Paleo Basil Cashew Pesto Coated Spaghetti Squash with Chicken and Zucchini

When I posted a picture of this dish (on both The Paleo Network's and my own personal Facebook page), I didn't anticipate the response that I received. A number of people took interest in this dish - both Paleo and non-Paleo eaters alike. I knew I needed to get this recipe written before I forgot any of the details.

I separated the ingredients and directions into different sections based on the parts of the dish: Spaghetti Squash, Pesto, Chicken, Zucchini and putting it all together. It may sound like a lot of steps, but some of it can be done in advance or things can be done concurrently. For example, I roasted and prepared my spaghetti squash a couple days prior and had the squash strands in a large Ziploc bag in the refrigerator. I could have prepared the pesto in advance and had that in a Tupperware, which would definitely make for a quick and easy weeknight dinner. It truly is a simple meal packed with so much flavor. It's so good, I ate some of the leftovers for breakfast! I made this with chicken, but as I was eating it, I thought how delicious shrimp would be. If you don't have cashews on hand for the pesto, you could probably use pine nuts or macadamia nuts. 

I'll be adding this to my regular rotation. Grains and dairy were not missed in this meal. Everything seemed to work together so well. The pesto turned into a decadent sauce when tossed with the spaghetti squash. 

Basil-Cashew Pesto Spaghetti Squash with Zucchini and Chicken

Serves: 5-6

Ingredients:

• 1 large spaghetti squash or 2 small, roasted and pulled into strands

Pesto:

• 1 cup of packed basil leaves
• ¾ cup raw cashews
• ¼ cup nutritional yeast
• 2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
• Juice from one lemon
• 1 t. pink sea salt
• ½ - ¾ cup extra-virgin olive oil, depending on your preferred consistency

Chicken and Zucchini:

• 3 – 4 T. Fat of choice
• 1 ¼ - 1 ½ pounds chicken tenders, breast or thighs, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 medium zucchini, diced
• Sea salt and freshly-ground pepper, to taste

 

Directions:

To roast your spaghetti squash (can be done in advance):

1. Pre-heat oven to 375°F.
   
2. Cut in half length-wise.
3. Place cut-side down in a large baking dish with about an inch of water (I typically use two baking dishes if I am roasting two squashes).
4. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until the shell is soft to the touch.
5. Flip the squash over (flesh side up) and allow them to cool until you can handle them.
6. Using a fork, pull out all the flesh into strands. If using immediately, just put into a large bowl and set aside. If saving for later use, put into a large Ziploc bag and store in the refrigerator.

 

To make the pesto:

1. Place all ingredients except olive oil into your food processor.
2. Process for about 30 seconds, or until everything is chopped and well-incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the food processor bowl.
3. With processor running, slowly drizzle in the olive oil until you’ve reached your desired consistency.

To cook the chicken and zucchini:

1. Heat 2 T. fat of choice in a large skillet or frying pan over medium to medium-high heat.
2. Add chicken in a single layer and let it cook for 8-10 minutes on one side to allow it to get golden brown and crispy.
3. Season with sea salt and pepper.
4. Flip, add minced garlic and cook 3-5 more minutes, or until chicken is no longer pink.
5. Remove from pan and reserve for later.
6. Add remaining fat of choice to same pan. Toss the zucchini in the fat and allow to sauté for 5-7 minutes, stirring occasionally. Season with sea salt and pepper, to taste.

Putting it all together:

1. If you roasted your spaghetti squash in advance (and it’s cold/cool), then heat spaghetti squash in a large skillet/pot/frying pan over medium to medium-high heat, tossing occasionally. If your spaghetti squash is still warm, just add your warm skillet/frying pan in which you cooked the chicken and zucchini.
2. Add pesto, a few spoonfuls at a time, tossing/stirring and adding more until the spaghetti squash is coated to your liking. You may have some pesto leftover (it tastes great on eggs!).
3. Add the chicken and zucchini to the skillet and mix it all together. Add a little more pesto at this point, if you’d like. Toss to coat the chicken and zucchini with the pesto.
4. Serve and enjoy!

Please share this recipe with your friends and family and on Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter. I appreciate your help in helping build The Paleo Network. 

Paleo Lasagna

I actually grew up not liking the traditional tomato-meat sauce lasagna. It's strange. I remember when my family would eat at Italian restaurants, one of my brothers would always order lasagna. To this day, I'm pretty sure it's still one of his favorite foods. I, however, would always order Fettuccine Alfredo. When I was a teenager, my mom found an awesome Vegetable Lasagna that I fell in love with. I don't remember the recipe exactly, but it had a homemade cheesy sauce (cottage cheese mixed with parmesan + sauce with Italian 5-Cheese Blend) with assorted veggies sandwiched between layers of no-boil lasagna noodles. Yum! 

When I graduated college, my husband bought me The Complete Pasta Cookbook for either my birthday or Christmas. It was a fantastic cookbook for a person who followed the Standard American Diet (SAD). I ate a lot of pasta back then. The new lasagna recipe used a meat sauce and a cheddar cheese sauce in between the pasta layers. Such a delicious and decadent dish. 

Do you see the trend? I liked cheesy sauces in my pasta dishes. 

I converted to Paleo in June 2012. One of the foods I missed were my pasta dishes. I started thinking about lasagna. Besides, meat sauces are easily made Paleo. I had to figure out what to use for the layers in place of pasta. I also wanted some sort of creamy sauce to replicate the sauce from both the vegetarian lasagna and cheddar cheese sauce of the lasagna I loved in my Pre-Paleo days. I already knew how to make an alfredo sauce out of cashews. It had to work! The layers I came up with: butternut squash, zucchini and yellow squash. All can be sliced pretty thin. It's not quite the same as your SAD Lasagna using pasta, but I love it. It's one of our favorite dishes and full of so much flavor. We've had friends make this recipe and they loved it too. 

Paleo Lasagna
Paleo Rating: 8 clubs
Serves: 8

Ingredients:
Meat Sauce
2 lbs. grass-fed ground beef
1 lb. sweet Italian sausage
1 onion, diced
4 carrots, diced
3 celery stalks, diced
8 oz. sliced mushrooms
3 garlic cloves, minced
28 oz. can diced tomatoes, partially drained (otherwise, you’ll have really soupy lasagna)
6 oz. can tomato paste
2 T. fresh basil, chopped
1 t. dried oregano
sea salt and freshly-ground pepper, to taste

Cashew “Alfredo” sauce
2 cups raw cashews, soaked in water for at least 6 hours
8 garlic cloves, minced
¼ cup olive oil
½ cup nutritional yeast
2 t. sea salt

1 butternut squash
2 zucchini
2 yellow squash

Directions:
Soak the raw cashews in water for at least 6 hours.

Make your meat sauce first. Add the grass-fed ground beef and sausage into a large pot. Cook over medium-high heat until no longer pink. I suggest draining off some most of the fat, reserving a couple tablespoons in the pot. Using the reserved fat rendered from the meat, sauté the onions, carrots, mushrooms and celery (keep the meat in the pot). Once veggies are tender, add the garlic, diced tomatoes, tomato paste and seasonings. Bring to a boil and let simmer, stirring occasionally.

While the meat sauce is simmering, prepare your butternut squash. Easiest way to prepare it:
1) Cut the top and bottoms of the squash, so you have flat ends
2) Cut it in half lengthwise
3) Scoop out the seeds and stringy stuff.
4) Peel both halves.
5) Slice the solid parts into relatively thin sheets/slices. These will be your layer. The bottom parts can be reserved for another use (such as roasted maple butternut squash).

Prepare your zucchini and yellow squash. Slice them lengthwise into thin slices. This can be done by hand, but works best with a mandolin.

Next, make your cashew sauce. Drain and rinse your raw cashews. Add the cashews to your blender (I use my Vitamix). Add enough cold water to cover the cashews. Blend until creamy and smooth. Sauté the minced garlic in the olive oil in a small frying pan until golden. Add oil and garlic to the cashew sauce. Add sea salt and nutritional yeast. Blend again until incorporated and smooth.

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Now, you’re ready to put together the lasagna. Add a little bit of meat sauce on the bottom of a large baking dish (I used an 11x13). Drizzle a bit of cashew sauce over the meat. Add a layer of butternut squash sheets. Do not overlap them. Add a layer of meat sauce and cashew sauce. Then add your yellow squash slices. Add another layer of meat sauce and cashew sauce. Add a layer of zucchini slices. Top with more meat sauce and the rest of the cashew sauce. Bake in the preheated 350°F oven for 30 minutes.

Enjoy!

I've made this dish a number of times. One time I tried it without the butternut squash, but both my husband and I like it best with the butternut squash included. If you didn't want to spend the time layering the lasagna, you could just make a lasagna casserole. You could chop up the zucchini, yellow squash and butternut squash. You could mix the veggies with the meat and alfredo sauces and bake. It's a forgiving recipe. If you wanted to use a different veggie to layer (such as eggplant), you could definitely do that. Hope you enjoy this dish as much as we do. It's definitely a dish you want to make on the weekend (or prep on the weekends and you could put it together fairly quickly after work).