This recipe for Grandma’s American Goulash is pure comfort food made all in one pot. Made with simple ingredients: ground beef, canned tomatoes and macaroni.
GRANDMA’S AMERICAN GOULASH (GROUND BEEF)
My husband is not a big pasta eater. And by not big, I mean, he hardly touches the stuff. He likes macaroni and cheese and he’ll eat lasagna. But, in general, he doesn’t care for most dishes with pasta in them. And this is hard for me because I love everything about pasta and pasta dishes. You can do so much with it and it is a very affordable ingredient. And it’s filling! So, over the years, I’ve worked hard to get him to enjoy eating it more…not with much success. However, Gene always talked about his Grandma’s goulash. He had no idea how she made it but he had good memories of it and it has pasta in it so I have tried several variations of it in our 20 years together. None of those recipes really quite measured up…until this one.
SLUMGULLION, AMERICAN CHOP SUEY, JOHNNY MARZETTI
And that’s when I realized I was taking a very simple and humble recipe and making it much more complicated than it needed to be. This recipe is simple and guess what? Gene said this tastes just like what his Grandma made. Note: This is not a traditional Hungarian Goulash. We’ll just call it an American Goulash but it’s what his Grandma made and called goulash.
It goes by a lot of names. Over the years I have heard folks call it American Chop Suey, Johnny Marzetti or Slumgullion. I suppose it depends on where you’re from. Feel free to use whatever pasta shape you have on hand and throw in whatever veggies your family loves. Hope you’ll enjoy it!
WHAT YOU’LL NEED:
ground beef
onion
garlic
crushed tomatoes
tomato sauce
sugar
Italian seasoning
salt and pepper
macaroni noodles
grated Parmesan cheese (for serving)
Note: Please add in additional veggies your family enjoys! Green peppers, diced tomatoes or mushrooms would all be great additions.
HOW TO MAKE GRANDMA’S AMERICAN GOULASH:
In a large saucepan over medium heat, brown beef along with onion and garlic.
Drain excess grease. Stir in tomatoes (with juices) and tomato sauce.
Season with sugar, Italian seasoning and salt and pepper. Stir well and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 10 minutes.
Then add in cooked pasta and stir.
Allow to simmer for another 5 minutes. Sprinkle with a little grated Parmesan cheese.
Enjoy!
GRANDMA'S AMERICAN GOULASH
This American Goulash is pure comfort food made all in one pot. Made with simple ingredients: ground beef, canned tomatoes and macaroni.
Print Pin RateCook Time: 25 minutes
Total Time: 25 minutes
Servings: 4
Calories: 434kcal
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground beef
- 1 small onion diced
- 1 tsp minced garlic
- 1 (15 oz) can crushed tomatoes
- 1 (8 oz) can tomato sauce
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp Italian seasoning
- salt & pepper, to taste
- 1 cup elbow macaroni pasta, cooked measured before cooking
- grated Parmesan cheese, for serving
Instructions
- In a large saucepan, over medium heat, brown beef along with onion and garlic.
- Drain excess grease.
- Stir in tomatoes (with juices) and tomato sauce.
- Season with sugar, Italian seasoning and salt and pepper.
- Stir well and bring to a boil.
- Reduce heat and simmer for about 10 minutes.
- Then add in cooked pasta and stir.
- Allow to simmer for another 5 minutes then serve.
- Sprinkle with a little grated Parmesan cheese.
Video
Notes
Please add in additional veggies your family enjoys! Green peppers, diced tomatoes or mushrooms would all be great additions.
Nutrition
Calories: 434kcal | Carbohydrates: 31g | Protein: 25g | Fat: 23g | Saturated Fat: 8g | Cholesterol: 80mg | Sodium: 515mg | Potassium: 861mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 8g | Vitamin A: 475IU | Vitamin C: 13.9mg | Calcium: 76mg | Iron: 4.6mg
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Perfect, like mom made!!
Yay! So great to hear Cindy!
This easy goulash recipe is so delicious! The only thing I challenge in this recipe is that it says to only used 1 cup (measured dry) pasta. That’s not a lot of pasta for as much sauce as this makes. I used approximately 16 ounces of pasta, give or take an ounce, and it came out perfect. Had I only used 1 cup of dry pasta, it would have been too saucy. I happened to have a lonely green pepper in my fridge, so I took the advice of the recipe notes and added some chopped green pepper. We love garlic so I used about 5 cloves of minced fresh garlic, and for topping I used freshly grated Asiago cheese, which I think has more flavor than Parmesan. My whole family loved it as did I! I use at least 93% lean ground beef, making each delicious serving only 7 WW freestyle SmartPoints! Thank you so much for such a wonderful recipe!
I just printed this recipe and will be making it very soon. It looks so good and i love pasta dishes!
Hope you love it as much as we do Brenda!
We always called it cowboy macaroni
Ha – I love that name!
I wanted to make this American Goulash. I went to Kroger. I went to Walmart. I went to Food Lion. I went to Aldi. There is no such thing as a 15 oz can of crushed tomatoes. Oh well.
Hi Stephanie – oh no! I believe it’s actually a 14.5 oz can at Kroger. Here’s a link that might help. Or, you could get the 28 ounce can and just use half of it. 🙂 https://www.kroger.com/p/kroger-crushed-peeled-tomatoes-in-tomato-puree/0001111081522
We have made it and love it, will be making again and again. ????
Very good, i hadn’t made or even had goulash previously, but this recipe is great. Im making it the third time for dinner tonight, and am very much looking forward to it.
Hi Paul! Thank you so much for taking the time to come back and comment! It really makes my day to hear when someone has success with the recipes on here!!
I am 81 yrs old and my mother made this recipe when I was in kindergarten! That’s how old this recipe is.! We all loved it.
She made it with whole canned tomatoes, however when I got older I met a girl and she invited me to her home for dinner
and her mother made this and she used tomato sauce as well so the sauce was red and I told my mom and she started using tomato sauce too. I like it better with both the sauce and the whole tomatoes.
Sharon – I can’t tell you how much I loved reading your comment. I hope I am doing well in preserving these old family recipes that we all remember. Your comment made it so much more special – thank you!
So many recipes for Goulash. After reading dozens of them I found yours and it is exactly what I wanted……basic ingredients that I have on hand. Thank you.
Hope you love it PJ – thank you!
very good. making it again tonight. great recipe for a single person. doesn’t make too much but enough for leftovers.
i use 1 1/2 pounds hamburger instead of 1 pound
15oz can of sauce instead of 8oz.
im going to add a little green pepper tonight.
thank you for the recipe
Hi Brandie,
I just love it when you publish an old time honored recipe!
I’ve been making this almost identical recipe for 50 years
now, and eating it since we were children in Illinois. And my mama
also topped it with a sprinkle of Parmesan!
Thanks again for reminding us that we are all more similar
than different, and that food is kind of a common
denominator.
Keep on keepin on Brandie.
This makes me so happy to read Linda!! Hearing other people’s memories truly makes my day. Love how a recipe can do that! Thank you so very much for taking the time to come back and comment!
I’ve always found it funny that all of these food bloggers seem to have very picky husbands despite cooking so much great food
I had this for dinner and it was great. I had to add a little bit of grated cheddar to thicken it up, but it might be because I used whole grain pasta instead of regular.
That’s why we are so creative! You have to with those picky eaters. LOL
This is close to the recipe my ex-mother-in-law used to make but she used both canned spaghetti and kidney beans. I like this recipe and will definately use if because of everthing being fresh and not a lot of preservatives. I changed the canned tomatoes and tomatoe sauce to and used my own homemade spaghetti sauce from my garden grown tomatoes. It was wonderful. I also used 16 oz. of pasta as suggested by another reviewer. Thanks for sharing Brandie.
This is such a sweet comment! Thank you Kathi!!
Has anyone tried it with ground chicken? And what if I chose not to add sugar?