Instant Pot Spaghetti Squash

Hello all! Show of hands anyone have an Instant Pot? Or interested in getting one but hesitating? I have the easiest, healthy recipe that will put you over the edge. You make your whole dinner in the pot at the same time! And from cutting board to plate the whole thing only takes about 45 minutes.

You're going to love this recipe because the squash, sauce and meatballs are all cooked at the same time! It also has a super short list of ingredients, here is what you need:

• Spaghetti Squash (small/medium size)
• Jar of pasta sauce
• Meatballs
• Parmesan Cheese
• Fresh Basil
• 1 Cup Water

Step 1: Cut your spaghetti squash in half. Use an ice cream scooper to scrape out all the seeds (the way you'd clean out a pumpkin).

Then take a fork and poke holes all over the outside. 

Step 2: Place your spaghetti squash halves in the Instant Pot on top of the trivet with the open side down. Then pour 1 cup of water into the bottom of the pot.

Step 3: Add your meatballs to a small Instant Pot safe dish, I use this 6" cake pan, and pour the pasta sauce over the meatballs. I like to cook 10 meatballs: 4 for the grownups and 2 for our daughter Carolyn.

Now you just carefully set it on top of the squash in the Instant Pot. It will gently press against the lid of the pot when you close it, but that helps it stay in place. Set your pot for 7 minutes on Manual.

Don't forget to add your steam redirector tool, check out my hack here.

Step 4: Let the pot Natural Release for 10 minutes, then open it. Carefully take your meatballs and sauce and set aside. Remove your squash and using a fork scrape the insides out onto a plate. It should look like short spaghetti noodles.

Just look at all that yummy goodness falling right out of the skin!

Now you can add your sauce and meatballs. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese and chopped basil on top.

It's so delicious and healthy!

This recipe makes enough for two giant plate fulls (and in our case one toddler sized bowl too). But you could totally feed 4 people with it by just adding an extra side dish, such as a salad. 

I have yet to figure out how to add a recipe app to my blog, so here are the instructions condensed without the pictures:

Ingredients:

• Spaghetti Squash (small/medium size)
• Jar of pasta sauce
• Meatballs
• Parmesan Cheese
• Fresh Basil
• 1 Cup Water

Directions:

Step 1: Cut your spaghetti squash in half. Use an ice cream scooper to scrape out all the seeds (the way you'd clean out a pumpkin). Then take a fork and poke holes all over the outside. 

Step 2: Place your spaghetti squash halves in the Instant Pot on top of the trivet with the open side down. Then pour 1 cup of water into the bottom of the pot.

Step 3: Add your meatballs to a small Instant Pot safe dish, I use this 6" cake pan, and pour the pasta sauce over the meatballs. I like to cook 10 meatballs: 4 for the grownups and 2 for our daughter Carolyn. Now you just carefully set it on top of the squash in the Instant Pot. It will gently press against the lid of the pot when you close it, but that helps it stay in place. Set your pot for 7 minutes on Manual. 

Step 4: Let the pot Natural Release for 10 minutes, then open it. Carefully take your meatballs and sauce and set aside. Remove your squash and using a fork scrape the insides out onto a plate. It should look like short spaghetti noodles. Now you can add your sauce and meatballs. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese and chopped basil on top.

I've been working on perfecting this recipe for a long time. Sometimes I would buy the larger sized spaghetti squash, but then I would need to cut it length wise in order to make it fit in the pot. If it's too large though the trivet wont fit, and I've found the trivet at the bottom is key, because otherwise the squash gets a little too soggy. Sometimes I would cook the sauce and meatballs separately, but I really wanted to make this an easy all in one dish where you could set it up and walk away. I'm so happy that I've finally found the right balance, because I make this dish at least twice a month. I hope that you enjoy it too!

P.S. I've decided to start adding a more Pinterest friendly photo for pinning purposes, here it is: