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Spaghetti Squash with Broccoli-Pumpkin Seed Pesto

Roasted spaghetti squash with homemade broccoli pumpkin seed pesto makes for a light yet filling and nutritious low-carb vegetarian dinner – Add your favorite animal protein to make it even more filling and well-balanced.

Spaghetti Squash with Broccoli-Pumpkin Seed Pesto #vegetarian #glutenfree #healthy #dinner #recipe

While from where I stand, spaghetti squash bears zero resemblance to actual spaghetti, it still makes for a comforting meal during those chilly winter nights when all you want to do is curl up with something hot and steamy and stringy-cheesy.

All in all, this recipe is…

  • Healthful
  • Relatively quick and easy
  • Gluten-free
  • Vegetarian (can easily be made vegan, or can easily include animal protein)
  • Fun to consume
  • Flavor-blasted

Spaghetti Squash with Broccoli Pumpkin Seed Pesto | TheRoastedRoot.net #healthy #dinner #recipe #glutenfree #almostpaleo #vegetarian

Let’s talk about broccoli pesto for a hot second. SAWEET ramalamadingdong, I’d never think in a million years broccoli would make a good pesto…it does folks. Truly, madly, deeply, it does.

So much so, that I made this exact meal 5 out of 7 sequential days until all of the pesto had been used up.

Which brings me to my next point: the recipe for the broccoli pumpkin seed pesto makes enough for 3 to 4 spaghetti squashes (totaling 6 or 8 spaghetti squash halves).

You can either bang out dinner for 6 to 8 or do as I did and eat on the pesto throughout the week. Or, you can store the pesto in a sealed jar and keep it in the freezer for future uses.

The roasted pumpkin seeds are everything in this pesto – roasting the pumpkin seeds is easy and speedy quick, and the process yields so much nutty, rich flavor. Of course you can skip the roasting if you’re under a time crunch.

Spaghetti Squash with Broccoli Pumpkin Seed Pesto | TheRoastedRoot.net #healthy #dinner #recipe #glutenfree #almostpaleo #vegetarian

Spaghetti Squash with Broccoli Pumpkin Seed Pesto | TheRoastedRoot.net #healthy #dinner #recipe #glutenfree #almostpaleo #vegetarian

How to Make Spaghetti Squash with Broccoli Pumpkin Seed Pesto:

The order of operations here is you roast the spaghetti squash in the oven (if you’re new to spaghetti squash or could use some tips, check out my tutorial on How to Roast Spaghetti Squash), and prepare the pesto while the squash is roasting.

I blanch the broccoli prior to turning it into pesto mostly to be sure nothing wacky inhabiting the broccoli makes it into my pesto, but also because I prefer the flavor and texture over using raw broccoli.

Once the spaghetti squash and the broccoli pesto are finished, I simply combine the two forces, grate a metric ton of parmesan over the meal, and savor every bite of this plant-centric dinner.

Spaghetti Squash with Broccoli Pumpkin Seed Pesto | TheRoastedRoot.net #healthy #dinner #recipe #glutenfree #almostpaleo #vegetarian

 

More Healthy Spaghetti Squash Recipes:

 

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Spaghetti Squash with Broccoli Pumpkin Seed Pesto | TheRoastedRoot.net #healthy #dinner #recipe #glutenfree #almostpaleo #vegetarian

Spaghetti Squash with Broccoli-Pumpkin Seed Pesto

Spaghetti Squash with Broccoli-Pumpkin Seed Pesto is a nutritious low-carb vegetarian dinner recipe
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 35 minutes
Total Time: 50 minutes
6 servings

Ingredients

  • 3 to 4 spaghetti squash, roasted
  • 1 large crown broccoli, chopped into florets
  • 2/3 cup raw pumpkin seeds
  • ½ cup Parmesan cheese, grated
  • 2 cloves large garlic, minced
  • 1/2 teaspoon sea salt, to taste
  • 2/3 cup olive oil

Instructions

  • Follow these instructions on How to Roast Spaghetti Squash.
  • While the spaghetti squash is roasting, place chopped broccoli into a saucepan and cover with water. bring to a boil and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, just until bright green. Drain the water and immediately rinse the broccoli in a collander with cold water. Allow broccoli to cool all the way and pat dry.
  • Spread the pumpkin seeds on a baking sheet and roast at 375 degrees F for 5 minutes, or until seeds are golden-brown.
  • Add the blanched broccoli, pumpkin seeds, parmesan cheese, garlic, and sea salt to a food processor. Pulse until roughly chopped. Leaving the food processor on, slowly pour the olive oil through the opening at the top to combine. Continue processing until desired consistency is reached (Note: You may need to stop the food processor a few times to scrap the sides in order to get everything to combine). This recipe makes a very thick pesto sauce. For thinner consistency, add more olive oil until your desired consistency is reached.
  • Serve spaghetti squash with desired amount of pesto sauce and garnish with more roasted pumpkin seeds and grated parmesan cheese.

Notes

Make this a low-FODMAP meal by omitting the garlic.

Nutrition

Serving: 1of 8 - Calories: 352kcal - Carbohydrates: 24g - Protein: 7g - Fat: 27g - Fiber: 7g - Sugar: 8g
Course: Lifestyle
Cuisine: American
Keyword: healthy dinner, low-carb, spaghetti squash, vegetarian
Servings: 6 servings
Calories: 352kcal
Author: Julia

Spaghetti Squash with Broccoli Pumpkin Seed Pesto - a simple, healthy vegetarian dinner recipe

Recipe Rating




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Darby

Friday 21st of July 2023

Do you think this would work without the cheese? I'm dairy free but would love this recipe!

Julia

Friday 21st of July 2023

Hi Darby! I think the recipe will still taste great without the cheese! I've made pesto a bunch of times without it and I always love the way it turns out :) Hope you enjoy! xo

Susan McKenne

Saturday 24th of March 2018

I can see how you have added so many nutritious vegetables and made them into a fine dish that the kids and adults of the house would all enjoy. I can already see that my kids will love it when I surprise them with this amazing dish on the weekend afternoon. Can't wait to try it out!

Karon

Sunday 26th of November 2017

Parmesan cheese is definitely not vegetarian so I'm confuse why you've included it in a vegetarian recipe segment?

The other dishes look wonderful so thank you for publishing them.

Andrea

Tuesday 15th of January 2019

Cheese is vegetarian, I think you may be referring to vegan. Vegans do not eat dairy (or meat) or anything that comes from an animal. Vegetarians do not eat meat, but still consume dairy ect, that includes cheese.

Kris

Monday 20th of November 2017

This was good and I enjoyed the interesting combination. I added some lemon and added a bit of the blanched broccoli to serve. It was a little too garlicky but overall I’ll definitely make this again.

Spirited Morgan @ Spirited and Then Some

Wednesday 7th of December 2016

Omigod, I cannot even. These have left me speechless and soundless, except for the part where I laughed out loud at seeing "ramalamadingdong" spelled out. Made. My. Day. It happens to be one of the words I have never known quite how to spell. So, THANK YOU for the recipe and THANK YOU for spelling out ramalamadingdong. The former will be happening in my kitchen and the latter will be happening in all forms of written communication. Could I pull it off in a faculty email chain? :)

Julia

Saturday 10th of December 2016

LOL pretty please use, "ramalamadingdong" in a faculty email chain! It would be most ingenius! So happy you like the recipe and the use of the word, "ramalamadingdong" ;)

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