Grain-Free Spaghetti Pie comes together with less than 10 ingredients and is made all in one skillet. It’s a hearty, warm and scrumptious Whole30-friendly meal.
This post was created in partnership with our friends at Primal Kitchen.
Comfort food made healthy.
If you’re in search of a comforting, warm and tasty meal that the entire family will enjoy, this recipe is for you! Personally, I’m quite the fan of comfort food meals – especially this time of year. They’re filling, they’re tasty, and almost always pretty simple to make. However, it’s not uncommon for these classic comfort food recipes like casseroles, hot dishes, pasta dishes, creamy soups and slow cooker meals to be made with ultra-processed ingredients, cream of this or that, not enough veggies and 1,000 milligrams or more of sodium in just one serving. A combination that might leave you feeling overly full, tired and blah! But that’s why we’re here. To take your most favorite comfort foods and turn them into something that’s not only wholesome, but also incredibly delicious and that makes you feel GOOD.
Allow me to introduce Grain-Free Spaghetti Pie.
An Italian-inspired, grain-free, dairy-free and Whole30-friendly recipe that just might remind you of your favorite pasta dish, such as spaghetti or lasagna, but without the pasta. Instead, this recipe calls for spaghetti squash, a winter squash that resembles the texture and look of angel hair pasta, but is much lower in carbs and calories yet much greater in nutrients. Using spaghetti squash is an easy hack to lighten up your favorite pasta dishes while maintaining the filling volume and providing an extra boost of awesome nutrients!
The secret is not only in the squash, but also in the sauce. Grain-Free Spaghetti Pie is made with Primal Kitchen Tomato Basil Marinara Sauce.
This marinara sauce is made with organic tomatoes, full of flavor, has no added sugars and is Whole30-friendly.
Here is the full ingredient list: Organic Diced Tomatoes, Organic Tomato Puree (Water, Organic Tomato Paste), Organic Basil, Avocado Oil, Sea Salt, Organic Onions, Organic Garlic Powder, Organic Oregano, Citric Acid, Organic Garlic
Choosing a marinara sauce can be overwhelming with the endless options to choose from at the grocery store. So a big thanks goes out to Primal Kitchen for taking it upon themselves to create their own marinara sauce that’s made with organic, real food ingredients, no added sugars and tastes amazing! You’ll definitely want to get your hands on this sauce and make it a staple in your pantry like it is in ours. P.S. They also came out with a creamy and totally tasty dairy-free Alfredo Sauce!
Made all in one oven-safe skillet = quick kitchen clean-up!
Ahh…music to your ears. Recipes that can be made all in one dish are always a win in our book. Fewer dirty dishes result in a quicker kitchen clean-up! Yes, please. For this recipe, I like to use either a 12-inch cast-iron skillet or a 12 inch oven-safe skillet. However, if you don’t have either of those on hand, no worries! You can simply transfer the ingredients to a 9×13 casserole dish to bake.
Did I mention that this recipe is freezer-friendly, too?!
We all experience those nights when cooking sounds like quite the dreadful task. It’s maybe even the last thing you want to do. The solution –> making sure you have a freezer stocked with last-minute meals. This Grain-Free Spaghetti Squash is the perfect freezer-friendly meal. I like to divide it into 1 to 2 servings per freezer /oven safe container, then you can reheat exactly what you need for how many people you are feeding. To reheat, place it in the oven set at 350ºF and reheat until cooked through. You can do this from either frozen or thawed.
It’s time to give this Grain-Free Spaghetti Pie a try!
Plan ahead and bake the spaghetti squash the day before. This will help speed up the time it takes to make this dish the night it’s on your menu. If you’ve never cooked a spaghetti squash, here’s a step-by-step photo tutorial on how to bake a spaghetti squash.
And lastly, if cheese is part of your diet and you’re not following a Whole30 at the moment, by all means add the cheese! I like to top this Grain-Free Spaghetti Pie with a little mozzarella and/or parmesan cheese.
This recipe calls for grass-fed beef. Curious about red meat? Read this blog post to learn how to choose quality red meat.
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Grain-Free Spaghetti Pie
Searching for a warm and hearty dinner? Look no further. This Grain-Free Spaghetti Pie is a comforting, tasty, family-friendly weeknight dinner!
Ingredients
- Avocado oil
- 1 medium spaghetti squash (2½–3 lbs.)
- 1 lb. grass-fed ground beef (or ½ lb. ground beef + ½ lb. ground Italian sausage)
- 1 medium green pepper, diced (~1 cup)
- 1 small onion, diced (~1 cup)
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 3 cups spinach (about 3 large handfuls)
- 1/4 cup fresh basil, roughly chopped
- 1 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
- 1–24 oz. jar Primal Kitchen Tomato Basil Marinara Sauce
- 2 large eggs, whisked
- Salt & pepper
Instructions
For the Squash:
- Pre-heat oven to 400ºF.
- Cut spaghetti squash in half length-wise, scoop out seeds, rub the squash with oil, and place face down on a baking sheet. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until squash is slightly soft to touch. Remove from oven and allow to cool.
- Once you can handle the squash, scrape squash with a fork to remove the spaghetti squash strands. (click here for photo tutorial). Place strands on a baking sheet that’s double layered with paper towels. Let set for 5-10 minutes to allow liquid from the spaghetti squash to be absorbed.
While squash is baking:
- Place a 12-inch oven-safe skillet (round casserole dish) or cast-iron skillet over medium high-heat, add the beef, peppers, onions and garlic. Season with sea salt and pepper. Brown beef and sauté until peppers and onions are cooked through. **If you don’t have a 12-inch oven-safe skillet or cast-iron, see instructions below.
- Next add basil and spinach. Sauté until spinach is wilted.
- Turn off heat and stir in marinara sauce.
- Lastly, add the whisked eggs and carefully stir-in spaghetti squash strands. Cover with foil or oven-safe lid.
- Place spaghetti pie in the oven and bake for 35 minutes. Remove foil and bake for an additional 10 minutes for a total of 45 minutes.
- Once baking time is complete, remove from oven and let set for 10-15 minutes before serving.
- To serve, garnish with fresh chopped basil, crushed red pepper if you like a little heat and parmesan or mozzarella cheese (note: cheese is not Whole30 or dairy-free).
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Notes
**If you don’t have an oven-safe skillet or appropriate casserole dish, you can simply transfer the ingredients to a 9×13 casserole dish to bake.
Nutrition Information
- Serving Size: 1/8 of recipe
- Calories: 215
- Fat: 11 g
- Sodium: 350 mg
- Carbohydrate: 15 g
- (Fiber: 4 g
- Sugar: 5 g)
- Protein: 15 g
Dietary
Comment below with your favorite comfort food dish?
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Photo Credit: The photos in this blog post were taken by Jess of Plays Well with Butter.
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Lisa says
Just made this today, and OMG sooo good. I have used several of the recipes from the weekly meal prep and have enjoyed them all but had to respond today. Many, many moons ago I used to make a spaghetti pie and this one tops it. I recently completed a Whole 30 and have just kept on with very few add backs and so I am very thankful for your recipes.
Jessica Beacom says
Hey Lisa –
Thank you for taking the time to comment and share your positive experience with the Weekly Meal Prep Menus – and thank you for your kind words about our recipes.
Congrats on completing your Whole30 and continuing on with your clean eating journey – cheers to you!
Ellen says
Hi I’m on a low sodium, low carb diet. I love that all your recipes have a nutritional analysis. Wondering about the sodium content here-only 5 mg seems too good to be true! Some marinara sauces are very high in sodium. Also 3 eggs around 210 mg, divided by 8 servings is a almost 30mg…
Am I figuring this wrong?
Stacie Hassing says
Hi Ellen! The Grain-free Spaghetti Pie has about 350 mg of sodium per serving. I think you’re looking at the grams of sugar as one serving has 5 g of sugar. Hope that helps!
Ellen says
Oh Geez-I knew I had to be reading that wrong! The other thing I like about your website is your quick response. Thank you!
Stacie Hassing says
No worries 🙂 And you’re so welcome…we do our best!
Sara says
Mine turned out incredibly watry and almost inedible due to the squash. If I was supposed to steain or squeeze it out, that should be in the recipe instructions.
Jessica Beacom says
Hi Sara,
We’re sorry to hear that yours turned out watery. We have found that sometimes spaghetti squash can be really wet or even dry and stringy depending on how you cooked it (steamed, pressure cooked, roasted with or without water, etc.) and also how old the squash is when you buy it. We’ve updated the recipe to say that you *may* need to drained or squeeze some of the moisture from the squash before adding the other ingredients.
Heather says
I have made this before and it is amazing! I have a question, though…I want to put this together in the morning and then bake when I get home in the evening. Can it sit in the cast iron skillet in the fridge all day?
Jessica Beacom says
Hi Heather,
Since the sauce is made with tomatoes and tomatoes are acidic, we don’t recommend you leave it in the skillet as the acid reacts with the cast iron (thus resulting in a slight metallic taste and eroding your ‘season’ that you’ve built up on the pan). If you’re going to make it ahead just transfer it to a glass baking dish that can go from fridge to oven when you’re ready to bake.
Catherine says
Excellent!!! Perfect for meal prep. I made with 1/2 pound ground turkey and 1/2 pound italian sauage. So good!!!!
Stacie Hassing says
Oh yum! So happy to hear you enjoyed this recipe!