How To Cook Spaghetti Squash: Spaghetti And Meatballs
How to make low carb spaghetti and meatballs using spaghetti squash
On today’s episode, I’m showing you how to cook spaghetti squash in an oven, as well as this tasty spaghetti and meatballs recipe.
Seriously, if you like spaghetti and meatballs, you’re going to love this healthy low carb version that tastes just like the real thing.
This recipe was a request from a Live Lean TV viewer who asked me how to cook spaghetti squash.
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So on today’s Brad’s Cookbook episode, I’m taking a traditional high carb meal, spaghetti and meatballs, and making it healthier, using higher quality ingredients.
We’re cooking Spaghetti Squash & Turkey Meatballs!
As Live Leaners, we don’t stop eating our favorite foods. We simply make better food decisions, by using higher quality ingredients, to make our favorite foods healthier.
Spaghetti Squash vs. Spaghetti: Calories and Carbohydrates
If you’ve never cooked spaghetti squash before, you’ll be amazed at how much the texture and taste is similar to traditional spaghetti, without all the added carbohydrates and calories.
Here’s how the nutritional values stack up against each other.
1 cup serving of cooked spaghetti squash:
- Calories: 42
- Carbohydrates: 10g
1 cup serving of cooked spaghetti:
- Calories: 220
- Carbohydrates: 43 g
And lets be real, who eats just 1 cup of traditional spaghetti?
Nice trade!
This makes spaghetti squash an excellent healthy alternative to spaghetti as it has just a small percentage of the calories and carbohydrates, and includes a lot more nutrients, and is a good source of fiber.
How to make turkey meatballs
We’re also going to add a coating filled with tasty spices to the turkey meatballs.
In the recipe video, I used organic whole grain sprouted bread in the coating, but you can also use ground almonds, almond meal, or almond flour.
If you’ve never heard of whole grain sprouted bread before, go check out my Food Wars episode on whole grain sprouted bread vs conventional whole wheat bread.
I also have a few other ground turkey recipes that you can use.
On previous episodes, I’ve shared how to make turkey meatballs in the oven and how to make healthy turkey burgers.
But for this tasty spaghetti and meatballs recipe, I wanted to share another turkey meatballs recipe with you.
How to cook spaghetti squash: spaghetti and meatballs recipe
Here are the ingredients and instructions on how to cook spaghetti squash, and make this healthy spaghetti and meatballs recipe.
| Prep Time | 10 minutes |
| Cook Time | 20 minutes |
| Servings |
|
- 1/2 spaghetti squash (or 2 cups worth)
- 1 slice sprouted whole grain bread (or substitute with 1/2 cup ground almond flour/meal)
- 1 dash Red Pepper Flakes
- 1 dash Black Pepper
- 1 dash Himalayan sea salt
- 1 tbsp fresh cilantro
- 1/2 diced red bell pepper
- 4 diced mushrooms
- 2 egg whites (or 1 whole egg)
- 1 lbs lean ground turkey
- 1 dash hot sauce (optional)
- 1 handful Spinach
Ingredients
|
|
- Pre-heat the oven to it's highest heat (typically 500-550F).
- Cut the spaghetti squash in half, lengthwise.
- Add the spaghetti squash to a glass baking dish and fill it with enough water so the spaghetti squash is submerged in 1 inch of water.
- Bake the spaghetti squash in the oven for approximately 20-30 minutes.
- As the spaghetti squash bakes in the oven, prepare the turkey meatballs coating by adding broken up pieces of bread (or ground almond flour/meal), crushed red pepper, black pepper, Himalayan sea salt, and fresh cilantro to a blender and blend. That is your turkey meatball coating.
- Next up is making the turkey meatballs. Dice up the red pepper and mushrooms and add to a dish. Put some of the mixture aside as we'll add it to the spaghetti at the end. Add the turkey meatballs coating to another dish. Add 2 egg whites to a third dish which will help the coating stick to the turkey meatballs.
- In the video I made 4 turkey meatballs, but you can make smaller meatballs if you like. Simply grab some lean ground turkey and roll it into a ball with your hands.
- Then grab a handful of the red pepper and mushroom mix and mix it into the turkey meatball.
- Coat the turkey meatball in the egg whites, then add the meatball to the coating mixture dish to fully coat the meatball. Repeat with the other meatballs.
- Once the 20 minute timer goes off, remove the spaghetti squash from the oven and allow it to cool down while you cook the tasty and delicious turkey meatballs.
- Add a little bit of cooking spray to a frying pan, place it over medium heat, then add the turkey meatballs and cook for 8-10 minutes, flipping occasionally to ensure it's cooked throughly.
- As the turkey meatballs cook, remove the spaghetti squash from the water. If it's still hot, grab the spaghetti squash with a towel, and in the other hand, use a fork to remove the seeds by scraping them out and throwing them away.
- To make the spaghetti noodles out of the spaghetti squash, continue scraping down with the fork inside the spaghetti squash. The spaghetti noodles will come out stringy and with the same texture as traditional spaghetti pasta.
- Add a cup of spaghetti squash to each plate, then top with the sliced mushrooms and diced red bell peppers, that you set aside earlier. Next, add a handful of spinach, then the turkey meatballs.
- (Optional) top with a dash of hot sauce if you like it spicy.
- Add some spaghetti squash and a piece of the turkey meatball to your fork and give it a taste. If you love it like I did, yell, DAMN that's good 😉
Nutrition Info (per serving):
Calories: 411
Protein: 46g
Carbohydrates: 14g
Fat: 19g
We did it again.
We took another traditional, high calorie and high carb recipe, and made it healthy by using better quality ingredients.
Even though this may not seem like your traditional spaghetti and meatballs, I promise it’s delicious.
The spaghetti squash, the turkey meatballs, and the vegetables, add lots of nutrients, while also keeping this traditional pasta recipe lower in carbohydrates and calories.
A serving of this spaghetti and meatballs recipe is just over 400 calories
Compare that to a traditional spaghetti and meatballs recipe with pasta sauce, and it would be upwards of 1,000 calories.
If you liked this video on how to cook spaghetti squash, and this tasty spaghetti and meatballs recipe, be sure to click the social media logos to share it with your friends.
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This spaghetti and meatballs recipe was inspired by a viewer who asked me how to cook spaghetti squash.
So be sure to leave a comment below on what you want to see on future episodes.
Also comment below if you like the new Live Lean TV intro theme music.
I’m doing my best to deliver on what you want to see, so please subscribe to our Live Lean TV channel on YouTube.
Check out our other delicious Live Lean recipes here.
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Brad Gouthro is the founder of Live Lean TV, a media company focused on helping men and women “Live Lean” 365 days a year. Brad’s programs and content have helped millions of people all over the world learn how to get in shape, and more importantly, sustain it for life.
Check out this video on YouTube: This looks so yummy and healthy too!
Hey Brad Gouthro is that a Vitamix in the back? I see your choices in
blenders also matches you’re smart choices in foods.
O mygosh THANKS you have a Awesome recipe and the fastest yet) This girl on
here said you can put it in the micro wave and poke holes in it)
this music rocks!
I just suscribed!!!! Thanks sooo much for sharing it!!!
wow this looks delicious…i wanna try this this coming weekend
yes i am. i’m italian i love pasta
i hope you’re being sarcastic
spaghetti squash is a higher quality ingredient than italian pasta? 😀 funny to hear
looks like a better alternative if you feel like you need to eat bread.
2nd part: The Paleo include Purified Water, Organic Gluten Free Oat Fiber, Egg Whites, Psyllium, Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Organic Apple Cider Vinegar, Baking Soda). Please let me know if their breads are healthy or not? I’m no ingredient expert, thanks in advance for your opinon, I appreciate it.
Can you tell me if Julian’s bakery gluten free bread or their PALEO carb free bread (0 net carbs) is healthy? The gluten free include- Fresh Ground Alkaline Forming Grains of Millet, Buckwheat (Gluten Free),Teff, Eggs, Chicory Root (Inulin),Fresh Ground Flaxseed (Non-GMO), Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Sea Salt & Purified Water. (1.75 LBS Sliced Loaf Bread -*Organically Grown).
you got it! thanks for the feedback
it worked 🙂 we could have let it cook for a little longer. we put it on the bbq for about 35 minutes but we didn’t put it on the highest setting, since we weren’t sure if that would be comparable with the oven highest setting. anyways… it was good but i think it could have been a wee lil softer in texture than what it was. =) the taste i find is like a regular white potatoe, just with waaaay less carbs and cals.. love this, so thank you SO MUCH …again… for the tipp …
cool…let me know how it works!
we’re making the spaghetti squash right now… hubby wants to try it on the bbq. it’s way to hot here in the house to turn on the oven and produce even more heat. will see if it still works on the bbq with same procedure though.
Great! Now go take action on all these ideas 😉
great website and videos… feeling motivated already
PROOF…it works!
Works for me!! One week of eating your recipes and following your advice and I’m bouncing off the walls with energy! My son told me this morning, “calm down mom, you’re going 100 miles an hour!”
that’s my “how you doin'” move…it doesn’t work 😉 … and you’re welcome
Love the smile you flash us when you’re at the blender…haha!! But seriously I really appreciate your videos and recipes. Delicious!!
I know, it’s been about two years since I’ve made it. hehe! You’ve inspired me 🙂
Oh ya, the other way would be a big pain! spaghetti squash is gooooood!
I love that you cooked the squash first and scooped out the seeds after. I used to do it it the other way around and it was such a pain to scoop them out of the raw squash! I’m going to have to start eating spaghetti squash again!
haha, it’s my “how you doin'” pose…it doesn’t work… 😉
I looooove how you smile and pose — one are on blender 🙂
Sending love and appreciation from Japan 😀
i do consume carbs, but most come from fruit, oats, sweet potato, and occasionally brown rice and quinoa. i rarely have pasta.
you’ll be seeing it tomorrow!
Can’t wait for the bread wars video!
Brad i was wondering, do you have any carbs in your diet such as pasta and rice and if so how much do you usually have? Cheers.
thanks! you’re going to love how it tastes too!
love it….ive seen spaghetti squash used before in recipes….urs looks better..and i love pasta…so anything “carb-like” works for me!
Now you know how easy it is! take a picture when you cook it and tweet it
too me!
you got it…coming up in future Brad’s Cookbook episodes!
nice! enjoy and be sure to take a pic of your meal and tweet it to me.
great…take a picture when you make it and Tweet it to me!
This looks absolutely delicious…that’s my kind of meatball!
MEAT!!! Hope you enjoy!
Looks good! Will definitely try this recipe soon!
Great recipe! I would also love to see a video on food wars about sprouted
bread. I have just recently started watching your videos and find them
informative and inspiring. Keep it up! Thanks! **Hugs**
thanks for showing me how to make spaghetti squash…
looks nice, thanks for the interesting recipe :))