<p>Having family over Sunday for dinner. Planning to make spaghetti and meatballs for the crowd, but one of the crowd has a lot of diet restrictions. No meat (fish ok, but I am not a good fish preparer), gluten free, no tomatoes, some dairy ok. Might be more restrictions but those are the major ones.</p>
<p>I thought about doing a spaghetti squash dish along with the “real” spaghetti. Maybe something that includes stir frying veggies and then adding the cooked spaghetti squash at the end or something??? This person usually also will bring along a dish to contribute that will meet his dietary needs so if he brings one and I provide at least one dish I feel like we can satisfy him!</p>
<p>Hoping you have a few suggestions! (BTW, he loves olives and feta if you have ideas along those lines as well.) :)</p>
<p>You can even serve spaghetti squash like spaghetti, with everything else you’d be putting on top. I bet it would be good with more of a Mediterranean twist, though, if you’re looking to use the olives and feta – maybe olives and pine nuts and feta and fresh or sun dried tomatoes and spinach? I’ve had it with Mexican seasonings and enchiladas and really enjoyed that.</p>
<p>I bet your guest very much appreciates you making the effort to accomodate his needs.</p>
<p>What type of olives would work best? (I like olives, but not fully educated on them). A variety that I can buy fairly easily at an olive bar or something (not jarred or canned preferably).</p>
<p>I was imagining kalamata, but I’m not really an olive connoisseur. Spaghetti squash has a pretty mild flavor, so I think a lot of things would work with it.</p>
<p>Maybe even have the spaghetti sauce naked with pesto, olives, feta and sun dried tomatoes on the side for people to add??? Sounds like a good combination to me!</p>
<p>I don’t have pine nuts and am not sure I will be anywhere where I can purchase a small amount (do know I have to stop at Costco, but that will NOT be a small amount!)</p>
<p>Part of the reason I was thinking about nuts was because, as allyphoe said, spaghetti squash has almost no calories. The nuts and cheese would add some fat so the dish would be more satiating. Honestly, if I were making it, I’d probably just dump some walnuts in because I usually have them and they’re cheap – I never buy pine nuts but I thought they’d go with the Mediterranean theme.</p>
<p>I made the Spaghetti Squash I recipe from allrecipes as a side dish for a gluten free guest. Everyone, including the non gluten free people loved it, even those who are not normally big squash fans . You could easily substitute another vegetable for the tomatoes. </p>
<p>I’ve used chopped roasted eggplant sprinkled with Italian seasonings with my spaghetti squash. Add some tomato sauce and paremesan cheese…sort of a faux eggplant parm. If your guest doesn’t eat any tomato products you could use olive oil to hold it all together and add flavor. Have also done vegs. sauteed in oliver oil on top of spag. squash.
Both versions were well received by DH.</p>
<p>Ooh, that looks tasty. Cornstarch should work as a thickener to sub for the wheat flour (to make it gluten-free), although it won’t reheat well.</p>
<p>Thanks for all your suggestions - my menu ended up changing and NOT having the regular spaghetti, but a beef roast with crash hot potatoes, salad and lots of veggies.</p>
<p>But I DID still do spaghetti squash! I simply put it out hot and steamy with a little butter and salt and pepper then took a lazy susan and filled it with various Mediterranean toppings - feta, greek olives, sun dried tomatoes, pesto, peppadew peppers, artichokes and olive oil. Everyone topped their own and every bit of it - GONE!!! </p>
<p>That sounds great, abasket. LOL, because I was googling last night trying to figure out how to microwave spaghetti squash! I just used a jar of canned spaghetti sauce that I fixed up a bit, because I was in a hurry. After the first helping, I had some with butter and salt and pepper and it was very comforting.</p>