Slow Cooker Spaghetti Squash and Turkey Meat sauce is an easy and healthy meal to put together.
In the last few months, I’ve seen a few recipes for meatballs and spaghetti squash in the slow cooker on Pinterest. I wasn’t in the mood to make homemade meatballs nor to eat frozen style meatballs. I made a quick and easy turkey meat sauce in the slow cooker, then put the spaghetti squash right in the slow cooker and cooked for 4 hours on high.
Mind you I have never had spaghetti squash, I didn’t realize how much I would enjoy this. Maybe the cooking time was just right to make the spaghetti squash “noodles” not mushy. My daughter couldn’t believe that spaghetti comes from squash, she thought it was a miracle! My husband and I had a good laugh about that. It was a fun thing to make for dinner that is actually healthy too.
See the squash below? When I plated dinner, I didn’t think there would be enough for leftovers. Then after dinner, I went back and scraped the squash with a fork and more noodles came out, the noodles go all the way to the skin.
This meal can be served right in the spaghetti squash if desired. I actually made this plate up for leftovers, it slipped right into a round Tupperware
Kudos to whoever first did spaghetti squash in the slow cooker, best idea ever. I’ll be making this often!
Slow Cooker Turkey Meat Sauce and Spaghetti Squash
Equipment Needed:
- Slow Cooker- 6 quart or larger
Ingredients:
- 1 lb. ground turkey I used 7% fat
- 1 Tbsp. cooking oil
- 3 lb. spaghetti squash
- 23.5 oz. jar marinara sauce (I used farmers market Prego)
- 1 portabello mushroom, diced
- 1 small white onion, diced
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/4 tsp. pepper
- 1/2 tsp. oregano
- 1/2 tsp. basil
Instructions:
- In a large pan on the stove-top set to medium-high heat, add cooking oil. Brown the turkey. Add to the slow cooker. Add the marinara sauce, mushrooms, onion, garlic, salt, pepper, oregano, and basil to the slow cooker as well. Stir.
- Cut the spaghetti squash in half, remove the seeds with a spoon.
- Add the squash cut side down in the slow cooker into the sauce.
- Cover and cook on HIGH for 4 hours. Do not open the lid during the cooking time.
Very easy, delicious and healthy. Husband loved it and wanted to no if there was more.
Can this be made then put in the freezer? I’ve never froze spaghetti squash???
I have not tried, has anyone else?
Yes it can
Just finished making this…it was amazing!!! I used ground beef, no mushrooms and onions…it was super easy to make..added a garden salad..my 20 year old son loves it….I will be making this quite often.
Any idea how long this would take in an instant pot?
Do you have the nutritional details yet?
Hi Jean, I just added them for you. They are right below the recipe.
Thank you!
Do you have nutritional info?
I’m working on getting on my site this month. Thank you for your patience with me!
Is there any reason beef shouldn’t work?
None at all! Let me know how you like it
love the spaghetti squash/marinara sauce
combo (i left out the turkey…being vegan)
and it turned out absolutely yum!
thanks for sharing…
🙂
So great to hear!
OMG Sarah, I just made this for the second time today. So, so good AND easy! Set it at high for four hours and at three, my squash was ready. I took it out with 40 minutes to go. I used two large porabella mushrooms, about a half eggplant, baby carrots and a whole onion…all chopped in good size pieces since they give off so much liquids. Used ground turkey from Costco and #99 traditional marinara from Trader Joes…I did add a few shakes of pepper flakes…this is seriously good stuff. Thanks so much…I thought it needed to be put over rice…nope…great just the way it is. Great way of cooking a Spaghetti Squash.
That’s awesome. I like what you did with the recipe! I was shocked myself how great the squash tastes in this.
Love this idea and it’s summer heat friendly and will be conferring in the winter. I will be making this over the weekend. Glad I just found your blog. Thank you
Can you cook on low? For how long would it be?
I have not tried. I’m guessing 6-7 hours on low.
The taste is amazing and is not that hard to make. Thanks for sharing!