Twice Baked Spaghetti Squash with Spinach, Mushrooms, and a Creamy Swiss Dijon Sauce
Tired of pasta sauce? This recipe takes the concept of spaghetti squash but swaps the tomatoes for a creamy cheese sauce that is soon to be a household favorite!
The other condiment. Mustard. Let’s talk about this. It wasn’t until fairly recently that I’ve started using dijon in more of my cooking. Why? Good question. Going back to the basics of acidity with cooking, mustard balances out a lot of strong flavors without giving a flavor of its own, if used in small amounts. Where I find this helpful is with bold vegetables or strong cheeses. With this sauce, pairing a mustard with the swiss tames the cheese flavor and the cheese flavor masks the mustard, resulting in a creamy sauce almost alfredo like, without the heavy cream taste. Before you resort to leaving this bottle by the ketchup for your next hotdog, try it out in different ways!
Use your noodle! I have no idea how that expression came to be, but my dad always referred to my brain as my noodle. Hmmmm. Regardless, spaghetti squash can be a tricky consistency, so a little brain work is required. If cooked too long, the noodle like form becomes too mushy and doesn’t hold its shape, and if cooked too little it is tough to work with. Because this is baked twice, shy on the side of slightly undercooked, so that the fork still pierces the skin but there is some resistance. When scraping out, this should produce nice noodles, and combined with the sauce, it will bake the rest of the way in the skin and absorb more of the flavors of the sauce!
How are you using those fall squash? I’d love to hear your recipes!!
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Twice Baked Spaghetti Squash with Spinach, Mushrooms, and a Creamy Swiss Dijon Sauce
Equipment
- Baking sheet
- 2 Skillets
- Kitchen knife
Ingredients
- 3 tbsp Olive Oil
- 1 large Spaghetti Squash
- 1 1/2 cups Sliced Mushrooms I used Baby Bellas
- 2 handfuls Spinach
- 3/4 cup Heavy Whipping Cream
- 1 cup Shredded Swiss Cheese
- 2 tbsp Dijon Mustard
- 1 tbsp Butter
- 2 cloves Garlic
- Salt and Pepper to taste
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350. Slice spaghetti squash in half and scrape out the seeds. Drizzle with a little olive oil and a sprinkle on salt and bake face down until can pierce the skin easily.
- While the squash is cooking, in a large skillet, warm butter and add minced garlic. Gradually add in cream while turning the heat down.
- Stir in cheese and mustard, stirring often and let reduce to create a thicker sauce. Salt and pepper to taste.
- In a second skillet, lightly sauté the mushrooms in a bit of oil. Add your spinach and cook until wilted. Combine with the sauce.
- Taking the squash out of the oven, using a fork, scrape out the squash creating 'noodle' like strings. Add these to the sauce mixture.
- Mix all well and return to each 'shell' of the squash and top with additional swiss cheese. Bake until browned on the top-about 10 minutes. Enjoy!Variation: for the carnivores out there, add in some shredded chicken!
