We turned our favorite million dollar spaghetti into a low carb meal! This spaghetti squash casserole is cheesy, hearty, and a major family favorite. Just 8 net carbs serving.
One of the things I love most about this time of year is the whole comfort food situation.
People don’t seem to like casseroles in the dead of summer, but they are 100% totally acceptable the minute it starts to cool off.
Sure, I miss the sunshine and my pool, but did you take a close look at this cheesy spaghetti squash casserole? Doesn’t it look dreamy?
One of my favorite pasta recipes is million dollar spaghetti so I took the idea and swapped out spaghetti squash for traditional pasta.
Total win!
This is probably one of the best spaghetti squash recipes I’ve made yet, but be sure to try out our spaghetti squash carbonara and spaghetti squash alfredo!
Ingredient Notes:
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Spaghetti Squash – A ripe spaghetti squash should be firm with a golden yellow or dark yellow color. Pick one that feels heavier than it looks for the best taste.
Ground Beef – I’m using lean ground beef in this meaty million dollar spaghetti squash casserole! If you want to mix things up feel free to use a different type of meat like ground sausage, chicken, or turkey.
Sugar-Free Marinara – You can use either a homemade marinara or a store bought. We love Rao’s Marinara! It’s perfect for Italian recipes like this spaghetti squash casserole, and we love it for low carb pizza! You’ll mix it with the ground beef to make a meat sauce.
Cream Cheese Mixture – When you make a million dollar casserole you know it’s going to be rich, creamy, and cheesy! You’ll mix together some cream cheese, sour cream, and parsley to make the center layer of the spaghetti squash casserole.
Mozzarella – You’ve got to top this casserole with something, so why not more cheese? Some grated mozzarella is perfect for topping. Parmesan would work too!
We use Thrive Market for a lot of our specialty ingredients and keto snacks or products. Their prices tend to be cheaper than the local stores and I love that you can so easily sort products by diet.
Like Costco, this is a membership site, but we find that it’s more than worth it based on the amount we save over the regular grocery store.
They have monthly or yearly plans. Check it out here.
- It’s not quite the same as real spaghetti, but it’s a very good dupe and it satisfies my pasta cravings!
- The creamy cheesy center is unreal. So rich and adds the perfect decadence to this keto spaghetti!
- I love when I can make a meal the whole family loves and this one is always a hit! It’s a surefire way to get kids to try spaghetti squash.
How To Make Spaghetti Squash:
- Prepare – To start, you’re going to cut a spaghetti squash in half. This probably sounds like an easy task, but if you’ve ever worked with spaghetti squash before you’ll know that you need to bring your muscles and a sharp knife to this game.
Spaghetti squash are HARD on the outside. Dig that knife in (carefully!) and cut all the way around. You can do it, I believe in you. 😉 Finally, scoop out the seeds!
- Bake – Drizzle some olive oil on the inside of the squash, sprinkle with some salt, and place it flesh side down on a prepared rimmed baking sheet. Roast it for about an hour.
- Spaghetti Squash – When the squash is cool enough to handle, use a fork to scrape long strands of squash out.
If you go lengthwise down the squash you’ll get short strands of spaghetti. If you go across the width of the squash, you’ll get long strands. It’s kind of counter-intuitive, but just play with it. It all tastes the same either way.
How To Make Low Carb Meat Sauce:
- Ground Beef – To begin you’ll brown up your ground beef (or whatever type of ground meat you prefer) and then dump in your favorite low carb marina.
I prefer Rao’s and use it almost exclusively when making keto spaghetti sauce. There are only 4g net carbs per 1/2 cup serving. You can find it at most any grocery store, usually up on the top shelf. It’s a little pricey, but it’s seriously the best!
- Cream Cheese Mixture: Let your meat sauce simmer away while you get to work on the million dollar aspect of this recipe: dairy goodness! Add some cream cheese, sour cream, and fresh parsley to a small bowl and stir until well combined. This mixture is so creamy and amazing.
The traditional million dollar spaghetti calls for cottage cheese as well, but it adds a fair amount of carbs so I skipped it. If you have room in your carb allowance, go ahead and add a 1/2 cup of cottage cheese to this mixture. You won’t regret it!
How To Assemble Spaghetti Squash Casserole:
- Assemble – Add half of the spaghetti squash noodles to the bottom of a 9×13 baking dish. Top that off with half of the meat sauce and then spread on all of the cream cheese mixture. Doesn’t that look amazing??
- Top – Next, add the final layers of spaghetti squash and the keto meat sauce and top that all off with some grated mozzarella and a little parsley.
- Finish – Pop this in a hot oven for 20 minutes to allow the cheese to get all warm and melty. I like to serve this with a big side salad topped with my homemade ranch dressing. This cheesy casserole will go well with anything green, like these roasted green beans!
Quick & Easy Spaghetti Squash:
We like baking the spaghetti squash for this recipe since you’ll be using the oven anyways, but there are a couple other methods that are a bit faster! You can prepare the spaghetti squash any way you like for this recipe, and then continue with adding the meat sauce and cream cheese mixture.
- Instant Pot Spaghetti Squash – This is the fastest method! Perfectly tender spaghetti squash in just a few minutes.
- Air Fryer Spaghetti Squash – It tastes similar to roasting spaghetti squash in the oven, but it takes only half the time!
Now that you are a pro at making spaghetti squash, you’ll want to check out some of my other low carb recipes that use it!
- Chicken Spaghetti Squash Casserole
- Roasted Spaghetti Squash with Bacon
- Spaghetti Squash and Meatballs
- Buffalo Chicken Spaghetti Squash
- Garlic Parmesan Spaghetti Squash
FAQs:
You can keep any leftovers stored in the fridge for 3-4 days. You can reheat the spaghetti squash casserole in the oven.
Carefully! If you’ve never cut one before you’ll be surprised at how hard the exterior of the squash can be. You will need a sharp knife. Cut all the way around the spaghetti squash length-wise until it splits in half.
When baked up into this rich, creamy million dollar spaghetti squash casserole each serving is only 8 net grams!
Spaghetti squash has an earthy, sweet flavor that pairs well with many different ingredients. It has more texture than a noodle, but it works well as a replacement in many pasta dishes.
MORE LOW CARB FAVORITES!
- Low Carb Chicken Casserole: Made with cauliflower rice, broccoli, and chicken!
- Zucchini Pizza Boats: Pepperoni on mine please, but you can add any of your favorite toppings!
- Buffalo Chicken Meatballs: We eat these for dinner, but they’re fun for game day too!
- Keto Cabbage Rolls Recipe: None of the work, all of the flavor in these unstuffed cabbage rolls!
- Cheesy Cauliflower Bake: This is a simple low carb side dish made extra easy with an air fryer!
- Keto Fried Zucchini: The perfect low carb appetizer or snack!
Million Dollar Spaghetti Squash Casserole
Ingredients
- 1 spaghetti squash 2-3 pounds
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 pound ground beef
- 24 ounces marinara store bought or homemade
- 8 ounces cream cheese
- ½ cup sour cream
- 1 tablespoon chopped parsley
- 2 cups shredded mozzarella
Instructions
For the squash:
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a rimmed baking sheet with non-stick spray.
- Cut the spaghetti squash in half length-wise. Scoop out the seeds and discard. Drizzle the inside of the squash with olive oil and sprinkle with salt.
- Place spaghetti squash flesh side down on the prepared baking sheet at bake for 1 hour or until fork tender.
- Use a fork to scrape out long strands of squash, scraping across the width of the squash.
For the meat sauce:
- Brown the ground beef over medium heat in a large skillet.
- Drain the grease and add the marinara to the pan. Cook for 5 minutes over low heat to heat through.
For the cream cheese mixture:
- Add the cream cheese, sour cream, and parsley to a small mixing bowl and stir well to combine.
To assemble:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9×13 baking dish with non-stick spray.
- Place half of the spaghetti squash in the prepared baking dish.
- Top the squash with half of the meat sauce and all of the cream cheese mixture.
- Add the remaining spaghetti squash followed by the remaining meat sauce.
- Sprinkle on the grated mozzarella.
- Bake for 20 minutes or until cheese is melted and casserole is hot.
- Serve immediately.
Patty in CO says
I just tried this recipe and made it exactly as written and also used the additional 1/2 cup cottage cheese. This was Absolutely Fabulous. Will definitely make over again and again. I loved the “filling”! Thank you!
Rebekah L. Carrico says
Just curious what the serving size is.. is it 1\2 cup or 1 cup?
Karly Campbell says
I didn’t measure by volume. I just portion it out into 6 servings.
Jacki Stockwell says
Hi How many carbs in this fabulous looking dish
Chad Campbell says
Hi Jacki! The full nutrition information is in the recipe card. 🙂
AnaMaria says
This is the way to do spaghetti squash! I’m not fond of many spaghetti squash recipes but yours is the best. Definitely will cook it up all fall and winter long! I added a beaten egg and parmesan to the cream cheese mixture the 2nd time I made it but the recipe is great as is
Rhonda Childress says
Do anyone try adding an egg to the cream cheese mixture like you would do if you were making regular lasagna?
Bonnie Castellow says
Remove side’s is a typo, remove Seeds 😉
Karly Campbell says
Good catch! Thank you!
Angela Riedl says
I made this yesterday and my family loved it! The only thing bad was that it was a little watery at the bottom of the pan. I believe patting my zucchini dry would have fixed the problem.
Diane Cassinari says
I made this for a bible study, everyone loved it and wanted the recipe.
My changes; squeezed the squash in a towel to remove moisture, added about 1/3 c. Ricotta I had, was very liberal with Italian Seasoning and onion powder over the cheese filling, as well as a light sprinkling of red pepper flakes.
Used 1/2 jar of spaghetti sauce, mixed with 28 oz. of diced tomatoes.
For the mozzerella topping, substituted 1/4 of it with cheddar.
Im getting hungry thinking about it!!
Linda Flint says
I made this a couple of weeks ago, sent a review 5, made this again tonight,added the cottage cheese, didn’t like it as much as without it – just my opinion, this casserole is scrumptious, on my list for at least once a month and more.
Lee Ann says
I made this recipe recently with a few adaptations. I added some spicy Italian sausage to the meat sauce. I also added sautéed mushrooms and about a half of diced onion sautéed in a bit of olive oil. I wasn’t too concerned with added carbs just wanted a bit heartier dish. I only recently discovered cooking with spaghetti squash and my husband and I are enjoying trying new recipes. Both my husband and I really liked the dish and would make it again. We really liked how it held up just like a layered lasagne and was really filling. I gave some to my daughter who is pregnant and has gestational diabetes. She loved it and it was carb friendly enough for her diet. Thanks for the great recipe.
Linda Fllint says
I made this a couple of weeks ago, I ate it for dinner, lunch and even breakfast. Could not leave it alone, soooooo delicious. Craving it tonight – can I use cooked chicken instsead of ground round, have it in the refrig and would like to use it in this recipe – what do you think?
Karly Campbell says
Hi Linda! Chicken will definitely work fine in here, if you think you’ll like the flavors paired together. 🙂
Tami Cramer says
I made this tonight for my husband and he loves it! He said he could eat this all the time. I used the Rao’s sauce as suggested, It smelled so good,even though I am a very picky eater and never try anything new, I did try it! And I liked it, I will be making this again.
jean S says
It was extremely delicious, the only change I added was about 1/2 cup chopped fresh basil. Wonderful
Katie says
So super yummy and was a big hit with my picky bf and his daughter! I microwaved my squash for 10 minutes beforehand, then roasted for a hour. I did not have any issues at all with it being too watery. One thing I think helped was I let the casserole rest for about five minutes after taking it out of the oven. I imagine if you just dug right in there would be more liquid.
Paige says
Made this tonight and it was yummy! Almost tasted like we were eating lasagne! I cut my squash into rings (a bit more labor intensive but worth it), laid them on a cookie sheet, seasoned them with olive oil, s&p and baked according to these directions. I feel like baking them this way, in addition to patting the squash dry, helped make the dish less watery. Thank you! Going in to our rotation for sure 🙂
Penny Booker says
By the way, for those that are asking, I did not thaw the dish before heating.
Trisha Schnatterly says
I’ve made this for years. It is also known as Grandma’s Standby Casserole first published by Dana Carpenter an author of cook books on low carb recipes. I can tell you there isn’t a soul out there who hasn’t raved about this recipe! Its a standby for me as well!
Lauren says
I don’t have sour cream and I don’t want to have to run to the store! I do, however, have two blocks of cream cheese! Could I use extra cream cheese in place of the sour cream?
Karly Campbell says
I’ve not tried it with extra cream cheese, but I’d worry it’d turn out a bit too thick. Greek yogurt, if you have it, would be a better sub.
Bridgette Gumpert says
Omg this so good I’m obsessed with recipe. thanks for sharing.
Barbara Munoz says
Am just learning about what is carbs, I thought only rice pasta, and potatoes were crabs, some vegetables are carbs too, and which are the good carbs
Karly Campbell says
Hi Barbara! Pretty much everything that is not meat has some amount of carbs in them. Vegetables are definitely better carbs than a brownie, but at the end of the day, a carb is a carb. I personally track all carbs minus the amount of fiber to get net carbs. I eat a certain number of net carbs per day and try to get the majority of them from green vegetables with a few coming in from dairy, nuts, and treats.
Keri says
Really good! I used 2 spaghetti squash because mine were kinda small. Added around 1/4 cup of ricotta because I had it. And strained my spaghetti squash the whole time my sauce was simmering so I had no liquid in the bottom of the pan. I added some more seasonings to my sauce just like if I was making regular spaghetti. Definitely making again.
Sarah Velebit says
This was so incredibly good. I’m wondering if you this it would freeze well to have for later like regular lasagna. Maybe the spaghetti squash would get soggy? Good job!
Karly Campbell says
Hi Sarah! I think this would freeze well, though I haven’t tried it myself. I’d probably assemble and then freeze. 🙂