This simple and quick Whole30-friendly Instant Pot Zucchini Bolognese recipe is a riff on Meghan Markle’s original version, but a whole lot meatier!
Have you heard of Meghan Markle’s genius zucchini bolognese recipe? The one that takes OVER FOUR HOURS to make? Of course you have—that’s why a bunch of you have asked me to make a speedier Instant Pot version! At the request of those persistent Nomsters, I’ve created this simple and delicious Whole30-friendly Instant Pot Zucchini Bolognese recipe that takes just a fraction of the time, and is a whole lot meatier. (Because PALEO.) So if you’ve got a bumper crop of zucchini in your garden and you want to eat like a royal, this recipe is perfect for you!
Before she became a fairytale princess, Meghan Markle wasn’t just a Hollywood actress—she had a side gig as a food and lifestyle blogger. One of her recipes that went viral after her wedding was a simple pasta sauce that she made with zucchini (or courgettes, for you proper Brits), onions, olive oil, water, and a bouillon cube. According to Meghan, the trick for a creamy, dreamy sauce was just to cook everything low and slow for 4 hours.
But who has 4 hours to babysit a pot on the stove? (Certainly not Meghan Markle—at least not these days.) When one of my readers asked me if I knew of an Instant Pot hack for Meghan’s recipe, I started brainstorming ways to make this recipe Whole30-friendly and significantly cut down the cooking time. Plus, to add some protein to this dish and make it a complete meal, I wanted to beef up the sauce (pun intended).
After numerous attempts, I finally arrived at this simple and delicious Instant Pot Zucchini Bolognese recipe. I replaced the chemical-laden bouillon with my umami-packed Magic Mushroom Powder, and tossed in a pound of bulk Italian sausage for extra protein. Best of all, this recipe can be made from start to finish in an hour in an Instant Pot. I’m super chuffed!
You can serve this meaty sauce on your favorite veggie noodles, gluten-free noodles, or even regular old pasta (I won’t tell anyone of your Paleo heresy), and you’ll be amazed at how tasty and simple it is. Thanks for the inspiration, Duchess of Sussex!
Serves 4
Ingredients:
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil or avocado oil
- 1 large yellow onion, diced
- 1 pound bulk Italian sausage
- 1½ pounds zucchini, diced into ½-inch pieces
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- Magic Mushroom Powder or Diamond Crystal brand kosher salt (with added umami boosters detailed in the instructions)
- Juice from ½ lemon
Equipment:
Method:
Grab your Instant Pot or pressure cooker and turn on the Sauté function. When the metal insert is hot, pour in the olive oil.
Toss in the diced onions…
…and cook, stirring frequently, for 2 to 3 minutes or until slightly softened.
Add the Italian sausage and break it up with a silicone spatula.
Cook the sausage until it’s no longer pink.
Dump in the zucchini, minced garlic…
…and 1 teaspoon of Magic Mushroom Powder or Diamond Crystal brand kosher salt. (The salt won’t add extra umami, so you may want to add a few drops of fish sauce or a couple of dried mushrooms to the pot for extra savoriness.)
Stir well.
You don’t need to add any extra liquid. Trust me—the zucchini will release enough liquid for the contents to reach high pressure. Lock the lid and program the Instant Pot to cook for 35 minutes under high pressure.
When the sauce is done cooking, you can wait for the pressure to release naturally or you can manually vent it if you’re impatient.
The zucchini and onions should be fork-tender and easily mashed with a spatula…
…to form a chunky sauce.
Taste the sauce and adjust the seasoning with additional Magic Mushroom Powder, salt, or freshly ground pepper. Stir in the juice from half a lemon and taste it again. (Always, always, ALWAYS taste your food and season accordingly!)
When the sauce is ready, grab a spiralizer to prepare some zucchini noodles (or grab some ready-to-go spiralized veggies at the store).
If I’m serving this sauce on zoodles, I drop the raw spiralized zucchini straight into the pot and toss ’em around until the hot sauce softens the zoodles to my liking.
Top with your favorite herbs and dig in!
This sauce freezes really well so make a batch whenever your vegetable crisper is overflowing with zucchini!
Want more Instant Pot recipes? Check out my ever-growing roundup of Instant Pot recipes here.
Also, you can watch the replay of me and the boys making this dish live from my kitchen on my Facebook page on August 15, 2018 below:
Looking for more recipe ideas? Head on over to my Recipe Index. You’ll also find exclusive recipes on my iPhone and iPad app, and in my cookbooks, Nom Nom Paleo: Food for Humans (Andrews McMeel Publishing 2013) and Ready or Not! (Andrews McMeel Publishing 2017)!
PRINTER-FRIENDLY RECIPE CARD
Instant Pot Zucchini Bolognese
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil or avocado oil
- 1 large yellow onion diced
- 1 pound bulk Italian sausage
- 1½ pounds zucchini diced into ½-inch pieces
- 3 garlic cloves minced
- Magic Mushroom Powder or Diamond Crystal kosher salt with added umami boosters detailed in the instructions
- Juice from ½ lemon
Instructions
- Grab your Instant Pot or pressure cooker and turn on the Sauté function. When the metal insert is hot, pour in the olive oil.
- Toss in the diced onions and cook, stirring frequently, for 2 to 3 minutes or until slightly softened.
- Add the Italian sausage and break it up with a silicone spatula. Cook the sausage until it’s no longer pink.
- Dump in the zucchini, minced garlic, and 1 teaspoon of Magic Mushroom Powder or Diamond Crystal brand kosher salt. (The salt won’t add extra umami, so you may want to add a few drops of fish sauce or a couple of dried mushrooms to the pot for extra savoriness.) Stir well.
- You don’t need to add any extra liquid. Trust me—the zucchini will release enough liquid for the contents to reach high pressure. Lock the lid and program the Instant Pot to cook for 35 minutes under high pressure.
- When the sauce is done cooking, you can wait for the pressure to release naturally or you can manually vent it if you’re impatient.
- The zucchini and onions should be fork-tender and easily mashed with a spatula to form a chunky sauce.
- Taste the sauce and adjust the seasoning with additional Magic Mushroom Powder, salt, or freshly ground pepper. Stir in the juice from half a lemon and taste it again. (Always, always, ALWAYS taste your food and season accordingly!)
- When the sauce is ready, grab a spiralizer to prepare some zucchini noodles (or grab some ready-to-go spiralized veggies at the store). If I’m serving this sauce on zoodles, I drop the raw spiralized zucchini straight into the pot and toss ’em around until the hot sauce softens the zoodles to my liking.
- Top with your favorite herbs and dig in! This sauce freezes really well so make a batch whenever your vegetable crisper is overflowing with zucchini!
