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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.

How To Cook Spaghetti Squash

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.

How To Cook Spaghetti Squash

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

How To Cook Spaghetti Squash: Spaghetti And 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.

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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

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.

Print Recipe
Tasty Spaghetti Squash And Turkey Meatballs
Tasty Spaghetti Squash And Turkey Meatballs
Course Main Dish
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Servings
Ingredients
  • 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
Course Main Dish
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Servings
Ingredients
  • 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
Tasty Spaghetti Squash And Turkey Meatballs
Instructions
  1. Pre-heat the oven to it's highest heat (typically 500-550F).
  2. Cut the spaghetti squash in half, lengthwise.
  3. 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.
  4. Bake the spaghetti squash in the oven for approximately 20-30 minutes.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
  8. Then grab a handful of the red pepper and mushroom mix and mix it into the turkey meatball.
  9. 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.
  10. 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.
  11. 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.
  12. 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.
  13. 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.
  14. 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.
  15. (Optional) top with a dash of hot sauce if you like it spicy.
  16. 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 😉
Recipe Notes

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.

How To Cook Spaghetti Squash

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.

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.

[wd_hustle_cc id=”team-live-lean”]


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49 responses to “How To Cook Spaghetti Squash: Spaghetti And Meatballs

  1. Hey Brad Gouthro is that a Vitamix in the back? I see your choices in
    blenders also matches you’re smart choices in foods.

  2. 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)

  3. 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.

  4. 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).

  5. 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 …

  6. 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.

  7. 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!”

  8. Love the smile you flash us when you’re at the blender…haha!! But seriously I really appreciate your videos and recipes. Delicious!!

  9. 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!

  10. I looooove how you smile and pose — one are on blender 🙂
    Sending love and appreciation from Japan 😀

  11. i do consume carbs, but most come from fruit, oats, sweet potato, and occasionally brown rice and quinoa. i rarely have pasta.

  12. 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.

  13. love it….ive seen spaghetti squash used before in recipes….urs looks better..and i love pasta…so anything “carb-like” works for me!

  14. 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**

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