Spaghetti Squash Lasagna

If looking for a lower-carb, nutrient-and-protein-dense dinner, look no further. My husband came up with this adaptation based on his mom’s traditional lasagna recipe, and we’ve never looked back. If you cook the meat ahead of time, too, (BONUS) you can easily freeze this and have a quick dinner for another night down the road. This is also, obviously, gluten-free (awesome!) and can be adapted to suit whatever additional veggies or fillings you’d like to include.

Here goes!

What you’ll need:
1lb ground beef (we used 85%, and drained off the fat after cooking)
1 large spaghetti squash
2 cans (16oz) Hunt’s tomato sauce
1 bag (8oz) shredded mozzarella cheese*
1 bag (8oz) shredded parmesan cheese*
(*or whatever cheeses you’d like)
Any additional veggies you want to add, roughly chopped (we used 1 yellow onion, 3 cloves of garlic, and several small green bell peppers from a friend’s garden.)

Step 1. Preheat your oven to 400°F, and slice your spaghetti squash in half lengthwise (you can see we decided to make two lasagnas at once!)

Step 2. Scoop out the seeds and stringy pulp in the center, and discard. Brush each half with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper to your taste.

Step 4. Place squash halves face-down on a cookie sheet and bake at 400ºF for 30-40 minutes, or until the flesh can be easily shredded with a fork.

Step 5. While the squash is baking, brown the ground beef (or ground meat of your choice; ground turkey is excellent in this recipe) over medium-high heat. Remove from heat and set aside.

Step 6. Chop additional vegetables (if using) and saute over medium-high heat with a little bit of olive oil, or until the veggies are just cooked through. Remove from heat and set aside.

Step 7. Once the squash has finished cooking, use a fork to shred the flesh into “spaghetti”. I like to shred into a colander, so the excess liquid can drain. This prevents the bottom of the lasagna from getting too soggy during baking.

Step 8: Reduce your oven’s temperature to 350ºF.

Step 9: Now it’s time to assemble! Start by lighly greasing a 9×14 baking pan (we love our pyrex dishes for this recipe), then add a thin layer of spaghetti squash to the bottom. I like to use tongs for this because it helps me spread out the “noodles” evenly.

Then add your ground meat in an even layer…

…followed by the vegetables.

Next, top with the tomato sauce, and use a spatula to spread it evenly across the layers you’ve already made.

Top with an even distribution of each of the cheeses…

…and then repeat with another layer of spaghetti squash, tomato sauce, and cheese.

Step 10. Bake your lasagna at 350ºF for 30 minutes, or until the lasagna is cooked through and the cheese is melted. You could also broil the top a little bit if you’re feeling fancy, to get that crispy-melty cheese top. Yumm.

Step 11. Eat and enjoy!

Thanks for reading!

- Kaitlin