If you’ve been drooling and sighing over those Pinterest pictures of Million Dollar Spaghetti you’re in luck. I’ve made adapted it to be low carb ! All of the gooey cheesy goodness, all of the rich meat sauce, all of the delicious satisfaction but only 6 net carbs per generous serving. It’s easy to make, budget friendly, and it freezes relatively well so you can make it once and have leftovers another day. Spiralized zucchini stands in for the pasta in this recipe but look for variations in the recipe notes below.
For this recipe you’ll need: zucchini, butter, Mozzarella cheese, cream cheese, whole milk ricotta, ground beef, and marinara sauce (look for lowest carb version, I used Bertolli with 8 carbs per 1/2 cup)
Table of Contents
Craving something super satisfyingly savory?
I don’t know about you but I spend a good amount of my non-existent free time drooling over food images on Pinterest. Sadly, the pins that look the best to me are almost NEVER low carb. So, I save them to a secret board to try to recreate them with low carb ingredients. Sometimes it works beautifully and sometimes I end up with a mess. Luckily this time I ended up with a yummy low carb version of million dollar spaghetti made with zoodles which is a zucchini noodle.
I was worried that the zucchini noodles would get too mushy so I just blanched them for a minute in boiling water then plunged them into ice water to stop the cooking. It worked well. Next time I am going to try making the casserole without cooking the zoodles in any way to see if the oven gets them done enough.
Other versions of this recipe use squash instead of the noodles. I think spaghetti squash is delicious but it takes some time to bake it separately. I’m sure it’d be awesome to make this a squash recipe so give it a try and let me know how it turned out in the comments please.
Oh my goodness, this came out so creamy and yummy that I was practically swooning when I tried it.
Million dollar recipe notes
This main dish recipe is absolutely perfect as is but here are some variations that are good to try. I also included some tips you’ll want to know when making this million dollar spaghetti casserole. As always, when using the variations remember to change the nutrition information and always watch for extra carbs. Especially if you are full keto and want to eliminate as many as possible.
Variations
- Try Cheddar cheese in place of the Mozzarella cheese.
- Try and use taco meat (browned ground beef with taco seasoning) and enchilada sauce instead of the ground beef and marinara sauce.
- Add slices of pepperoni on top of the cheese layer.
- Use ground turkey instead of beef. To get a beefy flavor, try some Better Than Bouillon beef flavor. It’s concentrated beef stock and makes ground turkey taste just like beef.
- Stir in some Gorgonzola cheese to the cheese sauce.
- Use another firm vegetable instead of zucchini for spiralizing – Turnip, Jicama, Broccoli stems, and of course low carb spaghetti squash.
- Add some italian seasoning.
- Use your favorite low carb marinara sauce or keto spaghetti sauce after cooking it down a bit to remove some of the moisture.
- Steamed cauliflower can be used in place of the zoodles.
Tips
This million dollar spaghetti casserole was so easy to make but there are a couple of things that made it even better.
- The zucchini releases a lot of water during baking. To counteract this, if you have time, salt the zoodles and let them sit in a colander to drain for an hour. Rinse the salt off well before using. The salt sucks the moisture out of the zucchini noodles.
- Pat the zucchini dry with paper towels before adding to the casserole pan.
- Use spaghetti squash in place of the zoodles. Again, please let me know how this comes out.
- I liked the fat content of using 80/20 beef but you can use 90/10 if you want.
- The cooking is just for heating purposes since everything is cooked before it goes into the casserole. To keep the zucchini from overcooking you can forego the oven and heat it in the microwave.
This may not be the most beautiful dish but it IS a delicious one!
Navigation tip
This almost keto million dollar spaghetti recipe is set to make 4 generous servings. You can make enough for the whole family if you’d like. If you put your cursor (or finger) over the number “4” next to the “Servings” heading in the recipe below, a slider will appear. You can move the slider to the number of servings you want to make. The low carb million dollar spaghetti recipe will automatically change the amount of each ingredient for you. If this zucchini noodle spaghetti recipe makes your taste buds happy, please consider giving it 5 stars. Thank you so much for your support !
Low Carb Million Dollar Spaghetti Recipe
Don’t wait too long to give this low carb baked spaghetti recipe a try then come back and let me know what you think! I absolutely am addicted to it! Check out my ultimate Chicken Tetrazzini, too! If you love this recipe please give it 5 stars.
Low Carb Million Dollar Spaghetti
Ingredients
- 1 pound zucchini , spiralized
- 4 tablespoons butter at room temperature
- 1 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
- 4 ounces cream cheese , softened
- 1/4 cup whole milk ricotta cheese
- 1 1/2 teaspoons oregano
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 1 pound ground beef 80/20 or even 90/10 works
- 1/2 cup marinara sauce
Instructions
- Use 2 tablespoons butter to grease the bottom of a 2 quart baking dish. Set aside.
- Drop zucchini noodles into a pan of boiling water.
- Cover and set the timer for 1 minutes.
- Drain and plunge into ice water to stop cooking. Set aside.
- Mix the cream cheese, ricotta, and sour cream together until well blended.
- Stir in 3/4 cup of the Mozzarella cheese and the oregano.
- Brown the ground beef in a frying pan until cooked through.
- Mix the marinara sauce in with the cooked ground beef.
- Place half the drained zucchini in the bottom of the 2 quart baking dish.
- Cover with the cheese mixture.
- Add the remaining zucchini and dot with the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter.
- Top with the meat mixture then sprinkle with the remaining 1/4 cup Mozzarella.
- Bake at 350F for 30 minutes.
Nutrition
If you like this Million Dollar Spaghetti Recipe you may also like…
Click on the image to see the recipe. From left to right : Low Carb Manicotti, Low Carb Southern Chicken and Dumplings, Low Carb Gluten Free Ramen
I used spaghetti squash—halved, deserved, placed on a trivet in an instant pot with one cup of water, 7 minutes on high, natural release 5 minutes. I let the squash sit in a strainer over a bowl after I salted it well. It turned out great!
Wonderful !!! Thank you for letting me know how great you did with this recipe Tricia. Happy cooking and creating !