Low Carb Spaghetti Squash Pizza Casserole (Paleo, Whole30, AIP, Keto)
This low carb spaghetti squash pizza casserole has all of the flavors of pizza but without the grains or cheese! It’s paleo, whole30, keto, and can be easily made to be AIP complaint.
If I had to name my all-time favorite food, it would have to be pizza. There simply just can’t be another. Who doesn’t love pizza? Well, I did love it… not it’s much harder to love pizza when you’re not eating grains, dairy, or nightshades. Actually, how the heck do you even do that? This low carb pizza casserole may help!
This spaghetti squash low carb pizza casserole is basically pizza if you hold the grains, dairy, and nightshades. What are you left with? Tons of veggies, and flavor! Yes, it can be done! This casserole has a spaghetti squash base and is made with ground beef, mushrooms, red onion, basil, and delicious tomato free sauce, or just regular ol’ sauce if you tolerate it.
Why I’m Obsessed with this Spaghetti Squash Pizza Casserole
It’s full of veggies
Spaghetti squash, onion, mushroom, herbs, and all of the veggies in the sauce? Heck yes! This is not your everyday pizza.
It’s easy to make
By nature of being a casserole, this is close to being a one-pot meal. Yes, there’s prep of making the spaghetti squash and the ground meat separately, but it’s a lot less work than making a grain-free crust and dairy free cheese.
The flavors remind you of pizza!
No, spaghetti squash isn’t actually pizza. I know, I know! But these flavors and ingredients really do remind you of it.
The Ingredients for the Low Carb Pizza Casserole
Spaghetti Squash
You’ll use a whole spaghetti squash for this recipe. Grab a big one, because you’ll want a lot of this casserole!
Ground beef (or Italian sausage)
Since I’m nightshade free, I just used ground beef for this recipe. However, you can also use a compliant Italian sausage if you tolerate it.
Mushrooms, olives, and red onions
These are the pizza toppings I used for this recipe. If you have other toppings you like, feel free to layer them on!
Marinara sauce
If you’re AIP and nightshade free you can try my tomato free sauce! If you’re on whole30 or keto and can tolerate tomatoes, just use a tomato free sauce.
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Low Carb Spaghetti Squash Pizza Casserole (Paleo, Whole30, AIP, Keto)
Ingredients
- 1 cooked spaghetti squash, using the oven or instant pot
- 1 lb ground beef, or Italian sausage if tolerated
- ½ white onion, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 cup mushrooms, sliced
- 1 tsp sea salt
- ½ tsp black pepper, omit for AIP
- Optional- 2 eggs, omit for AIP
- 1 cup sugar-free "tomato" sauce, use this for AIP, or a sugar-free sauce if you tolerate nightshades
For toppings
- ¼ cup black olives, sliced
- ¼ cup red onion, diced
- 1 tbsp fresh basil, chopped
- 2 tsp fresh parsley, chopped
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 F and prepare an 8x8" baking dish
- Using a large skillet on medium heat, brown the ground beef (or sausage) and lightly salt. Set aside, reserving some of the fat in the pan.
- Saute the white onion and garlic in the pan until lightly translucent. Add in the mushrooms and cook for 3-4 minutes or until soft. Set aside.
- Take the cooked spaghetti squash and remove the strands with a fork and place in a large mixing bowl. Use a paper towel or clean cloth to pat down some (but not all) of the excess liquid.
- If using eggs, whisk the eggs together in a separate bowl, and mix with the squash, salt, and pepper.
- Mix the ground beef, cooked vegetables (reserving about 8-10 mushroom slices), and 3/4 cup of the sauce with the spaghetti squash. Pour into the casserole dish and evenly distribute.
- Top the casserole with the remainder of the sauce and mushrooms.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and top with extra toppings. Use a spatula to remove slices and enjoy!
Notes
I made this today and it was really wonderful. I did use more sauce, but I suspect that I may have had more spaghetti squash then needed. I used 2 medium because they did not have any large ones, but probably only need to use 1 1/2 of them. I also added a thinly sliced Chomps Italian Beef Stick as one of the topping (it was a good substitute for pepperoni), and broiled the casserole for 3 minutes after adding the toppings. Really so good!
Q: Would you recommend this dish as one to create the night before, and then bake the next day? Or is there another one of your dishes that you prefer best to prep, and then bake the next evening? Trying to come up with the ideal dish when I am working late and can’t do much prep work.
I would cook it fully ahead and time and store in the fridge. You can reheat it for a few minutes in the oven!
This is Solomon good. I was planning on freezing some of it but we are it until it was gone. My husband,who is a meat and potatoes guy is still raving about it to everyone he talks to. So that is a definite testimony to how good this sauce is. Thanks for the recipe, it’s so much easier to keep on track when there are yummy recipes like this!
Sooooooo good not Solomon good! And ate it not are it !!!!!!!
I made this tonight and it was a HIT! I subbed the spaghetti squash for sweet potatoes and added spinach. So delicious!
Yum! Thank you so much, Beth!
This was a great, easy and quick meal to put together! With leftovers for the next day’s dinner, it made my life easy. I used spicy ground Italian sausage from whole foods, it was perfect for the dish.
Yay! So glad you liked it!!
Hello! This looks yummy! Curious though-do us ok the sausage before putting it into the casserole dish (prior to baking) it does it just get cooked in the oven? Excited to try!
Thanks!
It’s cooked before going in 🙂
Hi!
What would be a good substitute for the mushrooms in the meat mixture? (I would be omitting eggs if that makes a difference).
Thank you!
Jennifer
You can just leave it out! The recipe would still work. Enjoy!
You could substitute any of your favorite veggies or just add a little extra of what is already in there to make up for the 1 cup mushrooms. Hope this helps 🙂