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!
A meatier version of Meghan Markle’s recipe!
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, 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.
Instant Pot to the rescue!
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).
Whole30-, Keto-, and Family-Friendly!
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!
How do you serve the zucchini bolognese?
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. I normally make this recipe when I have a glut of zucchinis in the fridge, so I simply spiralize one per person and toss the raw zoodles in the hot sauce before serving!
Can you make this in a slow cooker or on the stovetop?
Yes, but it’ll take several hours for this dish to hit the table!
Slow cooker instructions:
If you want to cook this in a slow cooker, sauté the onions and sausage before adding them with the rest of the ingredients into the slow cooker. Program your Crockpot to cook on low for 6 to 8 hours or until the zucchini is super tender.
Stove-top instructions:
Follow my directions below but cook the zucchini bolognese in a large saucepan or Dutch oven over medium heat on the stovetop. Once all the ingredients are in the pot, bump up the heat to bring everything to a boil. Then, decrease the heat to maintain a simmer and cover and cook on low heat for 3 to 4 hours or until the zucchini falls apart. Stir occasionally, and add a splash of broth or water if the pot looks dry while it’s cooking.
Time to make Instant Pot Zucchini Bolognese!
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:
- Instant Pot or pressure cooker
- Measuring spoons
- Cutting board
- Chef’s knife
- Silicone spatula
- Spiralizer
- All of my other recommended kitchen tools are listed here.
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!
[Originally posted on August 12, 2018. Updated with new details and photos on June 8, 2020.]
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), Ready or Not! (Andrews McMeel Publishing 2017), and Nom Nom Paleo: Let’s Go! (Andrews McMeel Publishing 2021).
PRINTER-FRIENDLY RECIPE CARD
Instant Pot Zucchini Bolognese (Paleo, Whole30, Keto)
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!
Dorothy Alston Calley says
I made this for dinner last night! It was delicious and my family enjoyed it. I even ate the leftovers for breakfast.
Ken Gruberman says
I so wanted to love this recipe; however, there is simply WAY too much fat in it. It’s tasty for sure, but 1 lb of bulk Italian sausage releases a TON of fat. Both my wife and I felt sick afterwards, which for her lasted all night. Not. Good.
I do want to try it again, perhaps by first browning the sausage in a separate pan and draining off most – but not all – of the fat. Or try it with ground turkey thigh meat instead, or even lean ground meats with the possible addition of some kind of fat at the end? Thinking out loud here. I’ve loved every Nom Nom recipe I’ve tried until this one.
commuterchick says
we had the same experience Ken, and ended up draining off the fat. It was a lot better, but still too fatty for us. However it was definitely good enough that I’m going to make it for the second time tonight — and am definitely going to brown the sausage separately first. I do the same thing with sweet potato sausage hash.
R says
Hi can I use turkey mince for this recipe?
Michelle Tam says
Yes! But don’t use super lean turkey mince.
Joni Renee Zalk says
If I don’t have sausage but I have ground meat… would you add anything more to the spices to balance this out?
Marcy says
Love, love this recipe. I make this all summer when my zucchini patch overfloweth. I’ve made it with hot Italian sausage, sweet Italian sausage, and smoked mushrooms. It freezes really well and we eat it all winter.
Jo says
We make this recipe weekly in our house. I substitute ground turkey for the Italian sausage since I don’t eat pork. So delicious, healthy, and it’s a recipe that comes together quickly.
Kathie S. says
I can’t wait to give your Zucchini Bolognese a try! With the Instant Pot it sounds like a pretty quick and easy meal! It’s very similar to my weekly bolognese except I like to add TONS of veggies! It’s like a meditation for me to hand chop or mince onions, celery, carrots, zucchini, mushrooms, tomatoes and whatever else is in my veggie bin. Browning the veggies and adding chicken or turkey sausage (Italian style), plant based meat crumbles work well too, I just add some fennel seeds to give it a more sausage-like flavor. I dump in a jar of marinara or spaghetti sauce and a few slugs of red wine. Then simmer to concentrate those flavorful veggies. Lastly, I add some dairy-free creamer and eat. It’s a great sauce for veggie haters….
Anderson Charlotte says
I hesitated cooking zucchini so long. We use Italian sausage made from Turkey as it is leaner. Loved the flavors together. Charlotte
Christina says
Dangggggggggggggggggggggggg, its yummy! I pretty much just ate all of it in 1 sitting, lol ( oink oink) thanks for the recipe!
Sue Broker says
Yes yes yes! I love anything with zucchini, anything. I tried a similar recipe the other day and it was just delicious, beef + zucchini is always a good combination. But make sure you buy your ground beef from a clean butcher, you never know nowadays… I get my meat delivered from Luigis Meats, lil shout out to New Jersey!