Stuffed Spaghetti Squash Lasagna
This page may contain affiliate links. Learn More.
Spaghetti squash low in calories, and nutritious. But what do you do with it? Try this stuffed spaghetti squash lasagna and you’ll be hooked. It’s a great way to get lasagna flavor without the pasta.
This is a great meatless meal idea too.
I love spaghetti squash and I have found a ton of yummy ways to enjoy it. I love using squash instead of noodles because I don’t really like pasta. But it’s also a great healthy alternative for pasta if you are eating gluten-free or grain-free meals.
It’s easy to cook, and will take on the flavor of anything you put in it just like pasta. But it’s also stuffed full of antioxidants and vitamins and minerals as well as fiber. It’s just an all around great thing to cook. It has a little firmness when you chew it so it’s not soggy and mushy like pasta can be if you cook it too long.
This flavor profile of spaghetti squash lasagna is going to blow you away and you won’t miss the meat or the pasta in it. It’s rich, savory, and really satisfying.
Spaghetti squash is a hard, yellow winter squash that will store on the counter for months so it’s a great storage food. When you cook spaghetti squash, the meat of the squash will flake out with a fork into spaghetti-like strips that can be used in many recipes.
When we stuff them, we mix it with seasonings and other vegetables, meats, and cheeses, and put it all back in the squash skin and bake it a second time to marry all the flavors together. It’s a real treat.
Also, check out:
- Broccoli stuffed spaghetti squash
- Creamy spinach stuffed spaghetti squash for an alfredo flavor
- Crack chicken spaghetti squash
Cut a spaghetti squash
The first concern about preparing a spaghetti squash lasagna is cooking it. Spaghetti squashes are rock hard. A trick I’ve learned about it is to toss it in the oven whole. Bake it at 350 for about 20 minutes. Take it out of the oven, slice off the stem end and easily slice it in half.
Even if you don’t want to precook the squash before you try to cut it, do cut off the stem end before you try. You don’t have to try to cut through that woody stem.
Baked spaghetti squash whole
Now that you’ve baked the spaghetti squash whole, it’s easy to scrape out the seeds. Turn up your oven to 400. Season the squash and place it cut side down on a baking sheet and follow the directions in the recipe from there. All those times I nearly lost a limb cutting my squash raw, who knew this would work so well.
Can you freeze spaghetti squash
Spaghetti squash freezes great. Much better than pasta would. You can bake a bunch of them and scrape the “noodles” out into a freezer bag once they are cooled. Store them in serving sizes for quick “pasta” type meals later. It will last in the freezer for several months.
You can also make this stuffed spaghetti squash lasagna, let it cool, wrap it in plastic wrap or put it in a container and freeze it that way. Then you’ll have your own homemade tv dinner to use when you need another meal.
For even more make-ahead freezer meals that you can prepare ahead, check out this post.
You can make homemade roasted tomato sauce from fresh tomatoes, use spaghetti sauce with meat, make homemade Italian seasoning, and even make your own homemade mozzarella for this recipe. Doing this will make it taste even more amazing.
Lasagna stuffed spaghetti squash
Stuffed Spaghetti Squash Lasagna
Ingredients
- 1 spaghetti squash
- 1 c shredded mozzarella cheese plus extra to top it
- 2 T olive oil
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 clove crushed garlic
- 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
- 1 tsp salt
- 8 oz can tomato sauce
- 1 c ricotta or cottage cheese
- 1 tsp italian seasoning
Instructions
- Cut spaghetti squash in half and scrape out seeds.
- Place cut side down on a baking sheet and bake at 400 for 40 minutes or until a fork can poke it easily.
- While your squash is baking, make the filling.
- Place oil and onion in skillet and cook on low until translucent.
- Add garlic, red pepper, salt, Italian seasoning and tomato sauce.
- Cook until sauce is thick and bubbly, about 10 minutes on medium.
- Add cottage cheese and mozzarella and mix.
- Scrape the strings of squash out of the shell with a fork and place in skillet.
- Mix all ingredients together and place them back in the squash shell.
- Top with more cheese.
- Bake in a 350 oven until cheese is melted, bubbly and slightly browned.
Growing spaghetti squash
Growing spaghetti squash is similar to growing other types of squash. The seeds are large, so it’s a good project for kids too. It’s a slow-growing squash that grows on a big vine, so it needs plenty of room. It’s a winter squash, meaning it will store well for eating all winter. Check out the highlighted link above for details on how to grow your own spaghetti squash. If you have grown a ton of summer or winter squash in your garden, find out what to do with excess squash here.
Come back and let me know how you like (or love) this recipe.
