Vegan And Gluten Free Spaghetti And Not Meat Sauce - Made From Lentils And Spaghetti Squash Or Pasta

Lentils form the base for this meaty tomato sauce.
Spaghetti squash is a good gluten free alternative to pasta.

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Meat Sauce Alternative
When you simmer cooked lentils in a rich, seasoned tomato sauce they not only provide a meaty texture but they also deliver protein, vitamins, minerals and fiber. 
Let's compare a cup of lentils to a 3 ounce serving of ground beef.

One cup of cooked lentils has the same number of calories as a 3 ounce serving of ground beef but has only 5% of the total fat and essentially no saturated fat or cholesterol.

They are pretty comparable in protein but lentils deliver more than half of your daily fiber requirement while ground beef provides zip. And don't fear lentils' carbs. They are the complex kind that keep your blood sugar stable and slowly provide glucose to your cells.

Lentils are packed with folate, a B vitamin critical for heart health, the production of new cells and especially important for pregnant women. While 1 cup of lentils provides 90% of your daily requirement of folate, ground meat only provides 3%. And while the non-heme iron found in lentils is not absorbed as well as the heme-iron in the ground beef, well - there's 3 times as much of it so not to worry!

Ground beef has the one advantage of providing vitamin B12 which lentils do not. 

Spaghetti
Spaghetti squash is a wonderful alternative to pasta when you are trying to avoid some carbs and calories. It's also naturally gluten free. It's magical the way the cooked flesh turns into spaghetti strands. But I love this lentil "meat" sauce on pasta too - either whole wheat or, if you are avoiding gluten, served on any gluten free alternative like Tinkyada brown rice spaghetti pasta.

Spaghetti and Not Meat Sauce
Vegan, Gluten Free (on spaghetti squash or gluten free pasta)
[makes 4 servings]

3 pound spaghetti squash*
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
1 small green bell pepper, chopped 
1/4 teaspoon red chili flakes (or to taste)
3 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1 can drained lentils
1/4 teaspoon salt, or to taste
2 cups prepared tomato sauce

* or 8 ounces whole grain or gluten free spaghetti cooked according to manufacturers directions

Prepare the spaghetti squash. Cut in half, scoop out the seeds and place in a large pot with one or two inches of water. Cover and steam until a fork barely penetrates the flesh, about 15 to 18 minutes. Don't overcook or it will turn to mush. Remove the spaghetti squash from the pot immediately. 

Cover and steam until cooked.

Using a fork, gently pull the squash away from the sides uncovering little spaghetti-like strands. Continue to do this until all the squash is removed. Place the spaghetti strands on a platter, cover to keep warm and set aside.

Form strands with a fork

Heat the oil in a large saucepan and cook the onions and peppers at medium heat until soft, about 5 minutes.
Add the chili flakes and garlic and cook until the garlic is fragrant, 1 or 2 minutes. 

Cook onions, pepper, garlic and chili flakes

Add the basil, oregano, lentils and salt and stir to combine.

Stir in lentils and seasoning

Add the tomato sauce and simmer until the flavors blend and the sauce thickens, about 10 minutes or more. If you are using this topping on regular pasta, this would be a good time to cook the pasta.

Simmer until the flavors blend and the sauce thickens

Serve on top of spaghetti squash (pictured above) or stir together with whole wheat or gluten free pasta.

Not Meat sauce on top of whole wheat pasta

Per serving (on spaghetti squash): 293 calories, 6 g fat, 1 g saturated fat, 201 mg omega-3 and 635 mg omega-6 fatty acids, 12 g protein, 52 g carbohydrates, 14.9 g dietary fiber and 1050 mg sodium*.

Per serving (on whole grain pasta): 390 calories, 5 g fat, 0.7 g saturated fat, 93 mg omega-3 and 862 mg omega-6 fatty acids, 19 g protein, 74 g carbohydrates, 15.2 dietary fiber and 1002 g sodium"

* sodium can be reduced by using "no salt added" canned lentils or cooking your own lentils.

Raw Zucchini Spaghetti and Walnut Meatballs

I can’t believe how much these little healthy raw walnut balls taste like meatballs and they don’t take all day to cook. My Sicilian grandfather used to wake up at 5:00 AM every Sunday morning to make “sauce”. He’d carefully make his meatballs and then simmer them in tomato sauce for hours. I must admit they were pretty good but on a health scale from one to ten, they were certainly near the bottom and these are pretty close to the top. These also take a fraction of the time to make. As the zucchini and tomatoes start ripening in our gardens this is the perfect way to use them up. You can also put this raw tomato sauce on regular pasta.

My husband and I would often bring this dish to the Bay Area Raw Food Potlucks and it was always a big hit. But you’ll have to make lots of it because it goes quickly!

Walnuts are a very important food in the vegan diet as they depend heavily on nuts to obtain their omega 3 fatty acids. Walnuts are high in Alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) which is a type of omega 3 fatty acid. The most beneficial omega 3s are EPA and DHA, mostly found in fish. People can generally convert ALA into EPA and DHA but you have to eat enough of it. The Vegetarian Society recommends 4 g of ALA per day to ensure that you can produce enough EPA and DHA. This recipe delivers 3.7 g of ALA omega 3 fatty acid.

The optimum balance of omega 6 to omega 3 is 4:1 but unfortunately most people eat a much higher ratio. This can interfere with the body’s ability to convert ALA into DHA and EPA. This recipe provides a beneficial ratio of 4 to 1 omega 6 to omega 3.
Raw zucchini spaghetti and walnut meatballs (serves 4)

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Spaghetti
4 medium zucchini, peeled

Raw Tomato Sauce
1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes, soaked in filtered water for 1 hour
1 Medjool date, pitted and soaked in filtered water for 1 hour
1 cup tomatoes, quartered and seeded
1 clove garlic, peeled
2 packed tablespoons fresh basil
1/2 teaspoon Himalayan or sea salt
Dash of cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
4 chopped pimento stuffed olives (not raw – optional)

Walnut Meatballs [makes 12, 4 servings of 3 meatballs]
1 1/3 cups raw walnuts soaked for several hours
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
1 1/2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 teaspoons Nama Shoyu soy sauce
1 teaspoon garlic, minced
1 teaspoon thinly sliced green onion (white part only)
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh parsley, minced plus some for garnish

Peel the zucchini and make spaghetti on a spiral vegetable slice (I prefer Benriner – see my post on April 20, 2009 for an illustration of this). Dry the spaghetti in paper towels (don’t skip this step or your spaghetti will be watery and will not hold the sauce). Place dried spaghetti in a mixing bowl.

While running the food processor with an S blade, run the clove of garlic through the chute. After it is minced, add the drained sun dried tomatoes and date to the food processor along with the fresh tomatoes, basil, salt, cayenne pepper, olive oil and olives. Process until smooth. Place the tomato sauce in a small bowl and set aside.

Wash and dry the food processor. Drain and rinse the walnuts and add them to the food processor along with the nutritional yeast, olive oil, lemon juice, Nama Shoyu and garlic. Process until smooth, stopping now and then to scrape down the sides. Add thinly sliced green onion and minced fresh parsley and pulse several times until combined. Make 12 little round meatballs from the mixture. Dip each one in the sauce until covered and set aside. Take the rest of the sauce and add it to the zucchini. Divide the zucchini and sauce into 4 plates and place 3 sauce covered meatballs on each. Garnish with parsley and serve immediately.

Per serving: 380 calories, 30.9 g fat, 3.2 g saturated fat, 0 g cholesterol, 10.6 g protein, 23.3 g carbohydrates, 7 g fiber, 3.7 g omega 3 and 15.5 g of omega 6.

Fun With Spaghetti Squash

Baby artichoke sauce on spaghetti squash.

Pulling the spaghetti strands from the sides.

Simmering the baby artichokes.

"Double spaghetti".



I lied when I said butternut squash was my last fling with winter squash this year. I couldn’t resist a spaghetti squash at the grocery store and I always have so much fun preparing them. OK, you’re asking, how much fun can you have with spaghetti squash? But, if you’ve never made it, you will be delighted when you turn this football shaped, 3 pound squash into delicate strands of low calorie spaghetti. If you are trying to get your kids (or anyone else in your family) to eat more vegetables, try mixing a little spaghetti with spaghetti squash for what I call, “double spaghetti”.

Spaghetti squash can replace regular spaghetti in any recipe where you want to prepare a lighter dish that has fewer calories and gets you closer to your goal of 5 to 7 fruits and vegetables a day. One cup of spaghetti is 221 calories and 43 grams of carbohydrates. One cup of cooked spaghetti squash is only 42 calories and 10 grams of carbohydrates. So if you are trying to lose weight but still crave pasta, this can really do the trick!

I’ll be sharing my brother Peter's vegetarian baby artichoke sauce recipe but first, let’s cook up the squash.

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Steamed Spaghetti Squash
1 three pound spaghetti squash cut in half
Sea salt

Cut the squash in half, remove the seeds and sprinkle the insides with salt. Put them in a large pot and steam them in an inch or two of water. Some people bake them in the oven until the skin is soft but I worry that you can overcook them and not know until it’s too late. Overcooking causes the squash to be mushy and you don’t get the beautiful spaghetti strands that you are looking for. Steam for about 15 to 18 minutes or until a fork can gently pierce the inside of the squash. As soon as that happens, remove the squash halves from the pot immediately. Then, using a fork, gently pull the squash away from the sides. You’ll see little strands form. Continue to do this until all of the squash comes away from the skin. One large spaghetti squash can feed 4 people.

Per 1 ½ cup serving: 63 calories, zero grams of fat, zero mg of cholesterol, 1.5 g protein, 15 g of carbohydrates and 3 g of fiber.

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Double Spaghetti [makes 4 servings]
¼ pound of whole wheat spaghetti
4 cups cooked spaghetti squash

Cook the spaghetti squash as stated above. Cook the whole wheat pasta according to directions. Toss together and serve with a sauce of your choice.

Per serving: 147 calories, zero grams of fat, zero mg of cholesterol, 4.5 g protein, 31 g of carbohydrates and 4.5 g of fiber.

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Pete’s Baby Artichoke Sauce [serves 4]
1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil
1 pound of baby artichokes, sliced vertically into 8 pieces
1 small onion or large shallot, cut in half and then in thin slices
The juice and zest of one lemon
½ cup of white wine (and another glass for the chef)
2 tablespoons of grated parmesan cheese
3 large garlic cloves, minced
1/3 cup chopped parsley
Salt and pepper to taste
Water or broth, as needed

Clean the artichokes by removing several outer layers of leaves (don’t skimp – if you don’t remove enough of the outer leaves, as I found out, the artichokes will be tough). Leave the stem on and peel it with a potato peeler. Cut vertically into 8 pieces. Sauté the onion or shallot in the olive oil for a few minutes. Add the garlic and cook another minute. Then add the artichokes, white wine, salt and pepper and simmer covered until soft (about 30 minutes – but all artichokes are different so test the leaves occasionally). Add ½ cup or more of water or broth when the sauce starts to get too thick. When the artichokes are soft, stir in the zest and juice of a lemon. Put over 4 servings of spaghetti squash or “double spaghetti”. Cover with fresh chopped parsley and parmesan cheese. For a better melding of the flavors, you can mix the spaghetti squash or “double spaghetti” into the sauce first and then serve but it isn’t as pretty a presentation.

Per serving of sauce: 128 calories, 4 g fat, 1 g saturated fat, 2 mg cholesterol, 4.5 g protein, 14.5 g carbohydrates and 8.3 g fiber.