Instant Pot Meat Sauce

This simplified Sunday Gravy meat sauce is easy to make in an Instant Pot with just a few paleo pantry staples. This Whole30-, paleo-, and keto-friendly meat sauce recipe is a fantastic make-ahead dish, and perfect for serving over vegetable noodles. It’s a healthy and easy “spaghetti and meat sauce” that you can enjoy anytime!

A large white bowl filled with spiralized sweet potato noodles topped with Whole30 Instant Pot Meat Sauce, an easy and healthy dinner.

I love sharing shortcuts to deliciousness, and this easy Instant Pot Meat Sauce is one of my favorite hearty comfort foods! This streamlined Sunday Gravy isn’t a super fast recipe because it still takes about 90 minutes from start to finish—but the actual hands-on time is pretty minimal. Plus, you can program your Instant Pot in the morning and it’ll keep the meat sauce warm until you get home in the evening!

A collage of the cooking steps to make Instant Pot Meat Sauce, a simple and Whole30 version of Sunday Gravy.

How do you make this easy meat sauce Whole30-compliant?

If you’re on a Whole30, the two ingredients in this recipe that can be tricky are the Italian sausage and store-bought marinara sauce—you have to make sure they’re both Whole30-compliant. Personally, I like to get the 365 Everyday Value Mild Italian Pork sausage that comes in fat tubes near the cooked sausage at Whole Foods Market. You can also ask your local butcher if they carry Italian sausage made with compliant ingredients. If you can’t find any, just use plain ground pork and add a compliant Italian herb blend and/or Magic Mushroom Powder.

The marinara sauce is even easier. When I did my first Whole30 years ago, there was only one jarred marinara sauce made with compliant ingredients AND tasted really good: Rao’s. Nowadays, there are plenty of Whole30-compliant marinara sauces available at most grocery chains. Just check the label and find one that fits your taste!

Key cooking tips for this Instant Pot Meat Sauce

You don’t need to add extra liquid! The meat and marinara sauce will release enough liquid for the Instant Pot to reach high pressure. If you add extra liquid, the sauce will be diluted and bland, and you’ll have to reduce it even longer at the end.
If you have a newer Instant Pot that gets the “Burn” error message easily, don’t stir in the marinara sauce and diced tomatoes—just pour it on top of the meat before cooking it under high pressure.
Reduce the sauce on the Sauté function after it’s done cooking. In other words, cook it down to thicken the sauce and concentrate the flavors. (Of course, if you’re in a rush to eat, it’s totally okay to skip this part!)

What do you serve this on?

To make a Whole30-friendly supper, serve the sauce on noodle imposters made with vegetables! Some of my favorite veggie noodles include spiralized sweet potatoes (a.k.a. swoodles), raw spiralized zucchini (zoodles) or summer squash, and Instant Pot steamed spaghetti squash. I like to roast the swoodles in the oven with some olive oil and salt before I top them with the sauce. Sometimes I just ladle the sauce on top of roasted broccoli or riced cauliflower, too!

What if you don’t have an Instant Pot?

You can cook the sauce on the stovetop in a Dutch oven or in a slow cooker!

For the stovetop method: Increase the amount of marinara sauce to 3 cups and simmer partly covered for about 3 hours or until the chuck roast is tender.

For the slow cooker: Add the sautéed sausage and onions into a slow cooker, along with the other ingredients. Increase the amount of marinara sauce to 2 cups and cook on low for 8 hours.

How do you save leftovers?

Any leftover Instant Pot Meat Sauce can be kept in a sealed container in the fridge for up 4 days or frozen for up to 6 months.

Let’s make Instant Pot Meat Sauce!

Serves 8

Ingredients:

1 pound bulk mild Italian sausage
1 small onion, diced
6 garlic cloves, smashed and peeled
2½ pounds beef chuck roast, cut into 1½-inch cubes
Magic Mushroom Powder or Diamond Crystal kosher salt
1 cup marinara sauce (I like Rao’s brand)
1 (14.5 ounce) can diced roasted tomatoes, drained
Italian parsley (optional garnish)

Equipment:

All of my recommended kitchen tools are listed here.
My recommended Instant Pot models are listed here.

Method:

Turn on the sauté function on the Instant Pot. When it’s hot, add the sausage and diced onions.

A person adding bulk Italian sausage to an open Instant Pot

Break up the sausage with a spatula and cook until it’s no longer pink and the onions are softened. Stir in the garlic and cancel the sauté function.

An overhead shot of an open Instant Pot with cooked bulk Italian sausage and onions inside.

Add in the cubed chuck roast and sprinkle on 1 teaspoon of Magic Mushroom Powder or Diamond Crystal kosher salt. Stir well to combine.

Adding a teaspoon of Nom Nom Paleo Magic Mushroom Powder to the cubed chuck roast and cooked sausage and onions in an open Instant Pot.

Pour the marinara sauce on top and add the diced tomatoes. No need to stir at this point or add extra liquid!

Adding drained diced tomatoes to the Instant Pot to make an easy meat sauce.

Lock the lid on the Instant Pot and program it to cook under high pressure for 35 minutes. When the meat sauce is finished cooking, let the pressure drop naturally or release it manually after waiting 15 minutes.

A shot of the display panel on an Instant Pot Duo Evo Plus. The display says 00:35 and high pressure.

At this point, stir the sauce. Then, turn on the Sauté function and bring the sauce to a rolling boil. Cook, reducing the sauce for about 15 minutes or until you cook off 0.5 liter or about 2 cups. (You can skip the reduction part if you don’t mind a thinner sauce.)

An overhead shot of an open Instant Pot filled with a tomato meat sauce

While the sauce is simmering, use a silicone spatula or wooden spoon to smush and shred the chuck roast against the side of the pot.

An overhead shot of someone stirring a pot of Instant Pot meat sauce with a pink silicone spatula. The spatula is smushing a piece of beef agains the side of the insert to break it up.

When the sauce has reduced and thickened, taste it and adjust the seasoning with Magic Mushroom Powder or salt if needed.

A metal serving spoon is scooping out a spoonful of easy Whole30 meat sauce from an open Instant Pot

Serve over cooked spiralized sweet potato noodles (swoodles!), spiralized zucchini noodles (zoodles!), or cooked spaghetti squash! Sprinkle on minced Italian parsley if you’re feeling fancy!

An overhead shot of two hands holding a bowl of spaghetti squash covered with Instant Pot meat sauce.

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)!

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