Crockpot meat sauce and zoodles is a healthy slow cooker alternative to a classic recipe. A homemade meat sauce slow cooks with zucchini noodles aka zoodles in the slow cooker or Instant Pot. Ditch the pasta in this lightened up low-carb, paleo & Whole30 compatible recipe.
Ingredients for Meat Sauce & Zucchini Noodles
- Ground Meat: Use your preferred ground meat. I used ground beef but ground turkey, chicken, or pork sausage
- Zucchini: How many zucchini noodles aka zoodles you use is up to you. I found the sweet spot to be 3-4 medium-size zucchinis.
- Onion & Garlic: If you choose to make your own meat sauce, you may find that you do not need to add the onion or garlic.
- Crushed or Diced Tomatoes: You do not have to make your own meat sauce. Feel free to substitute a 24 ounce jar of your favorite marinara or pasta sauce.
- Seasonings: I like to keep things simple and use Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper. Italian seasonings can be substituted with another dried herb like parsley, basil, oregano, thyme, etc.
How To Make Meat Sauce & Zoodles In The Crock-Pot
- Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the ground beef and onion. Cook 3-5 minutes until the meat is no longer pink, crumbling the meat as it cooks. Add the garlic & cook an additional minute. Drain the grease and add the beef, onion, and garlic to the slow cooker.
- Add the tomatoes, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper to the slow cooker. Stir to mix well.
- Cook HIGH 2-3 hours or LOW 4-6.
- Stir in zucchini noodles. Cook 5 minutes on warm.
- Turn on the pressure cooker and select sauté. Once hot add the ground beef and onion to the pot. Cook 3-5 minutes or until the meat is no longer pink. Crumble the beef as it cooks. Add garlic & cook an additional minute. Drain excess grease from the pot.
- Turn off the pressure cooker. Add the broth (or water) and & deglaze the bottom of the pressure cooker by scraping all the bits off with a wooden spoon.
- Stir in the tomatoes, Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper.
- Close and seal vent. Select high pressure and set time for 8 minutes. When cooking time is complete, quick-release pressure.
- Stir in zucchini zoodles and cook on WARM until the zoodles are done to your soft to your liking.
What Are Zoodles
Zoodles are zucchini noodles. They’re a great healthy alternative to pasta because they’re low-carb, paleo, and whole30. The zoodles are added the last few minutes of cook time. You can move the meatballs to one side of the pot and place the zoodles in the sauce OR you can just lay them on top. I usually just throw them on top. They’ll cook the same regardless of how you add them. I use The Inspiralizer to make my zoodles. If you don’t have a specific zoodle maker like The Inspiralizer, you can use a simple julienne peeler to make your zoodles.
Homemade Meat Sauce
The meat sauce is simple – ground meat, crushed tomatoes, onion, garlic, Italian seasoning, salt & pepper. If you want to add more to the meat sauce, by all means do so. You can really make this your own…or use a store-bought sauce!
FAQs & Tips
- Store leftover zoodles & meat sauce in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. I don’t recommend freezing leftover but you technically can. If you do, please note the zucchini noodles will be very soft when you reheat it.
- Skip adding the crushed tomatoes and use a store-bought marinara or pasta sauce.
- Don’t want to zoodle the zucchini? Don’t. Chop them up and make this a slow cooker zucchini meat sauce recipe!
- Make this recipe your own & add more vegetables. Suggestions include bell pepper, mushroom, artichokes, etc.
Meat Sauce Recipes
PrintCrockpot Meat Sauce And Zoodles
Crockpot meat sauce and zoodles is a healthy slow cooker alternative to a classic recipe. A homemade meat sauce slow cooks with zucchini noodles aka zoodles in the slow cooker or Instant Pot. Ditch the pasta in this lightened up low-carb, paleo & whole30 compatible recipe.
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 3 hours
- Total Time: 3 hours 10 mins
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 pounds zucchini (approximately 3-4 medium), cut into zoodles
- 1 pound ground meat
- 28 ounces crushed or diced tomatoes (or store-bought sauce)
- 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning or another dried herb
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt (or more)
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 1/2 cup beef broth or water for Instant Pot only
Instructions
- Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the ground meat and onion. Cook 3-5 minutes until the meat is no longer pink, crumbling the meat as it cooks. Add the garlic & cook an additional minute. Drain the grease and add the meat, onion, and garlic to the slow cooker.
- Add the tomatoes, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper to the slow cooker. Stir to mix well.
- Cook HIGH 2-3 hours or LOW 4-6.
- Stir in zucchini noodles. Cook an additional 5 minutes on warm.
- Turn on the pressure cooker and select sauté. Once hot add the ground meat and onion to the pot. Cook 3-5 minutes or until the meat is no longer pink, crumbling the meat as it cooks. Add garlic & cook an additional minute. Drain excess grease from the pot.
- Turn off the pressure cooker. Add the broth (or water) and & deglaze the bottom of the pot by scraping all the bits off with a wooden spoon.
- Stir in the tomatoes, Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper.
- Close and seal vent. Select high pressure and set time for 8 minutes. When cooking time is complete, quick-release pressure.
- Stir in zucchini zoodles and cook on WARM until the zoodles are done to your liking.
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 225
- Sugar: 0 g
- Sodium: 562.8 mg
- Fat: 3.5 g
- Saturated Fat: 1.7 g
- Carbohydrates: 14.6 g
- Fiber: 0.5 g
- Protein: 25.2 g
- Cholesterol: 67.8 mg
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16 thoughts on “Crockpot Meat Sauce And Zoodles”
Can I use frozen zucchini noodles/zoodles?
You can. The texture will be different than from fresh; it won’t be al dente. But it should still taste good:-)
When using the pressure cooker should you add water? Or is there enough liquid from the tomatoes?
No water just the 28 ounces of diced tomatoes:-)
Wife made this and it was delicious and hearty, but not too heavy. This will be on regular rotation in our house! Thanks FSCQ
Doing Whole30 and trying this recipe today! Looks great!
Can u give me the carb, fat & protein count? Tia ☺
Recipe updated:-) Enjoy!
Still don’t see updated info about carb, fat etc
Nutritional information is located in the recipe box underneath the instructions.
Could you use spaghetti squash instead?
No. Here is the link to my spaghetti squash & meat sauce recipe – https://fitslowcookerqueen.com/slow-cooker-spaghetti-squash-meat-sauce/. Enjoy!
Hi there! I’ve bought all of my ingredients to make this for dinner tonight. I was wondering if you have any of the nutrition information? Like how many carbs per serving? Or protein or fat?
So I’ve made this twice. The recipe, I thought, has too much garlic. Go with one clove unless you are crazy for it. I also didn’t us all the Italian seasoning, but mixed in season salt, onion powder and basil. The boyfriend and his daughter adore it! I recommend making it with marinara sauce with a unique flavor like caramelized onion. Very good also with homemade garlic bread!
Saw this on Instagram and can’t wait to try it out this week.
Let me know how it turns out. I hope you enjoy it!