This Paleo + Whole30 creamy garlic spaghetti squash casserole is so saucy and delicious! Do you long for a creamy, dairy-free sauce packed with garlicky goodness? Well, look no more! Plus, this dish is made with spaghetti squash, which is a much healthier casserole option. Go ahead, get your squash on, and make a big old pan of this filling and flavorful casserole!
Making Life Easier
We love anything that makes life easier, and finding ways to be more efficient and effective in the kitchen can make such a huge difference in how we feel about cooking and preparing meals. I didn’t always love being in the kitchen, but once I started to plan more and find ways to create delicious meals with the least amount of effort, I really started to love cooking and spending time in the kitchen!
Looking for more spaghetti squash recipes? Check out this roundup of 10 Cozy Spaghetti Squash Recipes!
We love this creamy garlic spaghetti squash casserole because there is only about five minutes of prep time, and the hardest part is really cutting the spaghetti squash! Seriously, isn’t that the worst part? Did you know that if you ask someone working in the produce section at the grocery store, they will cut it in half for you?! Yep, there’s a time saving (and potential ER trip saving) tip for you right there! Just saying.
Creamy Garlicky Goodness
This casserole is full of creamy garlicky goodness that just hits the spot! You won’t even notice the spaghetti squash isn’t real noodles, and if you use a spicy Italian sausage, you’ll also get just a touch of heat to go with the creamy deliciousness. We love making a big pan of this to have leftovers on hand because sometimes it feels like the leftovers are even better!
Quick + Easy Meals
While this recipe isn’t a 30 minute meal, we love that it makes enough for leftovers, which can easily be reheated for lunch or another dinner. You could also make and freeze this casserole, and then pop it in the oven to reheat when you are in need of an already made meal. Just note that it may turn out a little more watery than when eaten fresh, and it should be good in the freezer for 1-2 months in an airtight container. We love meals like this since the effort is totally worth the time saved on another day!
That’s what our Paleo Meal Plans are all about – making you more efficient in the kitchen! Need a little help getting organized or just want to reclaim some of your free-time? Check out all the details here!
Some Other Casseroles To Try
- Easy Taco Casserole
- Spaghetti Pizza Casserole
- Healthy Chicken and Broccoli Casserole
- Creamy Bacon Ranch Chicken Casserole
- BBQ Chicken Casserole
- Creamy Chicken Casserole
Your Turn To Try Our Creamy Garlic Spaghetti Squash Casserole
Ok, now it’s your turn! Make a big pan of this creamy garlic spaghetti squash casserole and enjoy the goodness. Let us know how it goes by leaving a comment below. Take a photo and tag us on Instagram @realsimplegood, so we can check it out! And make sure to give us a follow if you don’t already. Let’s stay connected!
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Creamy Garlic Spaghetti Squash Casserole (Paleo, Whole30, GF + Dairy-Free)
Ingredients
- 1 medium spaghetti squash
- 4 cups broccoli florets
- 1 lb ground Italian sausage, (regular breakfast or Chorizo work too)
- 2 cups mushrooms, sliced
- 1/4 cup arrowroot flour
- 2 tbsp minced garlic
- 16 oz coconut milk
- Salt and pepper, (about 1 tsp each)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400° Fahrenheit.
- Slice the spaghetti squash lengthwise and scoop out the seeds. Place the two halves face-down on a baking sheet and bake for 25 minutes.
- While the squash is cooking, get the sausage going. Heat a large pan over medium heat and add in the sausage. Break it into pieces with a spatula and cook, stirring occasionally, until browned and cooked through, about 8 minutes. Remove from pan and set aside. Reserve at least 1 tbsp of fat in the pan for the sauce you’ll make later.
- Remove squash from oven after 30 minutes and set aside to cool. Keep the oven on at 400°.
- While the squash is cooling, prepare the creamy garlic sauce. Whisk together coconut milk and arrowroot flour in a bowl or jar and set aside.
- Heat the same pan you cooked the sausage in over medium heat. Once hot, add mushrooms and cook until they begin to soften, about 2 minutes. Add in minced garlic and mix well with the mushrooms, about 1-2 minutes, until fragrant.
- Next, whisk up the coconut milk mixture again and add to pan, stirring constantly for 2 minutes. The sauce will bubble and thicken, keep stirring to prevent burning. After 2 minutes turn heat off and stir in salt and pepper.
- Now, put it all together. With a fork, scrape out the spaghetti squash “noodles” into a medium casserole dish. Add the cooked sausage, broccoli, and creamy garlic sauce. Mix everything together well.
- Place back in the oven to bake for 15 more minutes. Remove and serve.
Question please…approximately how many cups in a ‘medium’ spaghetti squash?
I’d say approximately 6-8 cups of cooked noodles. Hopefully that helps.
What size pan? How many does it serve? Can you split it into 2 smaller 8×8 Pyrex and be enough mix? Thanks
We use a standard 9×13 pan so 2 8×8’s should be plenty. The servings are noted at the top of the recipe card 😊
This was so delicious. I ended up using two smaller cans of the coconut milk so it was a little loose on the sauce but not quite soupy either. We loved it! I cooked the spaghetti squash in my instant pot so by the time
I had every prepped and cooked, it was done. We had dinner ready to go in less than 45min. My kids ate seconds and said they could drink the sauce lol
Love hearing that, thanks for coming back to share your experience and leave a rating 🙂
Perfect cold weather comfort food for Fall. Delicious, really crazy good, easy to make, and I recommend the recipe for being very adaptable depending on what ingredients you have on hand. I added chopped red onion, white pepper, and sage, as I had less mushrooms, and used hot Italian sausage. I found you don’t need to cook the sauce in the pan, you can stir it into the baking dish with the other ingredients and it will cook and thicken up in the oven.
Could this be frozen? If so, cooked or uncooked?
It could. I recommend freezing it uncooked, thawing completely and then cooking. Enjoy!
8/24/22 – tried this recipe last night and it was AH-mazing. Simple to make, not many ingredients to worry about prepping. The longest part was just waiting for the squash to bake in oven to get tender enough to shred through.
It calls for coconut milk – those of you that worry about using that – you do not NOT taste the coconut. It just gives a well made creamy based sauce.
I am not a fan of mushrooms so chopped up a small tomato as a sub. LOVE THIS recipe. Thanks for sharing amongst the world!
You’re so welcome Karen, thanks for coming back to leave this amazing review 🙂
This was amazing. I had leftover spaghetti squash from the night before that I needed to use so happy I found this recipe. I used breakfast sausage that was homemade by my husband. Such a good flavor. I did add onions in as well when cooking mushrooms.
Love nutrition facts for my fitness pal logging. At least calories if you have a roundabout number. Thank you
Can you sub almond milk for the coconut milk?
You can, it just won’t be as thick as the full fat coconut milk and might turn the casserole a little watery.
Really want to make this, but unsure of the nutrition. Do you have the nutritional facts?
Hi there, we don’t track the nutritional info on all of our recipes. We’ve found since moving to a real food lifestyle that we don’t have to track and it’s liberating to not be tied to numbers. If you need the info you could use an online calculator like My Fitness Pal.
Can you use corn starch vs arrow root to thicken?
Yes, that will work!
This looks delicious. Could the sausage be substituted with ground chicken? Also what is a good substitute for arrowroot on Whole30?
You could definitely use ground chicken instead of sausage, just add some seasonings to give it extra flavor since you’re not using a flavorful sausage. You can use arrowroot while doing a Whole30 as a thickener for sauces like we do in this recipe. Otherwise, you could omit the arrowroot and just have a less creamy sauce. It will still taste great!
Hi not a coconut fan, does it have a coconut flavor?
Thanks
Hi there! We hear from other readers that they don’t taste the coconut in this recipe. We don’t think it tastes like coconut at all ourselves, but we do also like coconut and use it often. There’s a lot of garlic in the recipe, and it really helps to mask it. Hope you give it a try. We’d love to hear you report back what you think!
this is an amazing dish! my husband does not like spaghetti squash – well i made this and he ate 2nds!! then i told him – 🙂
lets just say this is amazing…
thank you so much for sharing!
Glad to hear that you BOTH enjoyed this! Thanks for coming back to leave a review 🙂
Is the broccoli raw when added to the dish or sautéed first?
We do add the broccoli raw, and it retains a little crunch. If you prefer it more well done, you could definitely sauté it first. Hope you give it a try! We’d love to hear how it goes if you do. 🙂
Made it with chorizo and it was delish!!!!
I feel like this could have been good but ended up coming out so incredibly watery that it was more like a soup. A lot of the flavor was watered down because of that. It was not watery when mixed together, just when it came out of the oven. Any ideas what happened and how to prevent it in the future?
This was likely caused by the spaghetti squash getting overcooked and releasing the water. Depending on the squash size and oven, they all cook a little differently. You can try cutting 10 minutes off of the initial squash cooking time (step #2). Basically, you want to be able to shred the squash but the noodles will still be a little hard and will cook the rest of the way when you mix everything together and cook it for the last 15 minutes.
Spaghetti Squash can be very watery. After I cook and shred, I put the spaghetti squash in a strainer with a bowl or dish under it and let it sit in the fridge for a couple hours (I usually do this whenever preparing Spaghetti squash).
This was a huge hit in my house. My picky toddler ate three helpings and even the broccoli (cue mama happy dance). Will definitely be in the rotation. I used defrosted broccoli florets and added onion while cooking the sausage. Im on a modified AIP diet so it was nice to find a meal that the whole family was excited about.
Amazing! We love hearing that SO much! This one is very popular with folks doing AIP. Glad you found it and the whole family enjoyed it! Thanks for coming back to let us know how it went! 🙂
Could I use leftover ham and heavy cream instead of coconut?
We haven’t tried it, but the heavy cream should work to replace the coconut will work. The ham will be just fine. Enjoy 🙂