Home Low Carb Spaghetti Squash Casserole {Keto!} – Little Pine Kitchen

Low Carb

Spaghetti Squash Casserole {Keto!} – Little Pine Kitchen

November 15, 2022

Tacky, and fragrant, with a scrumptious cream sauce, this spaghetti squash casserole is the right consolation meals to serve on a comfy night time in. Nice to feed a household or for meal prep. This dish will make you fall in love with spaghetti squash–for those who haven’t already.

Is Spaghetti Squash Casserole Keto? Low Carb? Paleo? Gluten Free?

This keto spaghetti squash is made solely of low carb substances, making it nice for these following a low carb or keto consuming plan. It’s not paleo, because of the cheese, cottage cheese, and cream cheese. Because of spaghetti squash, this dish is completely gluten free!

Spaghetti Squash? As a Pasta Substitute?

Spaghetti squash is my favourite pasta substitute. With minimal carbs (in contrast to butternut squash noodles), a fantastic texture (in contrast to shirataki noodles), and a refined style.

Plus it comes collectively simply (in contrast to almond flour pasta) and may cook dinner for lengthy intervals of time with out getting soggy (in contrast to zucchini noodles).

Style: VERY refined, similar to pasta.
Texture: Relying on how lengthy you bake it, spaghetti squash can have a slight crunch. Clearly, the extra you cook dinner it, the softer it will likely be. We like our spaghetti squash al dente to stop mush.
Carbs: Spaghetti squash has 4.2 g of internet carbs per cup.

Substances You’ll Want

Have you ever had million-dollar spaghetti earlier than? It’s completely to die for. This recipe relies on my Mother’s model, and our entire household appreciated this spaghetti squash variation simply as a lot. Listed here are some ingredient notes:

Spaghetti Squash – 1 giant or 2 small. The trick right here is to get precisely 4 kilos of squash, in any other case, the noodle-to-sauce ratio might be off, and that’d be a really unhappy factor.
Italian Sausage – can’t discover Italian sausage with out casing? Simply use a pointy knife to chop the casing, and squeeze out the meat. I desire candy sausage for this spaghetti squash casserole, be happy to make use of spicy if that’s extra your factor.
Keto Spaghetti Sauce – storebought spaghetti sauce is commonly loaded with added sugar. I like making my very own, or, Kroger’s “Easy Reality” is a superb sugar-free choice.
Cottage Cheese or Ricotta Cheese – I desire cottage cheese for the added protein.
Cream Cheese – go away it on the counter for a couple of so it’s good, tender, and straightforward to include.

How To Minimize + Prepare dinner Spaghetti Squash

Reducing spaghetti squash is usually the toughest step to prepping this veggie. For those who run into hassle you possibly can all the time do as I did under:

Take away the highest of the squash with the stem (eradicating the stem makes it simpler to slice).
Slice the squash by the middle.
Scoop with a spoon to take away the seeds.
Bake it minimize facet down on a baking sheet till the “noodles” shred simply.

take away prime to extra simply minimize by the middle
slice by the middle
use a spoon to take away seeds
place minimize facet down
shred with a fork

You can even microwave your squash.

This is absolutely the best method to cook dinner spaghetti squash. And, you don’t must take care of that robust stem. To do that:

Pierce the squash throughout with a fork, protecting the squash entire.
Microwave for five minutes. Flip, repeat. Then let it sit for five minutes earlier than slicing it in half.
Scoop out the seeds + discard them.
Shred with a fork.

pierce with a fork
scoop out seeds
shred into noodles

The way to Make Spaghetti Squash Casserole

Not a lot to this spaghetti squash casserole, right here’s your step-by-step information:

Slice, cook dinner, and shred spaghetti squash (suggestions above). Saute onion and garlic. Add sausage and brown. Add marinara and spaghetti squash and stir to mix.

saute onion + garlic
brown meat
add spaghetti squash + sauce

Combine cottage or ricotta cheese, cream cheese, bitter cream, 1 cup of mozzarella, and Italian seasoning.

mix cheese + herbs

Place a layer of spaghetti squash within the baking dish. Then cheese combo. Then remaining spaghetti squash. Prime with cheese. Bake + take pleasure in.

Tweaks + Variations

This spaghetti squash casserole is simple so as to add your spin to. Listed here are a couple of concepts for you:

Add extra veggies. Delicate-tasting greens could be nice right here. Simply saute first to cook dinner out their liquid. Assume mushrooms, kale, or spinach.
Swap the protein: Skip Italian sausage and add shredded rooster, floor beef, and even keto meatballs, akin to my mozzarella stuffed meatballs.
Or skip the meat, for a vegetarian dish. You would flip this right into a vegan casserole by changing all cheese and dairy merchandise together with your favourite substitutes.
Make stuffed spaghetti squash boats as a substitute of inserting this in a casserole dish.
Strive a distinct sauce, like keto alfredo (clearly skip the bitter cream and cottage cheese), or another pasta sauce.

Storing, Reheating, and Freezing Ideas

Spaghetti squash will launch liquid because it rests within the fridge. So, after reheating a slice within the microwave, merely toss every thing to reincorporate the liquid into the cheese and sauce. It gained’t style any totally different than freshly baked spaghetti squash casserole.

I don’t like freezing this casserole because of the quantity of water in squash.

Extra Pasta Swaps to Love