No Spaghetti Spaghetti

Everyone knows there's nothing more comforting than a big bowl of pasta, and for those of us on low carb diets this is quite depressing. Its fine in summer when you can happily kid yourself with one of these delicious courgetti dishes but for me, once it gets chilly the last thing I want to eat is a summer vegetable masquerading as pasta. Enter, November's wonder ingredient: the spaghetti squash.

Now this fiercely autumnal vegetable is the answer to every paleo lover's prayers. It looks a bit like a honeydew melon and is possibly the most elusive vegetable known to man - so if you see some in your local supermarket or greengrocer, do stock up! They are so so easy to prepare - just cut in half and roast in the oven for about 45 mins. Then they will look like this:

Scoop out the seedy bit and discard, and then all you need to do is simply spoon out the flesh. It will automatically come out in perfect spaghetti like strands. It's quite amazing if you haven't encountered a spaghetti squash before.

I then set this aside and got to work on my sauce. I had some already roasted chicken, and thought I'd make a quick pesto to go with it. You will need:

Plus almost any nut of your choice (pine, pistachio, almond, walnut are all good) and some olive oil. I used almonds, but the ingredients for homemade pesto really are very interchangeable and almost anything goes (swap basil for rocket / coriander / nettle; pop a bit of anchovy in or some sundried tomatoes - whatever you've got really, just keep tasting it). Leaving the chicken to one side, whizz all of that up in a mini blender with some olive oil and a bit of water to emulsify. It should look something like this:

Excuse the photography, which, if it's possible is even worse than usual.

Finally, combine all the ingredients together in a pan to warm through. You may need to add a teeny bit more liquid as the spaghetti squash absorbs some of it, whereas courgetti emits it. Finish with a small grating of parmesan and you're good to go! Very tasty winter carb cheat for about 500 cals (and most of those are from the olive oil to be honest). The spaghetti squash itself is around 80-100 cals for half of one.

#spaghettisquash #courgetti #pesto #paleo #lowcarb #lowcalorie