dry but I let it sit on warm for a long time. The second time it came out perfect.