These Spaghetti Squash Boats with Spicy Sausage have all the same great flavors as normal spaghetti, but with half the calories and carbs!
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Ok guys, this is huge.
I love spaghetti as much as the next person, but ohh do I hate those carbs. The first time I ever tried spaghetti squash I was sooo skeptical (and I tend to be super picky) – I mean how in the world would squash taste as good as pasta?? Well clearly vegetables have been surprising me lately and YES, this is another winner folks. Creating the “noodles” from this squash is so incredibly easy. Seriously – if you can boil water, you can make spaghetti squash. Plain. and. simple. All you have to do is cut the squash in half, scoop out the seeds, bake them {cut side down} for about 45 minutes in the oven then start scraping with a fork!
Boom spaghetti.
Squash has little to no taste so it’s amazing the different flavor combinations you can come up with! I wanted to do something a little different than just a basic marinara that I’m used to having so I thought it’d be fun to make individual squash boats tossed with a creamy sauce and spicy sausage. Turkey sausage that is. Jennie-O has a DELICIOUS spicy ground turkey sausage that is lean and low in fat/calories, but really you could use any type of sausage you’d like! This sauce is so flavorful and seriously so simple to make, the best part is you can make everything all in the same skillet. Toss the spaghetti squash in with the sauce and turkey until completely coated and transfer everything into the squash boats. Top with cheese, bake in the oven and enjoy!
Oh and did I mention, one whole cheesy boat is only 270 calories! I think that alone makes this worth a try, don’t ya think??
I seriously can’t believe it’s now officially Fall, I feel like summer flew by just like that! Trust me I’m not complaining, I’m all about the pumpkin spiced lattes, cozy sweaters, boots with leggings and admiring all the pretty foliage, but when I left work yesterday it was over 80 degrees! Mother nature what the heck is up?? All my scarves are out and ready to be worn, but this weather has me like ready to lay back out by the pool.
Well even though the heat is still pretty high for mid-September, I’m still excited about sharing Fall recipes! Let me know what recipes YOU would like to see this season and I’d be happy to share!
Spaghetti Squash Boats with Spicy Sausage
Ingredients
- 2 ripe spaghetti squash
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 lb. ground hot turkey sausage, I used Jennie-O
- 1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
- 1 (10 oz) can Rotel tomatoes
- 1/4 cup half and half
- Pinch red pepper flakes
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/2 tsp. pepper
- 1/2 cup part skim Mozzarella cheese, shredded and divided
- 2 Tbsp basil, thinly sliced
Instructions
- To make the spaghetti squash, preheat oven to 350 degrees F and cut squash right down the middle. Scoop out all the seeds and place cut side down on a baking sheet lightly sprayed with oil. DO NOT PIERCE WITH A FORK!! Many recipes say to do this, but we are using these cuts of squash later as bowls so you want them to remain intact.
- Bake squash in the oven for 45 minutes until tender.
- Meanwhile, drizzle oil into a large skillet and saute onion and garlic until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add turkey sausage and cook until crumbled and lightly brown, draining if necessary, then add chicken broth, tomatoes, half and half, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper. Bring everything to a boil then cover and allow flavors to simmer on low to medium heat until spaghetti squash is ready.
- Remove squash from the oven and scrape out all the strands of spaghetti using a fork. Add all the spaghetti squash to your skillet along with a 1/4 cup of cheese. Toss well until cheese is melted and squash is fully coated with sauce.
- Transfer squash mixture into your now scraped out squash bowls and top with the rest of your cheese. Place them back in the oven for about 3 to 4 minutes until cheese is melted and squash is heated through.
- Top with basil, serve and enjoy!
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
A M A Z I N G! I used 1 medium spaghetti squash and 2% milk. Put it all in a casserole dish at the end with the cheese on top. So yummy.
Does this recipe make 4 servings or 2? I can’t wait to try it.
This makes 4 servings (1 serving = half spaghetti squash) 🙂
Kelly! I recently found your site when searching for spaghetti squash recipes and came across this one. I tried it last night and OH.GOSH. This was the first spaghetti squash recipe I’ve ever made and it blew me away!! Awesome job… can’t wait to try more of your recipes!
So glad you enjoyed this Leigh! This is the only recipe I can use to get my hubby to eat spaghetti squash too! 😉
extremely pleased with the results and when we found out the total amount of food that was produced and the minimal calorie count, who wouldn’t be happy. Of course, each of us would add something, more crushed pepper, mushrooms, spinach, cheese preference, etc. All in all, this is a super recipe, thank you for the intro to spaghetti squash.
This is the first recipe that has the peeked my interest to try spaghetti squash. I did not have turkey, beef was on hand. We followed the recipe as directed. For us personally, we were extrmely
I made this. To reduce cooking time, I modified step #2 and cooked my (single) Spaghetti Squash in the microwave. I put the two halves face down in a 13″ X 9″ glass pyrex, filled it with an inch of boiling water, and put it in (on high) for 15 minutes. My only other modification was to triple the tomatoes and double the cheese on top. I loved it, and my wife did too!
Great idea! I love how you cut down on the cooking time! 🙂
I tried these last night and the flavor was sooo good – my husband loved them! I do have a question though, was the sauce supposed to thicken up? My sauce stayed a very watery consistence throughout so I think that I might have done something wrong. Sauces remain my cooking arch nemesis haha.
Unfortunately spaghetti squash can get a little watery so it’s probably not the sauce in this situation. The best way I have found to avoid watery spaghetti squash is to scrape out ALL the pulp and seeds as much as possible as this is where most of the moisture is held. Then once it comes out of the oven, I like to immediately sprinkle it with a little salt to absorb any excess water. This a tough thing to avoid, but I also found if you let the squash cool longer before scraping (say about 10 minutes) the strands tend to be more firm. Just some ideas!!
Thank you for all of the suggestions! I’ll be giving them a try when I do the spaghetti squash shrimp scampi. I love all of your recipes! Thanks again!
Brittany, I had the same problem with the sauce at first. I just put the lid half on the pot while it’s cooking to let more of the steam out. It will thicken up. You can pull the lid all the way off it it’s taking too long that way – just watch the sauce to make sure it doesn’t get TOO thick.
Hi Kelly! Making these for dinner tonight, looks delicious!! Do you know how many smartpoints these are? I only see points plus listed… Thanks!!!
Thanks Liz, hope you enjoy!! I just updated the nutritional information – this recipe is 8 Smart Points 🙂
Thank you for the quick response! It came out delicious!!! Thanks, you’re awesome!!