This Easy Spaghetti Squash in Instant Pot recipe is perfect for a quick and healthy dinner. The cook time of this spaghetti squash is only 8 minutes in the Instant Pot. This is a tasty vegetarian meal that is quick to prepare and will leave you full. The squash is cooked until it is tender and moist and tastes like a fancy pasta dish when paired with marinara sauce in its own boat. It is seriously yummy!
This spaghetti squash has become a real favorite of ours. It is hearty, tasty, and is quick to prepare. I hardly ever cooked spaghetti squash because it seemed to take FOREVER in the oven. Then I thought one day, could it work in the Instant Pot? I was so thrilled to find out that yes, it does cook in the Instant Pot and in only 8 minutes! That's amazing! What a time-saver!
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🍈 A great vegetarian meal
My family and I have decided to cut down on our meat intake and enjoy more vegetarian meals during the week. This was in part to save money as well as perhaps eat even healthier. It was a struggle; first, the kids hated it, but we don't even miss the meat with this squash recipe. It is so hearty and satisfying and seriously filling.
We grow our own vegetables in the garden and had a bumper crop of squash. The beautiful thing about this winter squash is it keeps for a very long time. It is March here, and our spaghetti squash is still perfect! As long as it's in a cold room, it should last until the next gardening season.
💭 Is spaghetti squash healthy?
Spaghetti squash is a vibrant winter squash low in calories and loaded with nutrients and health benefits. They include:
- A good source of fiber, vitamin C, manganese, vitamin B6.
- Also contains a small amount of thiamine, magnesium, folate, calcium, and iron.
- High in beta-carotene and vitamin C (two antioxidants that can stop free radicals from forming and reduce your risk of chronic diseases).
- An excellent source of fiber - helps to maintain your digestive health.
- Low in calories and high in fiber - great if you are on a weight loss diet.
👪 How do you know if spaghetti squash is ripe?
The squash is ripe when it turns a golden yellow or a dark yellow color. The skin of the squash will be very thick and hard. If you use your fingernail to poke the squash, your nail shouldn't penetrate the squash.
🔪 How to cut it
With your dominant hand, use a sharp chef's knife to cut the squash in half from stem to base, keeping your hand far away from the knife. Next, using a spoon, scrape out all the seeds. We like to save our seeds and dry them out to use them to grow spaghetti squash in the garden again.
Ready to cook spaghetti squash? Let's get started!
🥘 Ingredients
- 1 large ripe spaghetti squash
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ½ onion
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 3 cups of marinara sauce (out of a jar or homemade).
- 1 teaspoon oregano
- Salt to taste.
- Pepper to taste.
🔪 Instructions
- Carefully cut your squash in half from stem to base, scoop out all the seeds.
- Place the trivet that came with your Instant Pot on the bottom of the pressure cooker.
- Add 1 cup of water to the pressure cooker.
- Put in your spaghetti squash facing each other, but with space between them. If your squash is too big to fit, cut it into quarters.
- Secure the lid on the Instant Pot, set it to "sealing".
- Set to 8 minutes on high pressure.
- Meanwhile, saute ½ onion and 3 cloves of garlic in 1 tablespoon of olive oil until translucent, about 4 minutes.
- Add 3 cups of marinara sauce and 1 teaspoon of oregano to the onion and garlic mixture and heat it up.
- When the timer of the Instant Pot beeps, signaling that it is done, switch to "venting" to release steam. Be sure to use a long-handled spoon or oven mitt so you don't get burned from the steam as it spurts out!
- When the pressure is fully released and the pressure indicator has dropped, remove the lid.
- Then, use tongs to move the spaghetti squash to a cutting board.
- Your squash should be tender when pierced with a fork.
- Using a fork, pull up threads of "spaghetti", use a spoon to transfer the "spaghetti" to the pot with the marinara sauce, or you can just place "spaghetti" on a plate and serve the heated marinara sauce on top.
- Alternatively, if mixing the "spaghetti" noodles into the marina sauce, after mixing it well, spoon the marinara mixture back into the squash "boat".
- If you like, you can put mozzarella cheese or parmesan cheese on top and broil in the oven for a couple of minutes.
- However, we like to add cottage cheese to ours and simply dig in! Yum!
- Enjoy!
📖 Variations
I have tried many different ways of serving spaghetti squash; with parmesan cheese and salt and pepper, but that got a little boring. This recipe with spaghetti squash with marinara sauce is so delicious, plus you can change it up to your own tastes!
Heat the marinara sauce and serve it over the spaghetti squash strings on a plate, and top with parmesan cheese for an even quicker meal.
Don't want to eat vegetarian? Add some cooked sausage or cooked ground beef or turkey. You could also add extra cheese for extra cheesy goodness!
More Recipes
I hope you like this recipe for Spaghetti Squash made in only 8 minutes in the Instant Pot as much as we do!
Please let me know in the comments below how you enjoyed the recipe, or send me an email on my Contact Page? You can also follow me on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram.
📋 Recipe
Easy Spaghetti Squash in Instant Pot
Ingredients
- 1 large spaghetti squash
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ½ onion diced
- 3 cloves garlic chopped
- 3 cups marinara sauce out of a jar or homemade
- 1 teaspoon oregano
- salt to taste
- pepper to taste
Instructions
- Cut your squash in half from stem to base, scoop out all the seeds.
- Place the trivet that came with your Instant Pot on the bottom of the Instant Pot.
- Add 1 cup of water to the pressure cooker.
- Put in your spaghetti squash facing each other, but with space between them. If your squash is too big to fit, cut it into quarters.
- Secure the lid on the Instant Pot, set it to "sealing". Set to 8 minutes on high pressure.
- Meanwhile, saute ½ onion and 3 cloves of garlic in 1 tablespoon of olive oil until translucent, about 4 minutes.
- Add 3 cups of marinara sauce and 1 teaspoon of oregano to the onion and garlic mixture and heat it up.
- When the timer of the Instant Pot beeps, signaling that it is done, switch to "venting" to release steam. Be sure to use a long-handled spoon or oven mitt so you don't get burned from the steam as it spurts out!
- When the pressure is fully released and the pressure indicator has dropped, remove the lid.
- Then, use tongs to move the spaghetti squash to a cutting board.
- Your squash should be tender when pierced with a fork.
- Using a fork, pull up threads of "spaghetti", use a spoon to transfer the "spaghetti" to the pot with the marinara sauce, or you can just place "spaghetti" on a plate and serve the heated marinara sauce on top
- Alternatively, if mixing the "spaghetti" noodles into the marina sauce, after it is mixed, spoon the marinara mixture back into the squash "boat".
- If you like, you can put mozzarella cheese or parmesan cheese on top and broil in the oven for a couple of minutes.
- However, we like to add cottage cheese to ours and simply dig in! Yum!
- Enjoy!
Mama Maggie's Kitchen
Oh man! I could really sink my teeth into that!
Mihaela | https://theworldisanoyster.com/
This is a recipe worth making any time!:)
Jeri
Thank you, Mihaela! It's so healthy and easy to make!
Amy Roskelley
I've never tried adding cottage cheese to my spaghetti squash before! I know I'd love it.
Thanks for the instant pot tips!
Jeri
It's delicious, Amy!
anna
Such a great recipe! We made it for dinner last night and the whole family loved it! Thank you!
Jeri
I'm so thrilled you liked it, Anna!