This spaghetti squash noodle bowl is something you might catch me fixing up for dinner on a normal day. I might pre-roast the whole squash and make up a version of the vegan peanut sauce at the beginning of the week, reheat the strands with some stock in a sauté pan and top it all up as I’ve done here. I never make a dressing or sauce the same way twice, and this peanut lime one is no exception. The list of ingredients seems long, but it’s largely a compilation of pantry items that can be subbed, swapped or chopped altogether. I just kind of throw it all into my Vitamix and taste and re-blend, rinse, repeat :)
If you’d like to make this a bit heartier, you could whip up a batch of crispy sesame garlic tofu to serve alongside. I generally have faith that I’m getting enough plant-based sources of protein throughout the day. But if this is top of mind for you, definitely go for some tofu or even steam some edamame along with the broccoli for an extra hit. You could also tangle up some whole grain or brown rice-based noodles with the spaghetti squash strands!
If you love spaghetti squash, I have another excellent recipe with it that involves garlicky arugula cream and chickpeas right here. So good!
Spaghetti Squash Noodle Bowl with Lime Peanut Sauce
Ingredients
Lime Peanut Sauce
- ½ inch fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1-2 teaspoons hot sauce of your choosing
- 2 tablespoons peanut butter
- ½ teaspoon lime zest
- 1 tablespoon lime juice
- 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
- 2 teaspoons agave nectar
- 1 tablespoon tamari soy sauce
- ¼ tsp toasted sesame oil (optional)
- ½ cup grapeseed oil
Spaghetti Squash Noodle Bowl
- 1 large spaghetti squash, cut in half lengthwise and seeds scooped out
- 4 cups thinly sliced kale
- 4-5 cups broccoli florets
- ½ small red onion, thinly sliced
- ½ cup chopped toasted nuts (cashews, almonds etc)
- 3 tablespoons sesame seeds, toasted
- ½ cup chopped cilantro or parsley
- sea salt and ground black pepper, to taste
Equipment
Notes
- Definitely use the sharpest knife you’ve got for the spaghetti squash. You don’t want to be pulling a stubborn knife out of a half-cut squash.
- You could also use tahini, almond butter, or sunflower seed butter in place of the peanut butter
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375°F.
- Combine all of the sauce ingredients in a blender and blend until fully incorporated. Taste for seasoning and set aside.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment and place the squash halves, cut side down, onto the sheet. Bake for about 40 minutes, or until the flesh pulls away in easy strands.
- While the squash is baking, place the sliced kale in a large bowl and set aside.
- Once you’ve taken the squash out of the oven, set a medium saucepan with about an inch of water over medium heat. Bring it to a simmer. Place the broccoli florets into a steamer basket and drop it into the pot, closing the lid on top. Let the broccoli steam for 3-4 minutes, or until tender. Keep warm.
- While broccoli is steaming, scrape the spaghetti strands out with a fork into the large bowl with the sliced kale. The heat from the squash should wilt the kale slightly. Pour a big splash of the dressing into the bowl, season with salt and pepper and lightly toss the squash and kale.
- Remove broccoli from the heat. Portion the squash and kale into 4 bowls. Top each bowl with the steamed broccoli, red onions, chopped nuts, sesame seeds, chopped herbs and extra sauce.
This meal is such a consistent hit and always wows people who aren’t huge into vegetable or eating vegan. I like to sub quick pickled red onion for raw red onion. Thanks!
Can i use squash from Whole Foods that has been “noodlized” instead of spaghetti squash?
You mean zucchini noodles? Or pre-cooked and scooped spaghetti squash? Either is fine! Just heat them up a bit (either in a saute pan or steam/boil them) before mixing up with the other ingredients and serving.
-L
Put all the sauce ingredients in the Vitamix and it blended into a thick, whipped texture. Did this happen to anyone else? Any ideas on how to make it more “sauce-y”?
I would just pour some hot water (up to a 1/4 cup) into your blender and re-blend it to break the sauce up a bit.
-L
If I don’t have agave nectar… Could maple syrup be substituted?
Yes of course!
I made this without the kale and it is amazing! Love the sauce :)
Just wanted to let you know that I tried this out last night and it was fantastic! I was a bit skeptical with the combination of steamed, baked and raw ingredients but it was amazing. The texture of the kale turned out perfect and the mix of flavors was fantastic. Thanks!
Made this with not much enthusiasm but I have been loving your recipes so much that this was sort of a final test. Despite me not caring much for spaghetti squash and the fact that my squash took linger than exoected to cook, I LOVED this dish so much. You really blew me! All this in about 10 min prepration and minimal dishes. You’re really good!! I’ll be growing spaghetti squash this summer!!
What a healthy alternative to all the types of pasta out there. Absolutely love lime as a flavour!
I replaced the peanut butter with homemade Sunbutter. This was real good! Thank you!
me gustan tus recetas son fascinantes gracias
Holy WOW! This sauce is so good! I made it for the noodles but I’m going to make more of it and put it on… everything! I think it’d be fantastic on shrimp, as well as steak, pork chops, and even sushi. So glad I stumbled upon this recipe!
Does anyone have the net carb count per serving? Thanks
Well, I didn’t get to make it the other day after all, but I’m noshing it as I type. So good! Totally loving every bite. Thank you!
I’ve got a big, fat yellow spaghetti squash sitting on my counter top right now that I didn’t know what to do with (came in our farm box). Your recipe looks delicious. I can almost taste all the flavors and textures together. I’m actually looking forward to cooking it now, thanks to you. Your photographs are amazing, btw.
Re the trolls who spend their time saying hurtful things: They don’t deserve your energy. I’m glad you told us about them, though, so we could offer cheers and support, in addition to our gratitude for your contributions to our culinary endeavors.
This looks SO good. I’ve had a spaghetti squash sitting on my counter for three weeks now. It came in our CSA box. Sadly, I never met a spaghetti squash I liked. I’ve looked at a dozen or more recipes and none of them made my mouth water like this one. THANK YOU!!! Looking forward to cooking it up over the weekend.
This looks really yummy! Can’t wait to try it.
I am coming here to say that this recipe has made it into regular rotation at our house! And because I microwave the squash and the other veggies, it comes to the table in 30 minutes! Huzzah!
I love ALMOST everything about this and I’m excited to make it again, but next time i am only going to use lime juice instead of the whole lime. I was;t super mindful in removing all of the white part that is between the peel and fruit and it flavored the whole dish with bitterness.
I have been a fan of yours for many moons now and I prepared this last night with broccoli noodles and sautéed beef. It was sublime. Many thanks!
http://beetsandbratwurst.blogspot.com/2015/07/lime-peanut-sauce.html
I love your blog very much. I just made this peanut sauce and it’s by far the best best best I have EVER tasted. The spaghetti squash is just cooling off now, and will top with avocados (I must) and the rest of your suggestions. Looking forward to dinner! I took your turmeric chickpeas with sunflower seed sauce (I made it into a topping for a salad of finely-cut, lightly dressed raw chard) to a potluck and people were dying over it. I must have given five people your URL. Thank you so much.
this is a wonderful dish! loved the sauce and i plan on using it for other dishes as well. so fulfilling. thank you for sharing :)
Loved this recipe. To save time, I poked holes all over the squash and microwaved it for 12 minutes. Ingredient alterations: no grape seed oil, but a little coconut oil. It came out. AMAZING. Thank you for a happy dinner! I look forward to trying more of your recipes :0)
We made this for dinner the other night and it was delicious. It was my first time trying spaghetti squash and the recipe works wonderfully with it. I think sometimes people try to sub it in for pasta in dishes where it doesn’t exactly go….but here it was perfect, noodles were not missed at all.
You can cut the spaghetti squash the opposite way and it works as well. This looks DELICIOUS. I’ve done spaghetti squash with red sauce and spaghetti squash with browned butter alfredo and Kale, but I never thought to go with an Asian influence. Definitely going to make it into the rotation!
This was so delicious! I made it tonight and loved every bite. The only thing I did differently was to sauté a few mushrooms and shredded carrots in olive oil and add them to the mix because I am a major mushroom fan. Thanks for posting this recipe!
i need this in my belly!
I made this last night and it was delicious!!! I didn’t have any shallot so I caramelized half a sweet onion instead. I used basil but I put a little too much because it was a little too strong of a flavor (I think I chopped up 7 or 8 leaves). Thank you!! :)
Hello Laura,
I am trying to creatively think of what I could replace the hot sauce with as I’m intolerant to hot anything it seems these days? Thank you for your great recipes!
Amalia
This looks delicious! I’m going back on my low-carb diet and I found this on Pinterest. Thanks for sharing! I can’t wait to eat it for dinner tonight!
Oh my, this was delish! I forgot to buy kale but still yummy without it, the dressing is so so so good! Thank you for the recipe!
Made this for dinner tonight. So good. My sauce was a little vinegar-y so next time I may just put a tsp instead of a tbsp but other than that it was delish!
This is without a doubt once of the livliest and flavorful dishes I have ever made. I did a few things differently to expedite the cooking process. I cooked the squash in the microwave, bought steam in bag broccoli and sautéed 3 shallots with the kale. I used cilantro and basil with the Chefs recommendation of cashews. Thank you for this recipe!!
I really wish it hadn’t taken me so long to make this recipe, it’s amazing!! I could go back for 2nds, 3rd and 4rths. Thank you!!
Thank you for the nice recipe.
I was looking for an asian inspired recipe for spaghetti squash as a side dish for my pork belly lettuce wraps. Your recipe was the one that stood out for me. The peanut sauce is delicious and I can’t wait for dinner tonight. I never thought of making asian dishes with spaghetti squash but I’m now hooked. I will try pad Thai next Thank you so much for taking the time and sharing such wonderful goodies with all of us.
Has anyone calculated the calories per serving? Sounds so deee-lish, I can’t wait to try it!
This is so perfect – blog and recipe – you’ll never know how much :)
Made this last night and LOVED it! I’ve never been a big fan of spaghetti squash because I always served it with marinara sauce. I am now a serious convert– your peanut sauce has made me a believer! I sautéed the shallot and kale a little bit and also added a bit of roasted butternut squash. I’m having the leftovers for lunch — can’t wait!
Hi Miss Laura,
Stumbled onto your blog when searching for new ways to fix my fave squash for my daughter and her fussy eatin’ 4 y/o step-daughter who will eat anything slathered with my basil pesto btw. Go figure.
Anyway I have a bumper crop of spaghetti squash for I seem to have an issue with gluten these days so grew a bunch to dehydrate to enjoy over the winter/spring, but when I saw your recipe I decided I must prepare this asap (like day after tomorrow)for my husband, daughter, and myself who love oriental flavors.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge. I’ll be back for more inspiration.
D. O’C.
P.S. Don’t sweat the small stuff which includes small minds.
Chowing down on this now and loving it! Thanks!
Hey, you go girl! Love the recipe. I eat a LOT of spaghetti squash, and I have gotten so lazy about it that I just throw the whole washed thing right into the oven on a baking tray. MUCH easier to cut afterwards, n if it seems hard, cook it some more. Just be careful taking it out of the oven; usually doesn’t roll by then, but you never know.
This looks positively delicious, I can’t wait to try it!
It is amazing, isn’t it how people can be so cruel and ridiculous behind the mask of the Internet… You handled that beautifully, and I agree, what on earth could someone possibly have to say negative about this site?
Thanks for including a note about making the meal ahead of time! Since I’m cooking for one, I’m always curious about recipes that can be reheated throughout the week, as the squash noddles can be. Can’t wait to try it! :)
Just made this.. Sooooo good! I wish there was a way to make it paleo… I swapped out the peanut butter with almond butter, looking for a replacement for the soy sauce- any ideas? Anyway, aside from the struggles of opening the squash, this recipe was easy and delicious! Thanks!
Hey Sarah! You can use a coconut aminos in place of the soy sauce, like this one: http://www.amazon.com/Coconut-Secret-Organic-Vegan-Aminos/dp/B003XB5LMU. Pretty sure it’s paleo friendly. It’s a fantastic product and I’ve been using it quite a bit lately. I’ve seen it at health food stores and even a few grocery stores too.
-L