Spaghetti pizza casserole! Yep this Paleo + Whole30 casserole is about to be a new family favorite! It’s easy and perfect for your weekend meal prep. The family will enjoy this hearty and flavorful casserole, and nobody will even miss the actual pasta or cheese!
Spaghetti Squash
We love swapping spaghetti squash for pasta in recipes, and especially in this spaghetti pizza casserole! It’s a grain-free, lower carb option and really and truly tastes wonderful. The main challenge with spaghetti squash is cutting it in half to roast. So, if you question your knife skills, you can either cook it whole (just takes longer) and then cut it once softer. Or, another option is to have someone working in the produce section of your grocery store cut it for you! It’s an easy fix.
Meal Plan + Prep
When we make this spaghetti pizza casserole, we like to make it on Sunday for dinner. It’s a great way to end the weekend and does double duty as some meal prep! You will have a casserole in the fridge to eat for leftover lunches or dinner during the busy work week. And you will look forward to the leftovers because they’re so dang good!
Pepperoni Options
It’s true – finding a Whole30 compliant pepperoni is not super easy. So…double check the ingredients and consider making friends with a local butcher who you can work with to have it made without the added sugar or dextrose. Also, you could also try using a compliant sausage instead of pepperoni – like Pederson’s Farms Kielbasa or Teton Waters Ranch Polish Kielbasa. Slice it up real thin and use it like a pepperoni.
Some Other Casseroles To Try
Your Turn To Try Our Spaghetti Pizza Casserole
Meal prepping or just in the mood for comfort food? Make this spaghetti pizza casserole! It’s hearty, full or flavor and family-friendly! Leave a comment below and let us know how it goes. Also, snap a photo and share on Instagram. Tag us @realsimplegood, and give us a follow if you don’t already! We’d love to stay connected!
Like this Recipe?
SHARE IT NOW OR PIN IT FOR LATER!
Spaghetti Pizza Casserole (Paleo + Whole30)
Ingredients
- 1 medium spaghetti squash
- 1.5 lbs ground beef, (can sub Italian Sausage)
- 1 tbsp Italian seasoning, (omit if you are using Italian Sausage)
- 1 onion, diced
- 6 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 cups mushrooms, sliced
- 10 leaves fresh basil, diced
- 1 can olives, diced, (15 oz)
- 1 jar spaghetti sauce, (25 oz)
- 2 eggs, (optional, if you omit the casserole just won’t “set” much like a traditional casserole)
- 5 oz pepperoni slices
Optional toppings:
- Chopped red onion
- Chopped basil
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425° Fahrenheit.
- Slice the spaghetti squash lengthwise and scoop out the seeds. Place the two halves face-down on a baking dish and place in the oven to bake for 25 minutes, or until the squash shreds easily but is not mushy.
- While the squash is cooking, chop all of your other ingredients as noted and set aside.
- Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Once hot, and add in the ground beef and onion. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the beef is browned. Season with Italian seasoning and mix. Taste and season with salt and pepper as desired and remove from heat.
- Once cooked, remove the squash from the oven and lower the oven temperature down to 350° Fahrenheit. Allow the squash to cool for handling, about 5 minutes.
- With a fork, scrape out the spaghetti squash “noodles” into a large bowl.
- Add the cooked beef, garlic, mushrooms, basil, olives, spaghetti sauce and eggs (optional) to the bowl. Stir everything around to mix it well.
- Dump 1/2 of the spaghetti squash mixture into a 9×13 casserole dish. Spread it around to make an even layer on the bottom of the dish. Top with a layer of 1/2 of the pepperoni.
- Add on the other half of the spaghetti squash mixture and spread it around again to create an even layer. Top with a layer of the remaining pepperoni.
- Place in the oven to cook for 30 minutes.
- Remove and top with optional toppings as desired. Allow to cool for a few minutes, slice into pieces and serve.
Please include the nutrition information. Many of us have food protocols we must follow for our health. Without that information, I cannot chance making this recipe, intriguing as it sounds.
You can get nutrition information for any recipe by pasting the URL on Whisk. Here is the link.
This is a keeper! I have made this recipe twice and received rave reviews from kids and adults both times. I love that it’s gluten free and Whole 30. I used ground beef but I may try turkey sausage at some point. I was leery of how the eggs would affect it but the consistency is perfect.
We know that the kiddos love this one, happy to hear yours do too! Thanks for coming back to leave a rating and review, we appreciate it 🙂
This recipe was absolutely delicious although I will confess to making some substitutions because I cannot eat beef and do not like mushrooms or olives. I subbed 1 lb. of 91% Italian ground turkey for the beef, turkey pepperoni, onions and peppers in place of the mushrooms and black olives. I also added 1 3/4 cups of mozzarella cheese and only used about a cup of spaghetti sauce. This ended up being about 300 calories per serving, 13g of fat (about 5g saturated) , 24g of protein and 13g of carbs.
I do love a mushroom, but I can’t do beef either, so thanks for reporting successful subs!
This is absolutely fantastic! We make it frequently and it is a go-to recipe for company. Everyone is always amazed that a recipe with spaghetti squash can taste so amazing. I like to sprinkle a little nutritional yeast on the top.
It’s one of our favorites to share when we have people over, too. The adults and kids always enjoy it! Thanks for adding a rating and review! 🙂
This recipe is SO. GOOD. I had to stop myself from eating a fourth serving at dinner! The leftovers heat up really well also.
Ha, it’s hard not to go back for seconds (or thirds or fourths) with this one 🙂
SO good. Everyone loved it. Even the littles.
We love hearing that, we’ve served this to several kids who enjoyed it too 🙂
Are green or black olives best?
Hi Andrea – Either will work, just use whatever you prefer :). Hope you enjoy the recipe!
Absolutely amazing!!! Definitely one to add to the regular weekly night schedule! Being Italian, this is the perfect substitute, and you don’t even miss the cheese or carbs! The recipes I’ve had from you all have been nothing but perfect!
We are so happy to hear you loved this one and the rest you’ve tried! Thanks so much for inviting us into your kitchen. What’s been your favorite recipe so far that you’ve tried?!
I’m looking for recipes to make while on maternity leave and this looks amazing. Any recommendations how to/if this would freeze well? Thank!
Yes, this would work for freezing. Just prepare the recipe as noted through step #9 and then freeze it. When you’re ready to eat it, just thaw it out overnight in the fridge. Once thawed, just pop it in the oven to bake at 350° for 30 minutes. Enjoy and congrats!
This was great! I used vegetarian sausages instead of the meat and did add a drizzle of mozzarella on top (I’m not on whole 30) and it was really good.
We’re so glad you enjoyed it and made it work for you! Thanks so much for giving our recipe a try! 🙂
THIS IS MY FAVORITE RECIPE ON THIS SITE.
I’ve probably made this a dozen times, including some prep to take camping and all of my guy friends LOVED it. They had no idea It was paleo.
I recommend this to everyone I know for a quick paleo meal that the whole family will enjoy. It’s seriously fool proof and I love that I can add my favorite pizza toppings.
I made this for my boyfriend and I. The consistency was a little soup-y but the taste was SO good. I had never made spaghetti squash but the directions were very easy to follow. Definitely will be making this again!
The spaghetti squash can get a little soupy sometimes. If it helps you can allow the squash to cool, place it on a towel and squeeze out any excess liquid before mixing it in with the rest of the ingredients.
This recipe was amazing! It was the perfect trick to satisfy a pizza craving!
We’re so happy to hear it was a hit! Thanks so much for sharing and coming back to leave a comment and rating as well! 🙂
Hello. I just made the recipe, and I’m about to put it into the oven, but I’m confused… In the beginning of the recipe it says cook time is one hour in 25 minutes, and at the end it says cook time is 30 minutes… Please help!
The time at the top is the total cooking time for the whole recipe. The 30 minutes at the end is just to cook the casserole once it is all put together.
I loved this recipe and will make again. It was easy to prepare – I used sliced olives and mushrooms which cut down on the prep time. I served it to my family (who don’t regularly eat paleo) and they all loved it. It’s different but has familiar flavors. One picky eater said she’d prefer less olives, but an easy fix. A crowd pleaser, highly recommend.
Thanks for the great review Danielle! We are glad you and the family enjoyed this one :).
So so yummy!! Satisfied my pizza craving while doing Whole 30!! Very filling and makes lots of leftovers!
Glad you enjoyed the recipe Rebecca!
I LOVED this! Made it tonight but it came out super liquid-y. I followed the recipe exactly (besides replacing the ground beef with ground turkey for a healthier alternative) and used the two eggs to make it set but it came out more like a chili than a casserole. Any tips?
*again, huge fan! Thank you for sharing!
Hi Kirsten, so glad you liked the recipe! The water is likely from the spaghetti squash and maybe also from the turkey. For the squash, you can try and “wring out” any additional water by pressing it between napkins or a cheesecloth after it is cooked in step #2. For the turkey, I’m not sure :). Also, if it’s still watery after cooking, you could try to carefully pour the water off out of the casserole dish. That might be tough though, as it might try and slide out….
Made this and it was awesome! Great meal prep idea.
So glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for trying our recipe and for taking the time to come back and share how it went! 🙂
This looks great. What is nutritional info?
Hey there – we don’t track nutrition info on all of our recipes since we don’t track it personally. It’s one of our favorite things about our Paleo lifestyle. We really don’t worry about counting calories, fat, etc. You could use an app or online calculator to get an estimate though if needed.
I feel you are doing your readers a disservice by not providing nutritional information. Just because a person is paleo doesn’t mean they don’t want to track their macronutrients. I am pale but I like to know how much protein vs. carbs I’m eating. It’s not about tracking fat or calories. It’s about knowing the breakdown of macromolecule intake.
Thanks for your feedback. We’ll take that into consideration.
How do you do all of the prep chopping/dicing and squash prep in only 5 minutes?
We considered prep time as just the squash prep time (cutting and removing the seeds). The other chopping is done while the squash is cooking so we lumped it into the “cooking” time. Hopefully that helps.