Dominican Spaghetti using Spaghetti Squash!
Spaghetti is the typical plate for the beach for Dominicans! I am not sure exactly why, so if anyone has any insight to why Dominicans love to bring spaghetti to the beach please let us know! I think that it’s because it’s such a hearty and filling meal. Perfect for keeping you happy all day long We recreated this Dominican-style spaghetti in a vegan version and decided to use spaghetti squash! The squash was a last minute supermarket decision. We saw that it was on sale and went for it! This spur of the moment plate turned out so well, hope you all enjoy it as much as we did!
The Details
Dominican spaghetti sauce can be a lighter shade of red, a lot of people add in evaporated milk to get this color and also thicken the consistency. Here, we used a little unsweetened coconut milk instead. We also decided to add in a little Beyond Meat bratwurst sausage — another spur of the moment decision! They are new and we saw them in the supermarket and wanted to experiment.
Spaghetti Squash
The spaghetti squash is so easy! We cooked it just like the butternut squash we posted about on instagram. Sliced in half, scraped out the inside, seasoned with salt/pepper and a little oil, and baked in the oven (cut side down) at 350 until you can easy pierce the skin with a fork. Once the squash is ready, you can take it out of the oven and very carefully run a fork through the inside. I usually hold it with a pot holder since it’s so hot! The inside will shred really easily and look just like spaghetti! Repeat until there’s just the outside peel left and do the same with the other half.
The Sauce
The sauce itself is pretty easy and similar to some of our other sauces — like the sauce for the Eggplant Roll Ups.
Start with the onions, peppers, garlic, and oil and sautee and medium high until soft and translucent. Add the tomato paste and adobo let it all come together. Next add the tomato sauce, olives and the veggie stock and continue to simmer. Once the sauce begins to thicken (about 10-15 minutes), add the coconut milk and continue to simmer. Try the sauce and add salt and pepper to your taste. Lastly, add in the cilantro and parsely stems. We really just want to add this final flavor but these will be strained out before serving.
That’s it! Combine the sauce with the spaghetti squash and serve. For this round we sliced and sauteed the vegan sausage in a pan and added it to the plate but it’s up to you how you want to serve it!
As always, when you try out this recipe, make sure you tag us or use the hashtag #cocoverdevegan! We love seeing your creations!
Dominican Style Spaghetti Using Spaghetti Squash
Course Main Course
Cuisine Latino Vegan
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 15 minutes
Servings 4 people
Ingredients
3 tbsp canola oil
1/2 red onion (large, big diced)
1 red bell pepper (large, big diced)
1 green bell pepper (large, big diced)
7 cloves garlic (sliced)
5 cilantro ancho (also called culantro) stems
2 tbsp tomato paste
8 oz tomato sauce
1 1/2 tbsp adobo
1/2 cup Spanish olives sliced
2 cups vegetable stock
1 bunch cilantro stems
1/2 bunch parsley stems
8 oz unsweetened coconut milk (optional but recommended)
salt and pepper to taste
Spaghetti Squash
1 large spaghetti squash
1 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper (about 2 tsp each)
Vegan Sausage
2 Beyond Meat Bratwurst Sausages (sliced)
Instructions
Spaghetti Squash
Start by getting your spaghetti squash ready and preheat your oven to 350 degree. Slice the squash in half lengthwise and scrape out the seeds from the inside. Coat the squash with the oil, salt, and pepper and place cut side down on a baking sheet. Bake for about 60 mins or until you can easily poke with a fork
The squash should be ready by the time you finish the sauce. When you take the squash out of the oven, very carefully use a fork to scrape the inside. the squash will fall apart into strings that look just like spaghetti! Keep scraping until all that's left is the peel. Repeat for the other half.
Tomato Sauce
In a pot, heat the oil over medium high heat. Add the onions, peppers, and garlic and saute until the onions are translucent (about 5 minutes). Next, add the tomato paste and adobo, continue to saute until everything comes together -- the paste thins out and everything is evenly coated.
Add the tomato sauce, vegetable stock, and olives and allow the sauce to simmer and thicken. At this point, try the sauce and add salt and pepper to taste, we ended up adding about 1 tsp of each.
After about 10-15 minutes or when the sauce has thickened, add the coconut milk, if desired. It's optional but recommended because it adds a level of creaminess to the sauce. Add in the cilantro, parsley, and culantro stems
When you are ready to serve, remove the cilantro, parsley, and culantro stems. Slice and sautee the vegan sausages, if adding. They only need a few minutes on each side, until browned.
Toss together your spaghetti squash and sauce, top with sausage (if desired) serve and enjoy! We served with avocado slices and a simple salad but this dish is great by itself too!
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