Slow Cooker/Instant Pot Zoodles with Meat Sauce (Low-Carb,Paleo,Whole30)

Zoodles and a homemade meat sauce cook together in this low-carb, paleo, and whole30 slow cooker or pressure cooker recipe. With only a few main ingredients it’s a good low-carb alternative to spaghetti.

Updated 2019 with Instant Pot instructions

This is very similar to my Slow Cooker Slawghetti recipe.  Actually, it’s pretty much the same recipe except I swapped out the broccoli slaw for zoodles. Do you have a inspiralizer? It’s probably the most popular zoodle-maker (vegetable noodle) out there at the moment.

Low-carb, paleo, and whole30 but I promise you, this one is definitely not bland. As you can see, I prefer to leave the skin on the zucchini after I give it a good washing. The zoodles will release some liquid while they cook but it’s not so much that you need to strain it. You can if you want to but I never take the time to do that for this recipe. In general, there are 3 base ingredients to this recipe:

• 1 1/2 lbs (approx 3-4 medium size) zucchini
• 1 lb ground meat
• 28 ounces diced tomatoes

Outside of that, this is one of those recipes that you can get creative with. You can use many different types of vegetables: onion, bell pepper, mushroom, etc.

Added onion & mushroom

I used ground beef and I added mushroom and onion. Seriously, use whatever ground meat you like whether it be ground pork, beef, chicken, or turkey.  It doesn’t necessarily have to be ground meat either. If you happen to have 1 lb of chicken breast or steak, chop it up and throw it in there. Unless you’re using a very lean meat, I suggest you brown the meat and drain the grease before adding in the remaining ingredients. When using the slow cooker, no, the zoodles do not get mushy! But they will be soft. If you want them al dente, add the zoodles the last 30 minutes of cook time.

Slow Cooker/Instant Pot Zoodles with Meat Sauce (Low-Carb, Paleo, Whole30)

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• Author: Fit SlowCooker Queen
• Prep Time: 10 mins
• Cook Time: 3 hours
• Total Time: 3 hours 10 mins
• Yield: 4 servings 1x

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Ingredients

• 1 1/2 lbs (approx 3-4 medium) zucchini, zoodled
• 1 lb ground meat
• 28 ounces diced tomatoes
• 1 tbsp Italian seasoning
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 2 tsp oil (for IP)

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Instructions

Slow Cooker

Optional: brown ground meat and drain the grease before adding to the slow cooker. 

1. Add all the ingredients to the slow cooker. Stir to mix well.
2. Cook HIGH 1-2 hours or LOW 2-4

Instant Pot

1. Set Instant Pot to the high saute setting. Once hot, add oil.
2. Add ground meat and cook until browned, 3-5 minutes, crumbling the meat as it cooks. You might need to do this in batches.  Drain fat if needed.
3. Stir in remaining ingredients EXCEPT zucchini zoodles.
4. Close and seal vent. Select high pressure and set time for 8 minutes. Quick-release pressure when cook time is completed.
5. Stir in zucchini zoodles and cook on WARM until soft to your liking.

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Why don’t the zoodles turn mushy when you slow cook them in this recipe? For one, they don’t cook that long. The most recent time I made this, the zoodles sat on the WARM setting for about 30 minutes after cooking completed and they were still nice & firm. I imagine if you let it cook all day, they would get mushy so this is not a true set-it-and-forget-it recipe in that sense. For the electric pressure cooker, you add them the last 30 minutes of cook time. Even then, they might cook to your liking before that. How soft you like your zoodles is up to you.

Need an Italian seasoning? Use my homemade blend:

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