This is a fantastic new paleo adaptation of your favorite spaghetti squash-based Italian dish. Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese is something I enjoy sprinkling on top of mine.
| Prep Time: | 30 mins |
| Cook Time: | 50 mins |
| Additional Time: | 10 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 30 mins |
| Servings: | 6 |
| Yield: | 6 servings |
Ingredients
- 1 spaghetti squash, halved lengthwise
- 6 links Italian chicken sausage, casings removed
- 1 head broccoli, cut into bite-size pieces
- 1 green bell pepper, cut into bite-size pieces
- 1 pinch chopped fresh basil, or to taste
- 1 pinch chopped fresh rosemary, or to taste
- 1 pinch Italian seasoning (such as Mrs. Dash®), or to taste
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ⅓ (7 ounce) container pesto, or to taste
- 10 sun-dried tomatoes
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
- Sprinkle squash with Italian seasoning and place upside-down on a rimmed baking tray. Add about 1 inch of water.
- Bake in the preheated oven until tender, 35 to 40 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes; strands of squash should easily pull away when scraped with a fork.
- Heat a large skillet or wok over medium heat. Cook and stir sausage, uncovered, in the hot skillet until mostly browned and crumbly, about 10 minutes. Stir in broccoli and bell pepper. Reduce heat to low and add squash strands. Sprinkle basil, rosemary, and Italian seasoning, on top and drizzle with olive oil. Stir in 2 big spoonfuls of pesto, adding more to taste, followed by sun-dried tomatoes. Let simmer over low heat for 2 to 5 minutes. Serve.
- If you’ve never cooked with pesto before, don’t think of it as spaghetti sauce. A little bit goes a long way! The jars are usually about 1/3 of the size of a spaghetti sauce jar. I’ll typically be able to make 3 meals with 1 jar. Just throw the extra in the fridge and save for next time.
- Be sure to avoid canola oil in your pesto sauce and sun-dried tomatoes. Also, keep heat on low once you start adding olive oil and pesto sauce.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 460 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 42 g |
| Cholesterol | 37 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 8 g |
| Protein | 22 g |
| Saturated Fat | 8 g |
| Sodium | 1825 mg |
| Sugars | 20 g |
| Fat | 26 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
This was delicious after I added more than a “pinch” of the spices and salt to the dish.
Delicious and healthy. My changes: Used red bell pepper instead of green, sauteed fresh garlic in olive oil with fresh basil leaves because I didn’t have any pesto. Sprinkled grated Parmesan cheese when we ate it. Would make again and again. Thank you!
So yummy. I loved the spaghetti squash instead of noodles. I will make this again!
So this was my first time cooking with spaghetti squash! I liked it as a substitute for spaghetti, but it was still a little crunchy. I’m not sure if that’s just how it is or if I needed to cook it longer. I loved the flavors of the pesto and dried tomatoes, and the red pepper I used instead of the green one! The things I would do differently next time would be to cook the broccoli and peppers ahead of time so they’re softer. I don’t particularly like crunchy vegetables, and the recipe didn’t say to cook them ahead of time, so I just threw them in with the chicken and squash raw. To even get them to soften I had to cook everything with the cover on for about 15 minutes. Anyway, my family liked it well enough, but next time I want to have less crunchy veggies!