One big perk of meal planning is that once you get the hang of it, you find you don’t have to cook every. single. day. For example, this spaghetti squash with chicken recipe.
Go ahead and bake your squash beforehand – possibly on the weekend, when you have more time. The can easily be pulled from leftovers. And the pesto in this recipe can also be made ahead of time.
To store summer pesto, drizzle olive oil over the top and cover. This will help to keep the pesto green. It will keep for a few weeks in the fridge (if it lasts that long!) or you can freeze it.
Spaghetti Squash with Chicken and Summer Pesto
- 20m
- 1h
Ingredients
- 1 spaghetti squash
- 2 lemons
- 6 bunches fresh basil
- 2 oz parmesan cheese, optional
- 2 c cooked chicken
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1 c pine nuts
- 1 c extra virgin olive oil
- coarse sea salt, to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375F.
- In a shallow, non-reactive baking dish, roast squash for 30-45 minutes or until squash is soft when punctured with a fork.
- When cool enough to handle, cut squash in half longwise. Scoop out seeds and discard. Gently scoop out “spaghetti” flesh and set aside.
- Meanwhile, juice the lemons. Roughly chop basil. Shred cheese and chicken.
- In a food processor, process basil leaves, garlic, pine nuts, lemon juice, and olive oil until smooth.
- Toss the spaghetti squash with the pesto and shredded chicken.
- Season with sea salt and optional parmesan cheese to taste.