Spaghetti Squash Carbonara

Most people eating Paleo or low-carb are already aware of the glorious spaghetti squash. So I thought, let’s see how it takes to other dishes that are pasta based…hmm, carbonara. Traditionally its sauce is egg yolk based, but since spaghetti squash is rather wet, I figured we could nix the yolks and still end up with a relatively creamy sauce. Success!

Ingredients

  • 1 spaghetti squash
  • 1 lb. bacon
  • 1 yellow onion, chopped
  • 4 gloves garlic, minced
  • 2 handfuls of walnuts, roughly chopped
  • Parmesan cheese to taste
  • Red Pepper flakes or black pepper, to taste

Method

Heat the oven to 400ºF. Cut the squash in half and pick out all the seeds. Don’t be anal about getting out the stringy stuff, you can’t even tell it’s there once the squash has roasted. Lightly coat the inside of the squash with some oil and place cut side down, on a baking sheet, in the oven for 20 minutes. Flip each half over, and roast for another 20 minutes–0r until the squash is easily shredded with a fork and add it to your serving bowl.

While the squash is roasting, start the sauce. With the bacon placed horizontally on your cutting board, cut the strips into 1/2″ pieces. Don’t worry about separating the strips, just cut away. Add the bacon pieces to a saute pan that’s on medium heat. Cook the bacon until it’s browned and add to your serving bowl. Remove 3/4 of the bacon grease and reserve for another use. Place the onion and garlic in the pan and cook until translucent. Add them to your serving bowl. Toss the walnuts into the pan and toast until slightly brown. Add them to the serving bowl. Add pepper and grated Parmesan cheese to taste.

Serve immediately.


Comments

31 responses to “Spaghetti Squash Carbonara”

  1. I have to say that I am making this right now and it smells AMAZING.

    I also have to say that I have made several recipes from your website and have yet to be disappointed, I am always hugely impressed with the flavour packed into each bite! Keep up the good work!

    1. thank you so much–so very happy to hear you enjoy our recipes!

  2. Matthew Bryduck

    I made this dish as well and all I have to say is this might be a weekly dish for me. I made a little modification to the recipe. When cooking the onions and garlic when they were carmelized I thru in a little red cooking wine. One word “WOW”. Thanks for the recipe.

    Matt

    1. According to the Paelo Diet book, I’d go for regular red wine instead of the “red cooking wine”. I’ve red cooking wines are high in salt. Just thought I’d throw that out there.

  3. Made this tonight, it was really yummy!!

  4. This was amazing. I left off the cheese bc I only eat diary on cheat days..it was so wonderful!!
    Very easy and recipe times out perfectly!!

  5. loved this. Thanks! I’ve had a hard time finding paleo meals that my kids will eat. My daughter (4) picked at this w/o complaining but my son (6) devoured it.

    I did add three eggs. It made it a little runny/saucy which we liked too.
    no cheese (dairy free)
    no walnuts (only b/c I was out.)

    1. so glad you all enjoyed! thanks anna!

  6. Michelle

    Awesome, delicious, easy!!! Thanks for the great recipe!

  7. Margarite

    Hi!

    I love your recipes. I recently discovered spaghetti squash and was looking for what to do with it and I saw this recipe and was really excited. I tried this one and it came out delicious but didn’t look exactly like the picture lol. I tried it a second time and added broccoli and a little almond milk to give it a saucy-like consistency. It came out great.

    Thanks for the idea and all the delicious recipes!!

  8. Delicious! Great simple recipe that my two boys gobbled up! Thanks for a successful dinner night!

    1. woohoo! thanks almond.

  9. OMGosh! This turned out great! I am so impressed and can’t wait to try more of your recipes. Pasta carbonara used to be a mainstay here, but have embraced the paleo lifestyle. I just found your site this week and can’t wait to see more of your creations!

  10. I made this for dinner tonight and it was great! I added chicken to it just for kicks. I can definitely see myself making this more often. I’m so glad I have a use for spaghetti squash other than spaghetti now!

  11. C. Spencer Beggs

    This was fantastic. Thank you for the recipe. I used a half pound of slab bacon cut into cubes and then pan friend until they were just short of getting crispy. I will be making this regularly.

  12. I’m making this tonight for the 1st time. How many serving is this recipe?

  13. Made this for dinner today! This was so yummy! Thanks for all the awesome recipes!

  14. Thanks for this great recipe! I enjoyed every bite of mine and my husband had two bowls.

  15. I have to say that I had my doubts regarding this recipe. It seemed too simple…not enough ingredients. But, man. It’s really, really delicious. I love the garlic and red pepper flakes. Really good! Thanks so much!!

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  24. I made this recipe, and it made two generous servings with leftovers for lunch the next day. However… (I may be unAmerican for this) it had way too much bacon for the amount of squash. Will make again with half the bacon.

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