Reality TV show personality Ruby Gettinger loves pasta but virtually gave it up to help her lose more than 400 pounds and thought she would never be able to enjoy her favorite dish again. I recently had the opportunity to cook for Ruby and came up with this satisfying variation combining a small amount of whole grain noodles with a generous serving of super low calorie spaghetti squash under a nice portion of chunky meat sauce. Yeah noodles! Go to the video page to see the preparation…live from Chef C’s micro kitchen.
INGREDIENTS:
1 medium spaghetti squash (should yield about 4 cups)
4 ounces Quinoa spaghetti (may use whole wheat)
½ cup onion, diced
½ cup bell pepper, diced
½ pound ground turkey breast meat
1 jar organic red sauce (look for a low fat brand, average 60 calories per cup)
2 teaspoons olive oil
Salt and pepper
Fresh basil, chopped
1 ounce feathered parmesan
PREPARATION:
- Heat oven to 375 degrees
- Carefully split spaghetti squash down the length (remove stem first)
- Place seed side down (leave the seeds in for moisture during baking) and roast for 40 minutes or until a knife runs easily in and out of the squash shell
- Remove from oven and immediatel flip squash up to cool
- Scoop out and discard seeds, use a fork to pull squash threads away from shell, discard shell
- Spread squash threads thinly on a baking sheet and cool in fridge
- Heat a pot of boiling salted water and cook quinoa pasta until al dente
- Rinse and reserve
- To make the sauce: heat a medium soup pot and slowly soften onions and peppers, raise heat and crumble turkey into onion mix to brown
- Add red sauce and bring to simmer, adjust seasoning to taste (add dried or fresh Italian herbs, red pepper flakes, honey for sweetening etc)
- To serve: gently warm squash in a large skillet, add pasta, olive oil, salt and pepper
- Place 1 ½ cups of squash-pasta mix in a pasta bowl and top with ¾ cup hot turkey bolognaisse
- Garnish with fresh basil and a pinch of feathered parmesan (use a microplane grating tool to feather cheese)
Serves 4 (there will be enough sauce for 5 to 6)
Calories per serving: 300
Fat Grams: 5
Chef C
This past Sundays I made the Ruby’s Egg Froc, It was delish, I took half of it to my 82 yr old father who enjoyed as much as I did….Thanks for your great recipes keep up the good work helping us….Ava
Awesome…I am so glad you liked it!
This is a great idea! I have made spaghetti squash before but mixing it will quinoa pasta will make it even better.
hey girl…yes…the pasta extra gives the squash a nice texture. And the color blends beautifully. The other trick to stretching the pasta…once spaghetti squash is out of season, is to make zucchini linguini, or zing-guini. Use a vegetable peeler to strip lengths of zucchini working around the seedy core…then cut the zuch into thin strips, quickly stir fry in a little olive oil and toss that with the quinoa pasta. Yummy!