One of my favorite things to do is take dishes that I love and make a healthier version that tastes just as good. This past week, my roommate and I decided to have spaghetti night, but instead of using real pasta, we used one of nature’s most amazing creations: spaghetti squash. Spaghetti squash looks exactly like spaghetti, and what’s great about it is that you don’t have to do anything to make it look that way. All you do is cook the squash, and when you scrape the insides out with a fork, it comes out looking just like real spaghetti. We topped it with my homemade turkey-vegetable spaghetti sauce and parmesan cheese and it was amazing.
Photo by Chelsea Hawk
Spaghetti Squash
Ingredients:
1 spaghetti squash
Olive oil
Salt & pepper
Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Place the entire spaghetti squash on the pan and bake for approximately twenty minutes, or until it’s tender enough to cut through.
2. Remove the squash from the oven and cut it in half lengthwise from stem to tail. Remove any seeds that you see with a spoon. Drizzle the seed-free spaghetti squash with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and put it back in the oven.
3. Cook the squash for another 30-45 minutes. After the first 30 minutes, start checking on the squash and poking it with a fork. Depending on the size of your squash, it will take more or less time to cook in the oven. You’ll know the squash is done once you can pull it all out with a fork.
4. Place all of the squash into a large pan and coat with a little more olive oil so that it doesn’t stick to the bottom. At this point, you can add the sauce and let the spaghetti squash finish cooking with the sauce, or you can just sauté it by itself for about 5 minutes.
Photo by Chelsea Hawk
Turkey-Vegetable Spaghetti Sauce
Ingredients:
1 small onion, diced
5 garlic cloves, minced
5-6 slices prosciutto, chopped
1 pound ground turkey
3 cups tomato sauce
3 whole carrots, shredded
1 cup broccolini, stems removed
1 cup chopped cherry tomatoes
Olive oil
Salt & pepper
2 tablespoons fresh basil
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
Directions:
1. In a large sauce pan, combine onion, garlic,and 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil. Sauté the onions and garlic until the onions are nearly translucent and cooked through. Add the chopped prosciutto and sauté for an additional 1-2 minutes. Add the ground turkey and continue cooking until the turkey is cooked through.
2. Add the tomato sauce, carrots, broccolini, cherry tomatoes, ¼ teaspoon salt and pepper, basil and cayenne pepper, and let the mixture simmer for 10-15 minutes.
3. Serve on top of spaghetti squash with parmesan cheese. Enjoy!
Photo by Chelsea Hawk