No Boil Pasta Bake {Gluten-free}
This gluten-free, no-boil pasta bake is weeknight magic! It’s made with gluten-free pasta, ground beef, and spinach and requires zero boiling.
On those nights when you really don’t want to spend a ton of time in the kitchen but want a delicious home-cooked meal, no-boil pasta is exactly what you need! All you need is to prep this easy dish and bake it in the oven, and you have a delicious casserole-style dish that everyone will love!
This no-boil pasta bake is the perfect quick dinner, made with protein, veggies, and gluten-free pasta!
Table of contents
Why you’ll love this no-boil pasta bake
- No boiling is required. You don’t have to boil the pasta for this dish on the stove! It’s essentially “boiled” in the oven, so you can skip the step of standing in front of the stove and babysitting the pasta.
- Protein & veggies. I love a one pan meal that you can pack with both protein and veggies like my unstuffed cabbage roll. This recipe uses a pound of ground beef for protein, and spinach for added veggies, so you can rest assured that this is a complete meal!
- Dairy optional. Unlike a recipe like baked ziti, you don’t need the cheese to complete this meal, but of course, it’s nice 😉
Recipe Ingredients
See the recipe card below for full information on ingredients and quantities.
- Gluten-free pasta. I personally love the Jovial rice pasta!
- Ground beef. You can also use ground turkey or ground sausage.
- Tomato sauce. You can sub my veggie pasta sauce for nightshade-free. Keep in mind that the color may vary.
- Chicken broth. This adds much more flavor than just water.
- Spinach.
- Shredded cheese. You can substitute dairy-free cheese or omit for DF! It really doesn’t need the cheese.
- Chopped parsley. This is to top the pasta bake.
How to make the No-Boil Pasta Bake
Here are the simple steps, with photos, to make this recipe. Find full instructions in the recipe card.
Step one. Grease the baking dish and add the uncooked pasta.
Step two. Add the cooked ground beef.
Step three. Add the broth, sauce, and seasonings.
Step four. Stir well, ensuring the pasta is submerged. Cover and bake.
Step five. Remove the cover once the pasta is baked.
Step six. Add the spinach and stir to wilt.
Step five. Top with shredded cheese and return to the oven.
Step six. Allow the cheese to melt and serve topped with chopped parsley.
Tips & Tricks
- Switch up the protein. This recipe would also be great with chicken (like in my no-boil chicken alfredo pasta bake) ground turkey, or sausage.
- Watch the cook time. The cook time may vary depending on the variety of pasta that you use, so be sure to test the pasta about 3/4th of the way through the cook time to gauge how much more or less time you’ll need. If you need more time, simply add more cook time and more liquid, if the pasta cooks more quickly, use less liquid.
Recipe FAQS
You can for sure make this recipe without cheese! It doesn’t need the cheese, but of course, the cheese adds something extra. If you’re dairy-free you can omit the cheese altogether, use a vegan cheese, or simply stir in some nutritional yeast for a cheesy flavor.
I find spinach to be the easiest, but you can also add vegetables like broccoli, zucchini, mushrooms, artichoke hearts, etc.
You can use cassava pasta, though it does stick a lot more than the regular pasta, so be sure to grease the dish very well.
You likely can, though the cook time may vary. You may have to adjust the liquid levels or the cook time.
Other gluten-free pasta recipes to check out…
If you tried this No Boil Gluten Free Pasta Bake or any other recipe on my blog please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the 📝 comments below. Thanks for visiting!
No Boil Pasta Bake {Gluten-free}
Ingredients
- 2 tsp olive oil
- 12 oz gluten-free pasta, sub cassava pasta for AIP, see notes
- 1 lb ground beef, cooked
- 15 oz can tomato sauce, sub 2 cups of nightshade-free marinara or Daylight veggie pasta sauce
- 3 cups chicken broth
- 2 tsp dried basil
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 2 tsp garlic powder
- 2 tsp onion powder
- ¾ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp black pepper
- 2 cups spinach
- 1 cup shredded cheese, sub dairy-free cheese or omit for DF
- 1 tbsp chopped parsley
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 F and grease a 9×13″ casserole dish with olive oil.
- Add the pasta, ground beef, chicken broth, tomato sauce, broth, basil, oregano, garlic, onion, salt and pepper to the casserole dish. Stir to combine, making sure that the pasta is mostly covered by the liquid.
- Cover the casserole dish and transfer to the oven. Allow to bake for 40 minutes.
- Remove the cover and carefully add the spinach to the pasta, stirring until the spinach wilts. Top with cheese if desired and return to the oven for 4-5 minutes or until the cheese is melted.
- Serve topped with fresh parsley.
this was so good and so easy. I made it with ground turkey and Jovial gf pasta. Can it be frozen?
Thank you Leslie, so glad it was a hit! Yes, it can be frozen.
I just made this for lunch and it could not have been easier. I used Banza pasta (rigatoni), which is my preferred brand, and all of their boxes are 8 oz instead of 12 (shrinkflation much?) so I measured out 12 oz from 2 boxes. I also measured 15 oz out of my 24 oz jar of tomato sauce. Changes: sub zucchini for half of the meat, use turkey instead of beef and put the salt/pepper directly in the meat before adding to the casserole. I cooked my pound of meat, and it measured 12.5 oz after cooking, so I subbed in 6ish oz of cooked zucchini instead. Keeping your measurements in weights is super helpful in a dish like this. The rigatoni held up well and maintained its shape, and the spinach added at the last minute helped with a better texture variety, a must for me. In the future I might try this with a different sauce (vodka, pesto) or cheese (cheddar, feta) and crumbly sausage instead of the ground (turkey instead of beef). Do note that it’s important not to use a clear 9×13 for recipes like this because they don’t transfer the heat as well as a solid ceramic or metal pan.
yum!!
Would chickpea last work the same?
You likely can use chickpea pasta, but it cooks faster so you may need to reduce the liquid and cooktime.
Can you make this with regular pasta?
You should be able to!
Do you cook the pasta and ground beef before hand ?
Cook the ground beef and leave the pasta uncooked when you combine!
What dairy free cheese do you recommend? I have had trouble finding one that melted.
So I don’t have to prepare the pasta before? I put it in the dish still hard?
Yes, you add the pasta uncooked and it cooks in the oven with all the other ingredients.
This meal is so delicious and such a quick, easy, meal to throw together! Our whole family loved it! Thank you so much.
yay, so glad!!
What kind of cheese did you use? Cheddar, mozzarella…?
Any Italian cheese or cheese blend like mozzarella/provolone!
We have a chicken allergy in our family. Have you made this with beef broth instead?
I haven’t made it, but it should work!