Spaghetti squash with broccoli, zucchini, mushrooms, onion, and more with homemade marinara sauce – a hearty and healthy vegetarian meal.
Hypothetical situation:
It’s the Monday following a major food holiday…what do you eat?
Air?
Rummage through your crisper and throw everything leafy and green into your juicer slash blender and guzzle away the toxins?
Do we even try to get back to normalcy at this point? Or set sail on bacon cheddar biscuit mashed potato pumpkin pie land and say better health and luck to ourselves next year?
Whenever I get a little cray cray with the food situation and dig myself a little too deep into feastland, I try to keep a level head and simply clean things up for a hot minute.
I usually skip the meat for a couple of meals and go full-tilt veg in order to re-set the digestive system and attempt to exorcise whatever toxins are lurking around in my soul fibers.
Enter this meal.
Spaghetti squash + fresh sauteed veggies + homemade red sauce feels clean, unadulterated, welcome. This meal requires a few parts, so it’s not exactly the lowest maintenance meal following a big cooking spree, but it does make a good amount of food to last you for days.
Your body will welcome the vitamins and fiber following the pool of gravy debauchery you likely just swam through.
Plus it tastes good, so there is that.
Options for changing things up? We have some! You can really use any fresh hearty vegetables you like. I realize it’s no longer zucchini and yellow squash season, so if you want to go the winter squash route, you can 200% do the butternut/acorn/pumpkin route…just note that winter squash takes longer to cook than summer.
You can also do pesto instead of red sauce, or some sort of lemon-garlic sitch. Whatever your selection, a big pile of fresh and funky’ll do ya good.
Meatless Monday, here we coooooome!
Vegetable Spaghetti Squash Marinara
Ingredients
Marinara Sauce:
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/2 large yellow onion finely chopped
- 4 cloves large of garlic minced
- 1 28- ounce can crushed tomatoes
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt or to taste
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes or to taste
- 1/4 cup fresh basil chopped
Mixed Vegetable Spaghetti Squash:
- 1 large spaghetti squash roasted
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 large yellow onion finely chopped
- 2 cups baby bella mushrooms chopped
- 1 small crown broccoli chopped
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1 medium zucchini chopped
- 1 medium yellow squash chopped
- 2.5 ounces baby spinach 2 handfuls
Instructions
Prepare the Marinara Sauce:
- Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the chopped onion and sauté, stirring frequently, until translucent, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and sauté another two minutes.
- Add the remaining ingredients except for the basil and bring to a gentle boil. Reduce the heat, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes. Stir in the chopped basil and remove sauce from heat. Set aside until ready to use.
Prepare the Vegetable Pasta:
- Roast the spaghetti squash according to these instructions
- Add the olive oil to a medium-sized saute pan and heat to medium-high. Add the onion and saute, stirring occasionally, until transluscent, about 5 minutes.
- Add the mushrooms, broccoli, and garlic. Continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until mushrooms and broccoli have softened, about 10 to 15 minutes.
- Add baby spinach, cover, cook until wilted, 2 minutes.
- Once spaghetti squash has finished roasting, use a fork to scrape out the "noodles." Serve spaghetti squash with desired amount of sauteed vegetables, marinara sauce, and fresh grated parmesan cheese on top (or skip the parm to make this vegan and paleo).
Do you have the nutritional information?
Made this tonight for dinner. Three out of four of my kids stuffed their faces (my stepdaughter is a picky non-veggie lover)! My husband and I were impressed! Delicious!
Yaaaaaaay I’m so happy to hear it! It truly is a satisfying meal! Thanks for the feedback!
I’ve been having a major moment with spaghetti squash lately. I can’t get enough! Love this simple, hearty and perfectly winter-worthy preparation!
I almost never go meatless, but this looks delish and I DO need a reset after eating all the dessert bars last week :/. Love all the gorgeous colors!
I’m definitely due for a detox, and I’ve been on a huge spaghetti squash craze lately. I love all the saucy veg mounded on top.
Oh boy do I need this. I’m currently eating pretzels and chocolate and watching The Voice. And the weekend was, how do I say it, rich with a lot of brown foods. So good, but so bad at the same time. Hit me with some veggies!
This is the lightened up delicious comfort food I need to help me survive the holiday season without feeling totally guilty all the time 🙂 Yum!
I am NOT the best at cleaning up my eating act after a weekend of indulgence…but this is making things a lot easier!!
Oh yes, I’m ready for all the light and healthy veg recipes after stuffing myself over the weekend!
I bought a pumpkin pie made with condensed milk and my stomach was like “F you, biatch! ”
This looks like a delicious way to detox. Pinning for later! 🙂
Oh wow, I can practically smell it right through the computer screen! This looks delicious!
Yup, definitely had a huge green smoothie this morning and I have plans for a nice and healthy dinner! This spaghetti squash looks fantastic! Hope you had a great holiday!!
haha yup definitely had a huge green smoothie this morning! And have plans to make a nice and healthy dinner! This spaghetti squash looks fantastic! Hope you had a wonderful holiday!!
This looks so good! We definitely fell off the healthy bandwagon over here this past weekend.
Ohhh I NEED this veggie goodness in my life! LOVE. xo