Trader Joe’s Harvest Spaghetti Squash Spirals. In my never ending quest to try things I wouldn’t normally like, but know my readership would love, I have been searching the far corners of the store for overlooked (by me) products that should have more exposure. I picked this up on a whim last week and thinking I would just throw this together for lunch, take a bite out of it and spit it out and make a sandwich. Boy was I wrong! Tis the season for squash in everything. This seasonal item pops up in the Fall and goes away sometime after Xmas although I have never really checked after that.
It’s doesn’t say Gluten Free on the label anywhere, but a review of the ingredients list (shown below) doesn’t show anything with gluten in it (Trader Joe’s why don’t you put Gluten Free on the label?). I have a feeling it’s one of those things cross contamination things “prepared on equipment…”. If you are really super sensitive to gluten, I wouldn’t try it, but I don’t see any gluten in the ingredients.
This is a Product of Italy. Almost always when I see Product of France or Italy or Spain, I know I will be getting something that is pretty high quality. I was just worried about the spaghetti squash and how it would turn out. In the bag, there are square lumps of frozen sauce and there are spaghetti squash “birds nets” and some lumps of butternut squash. Then also a bag of Grana Padano cheese to put on afterwards. You are supposed to cook the spirals separately from the sauce, but the hard part is that they are all mixed together in the bag. Some seemed to have been melded together so it wasn’t that easy (maybe if they had another bag in the bag?). I did the best I could and cooked the squash in some olive oil and with the lid on for about five minutes. Then I dumped the sauce cubes in and started to melt those and simmered it for about 5 minutes until it all came together.
I didn’t have high hopes for it at this point. It looked more like soup than pasta and sauce but after about 5 minutes it came together and got to the right consistency. I plated it in a shallow bowl and put the cheese on it and let it cool off for a minute and melt the cheese. I drizzled some olive oil and ground some pepper on it and HOLY COW was that good! The sauce was just right. Lots of flavor. The spaghetti squash was just like pasta. I could barely tell the difference. I ran right back to Trader Joe’s and bought 2 more bags. I highly recommend this, especially to vegetarians and possibly to my gluten free friends.
INGREDIENTS: SPAGHETTI SQUASH, BUTTERNUT SQUASH, TOMATO PULP, GRANA PADANO CHEESE (MILK, SALT, ANIMAL RENNET, EGG LYSOZYME), PUMPKIN PUREE, BUTTERNUT SQUASH PUREE, SPICES, HEAVY CREAM, CARROT PUREE, BUTTER, SALT, ONION POWDER, GARLIC POWDER, LEMON JUICE CONCENTRATE, PARSLEY.
CONTAINS MILK, EGG.
NUTRITION FACTS: Servings per container about 3 | Serving size 3/4 cup (110g) | Amount per serving: Calories 100, Total Fat 4g (5% DV), Saturated Fat 2.5g (13% DV), Trans Fat 0g, Cholesterol 10mg (3% DV), Sodium 210mg (9% DV), Total Carbohydrate 11g (4% DV), Dietary Fiber 3g (11% DV), Total Sugars 3g—Includes 0g Added Sugars (0% DV), Protein 5g, Vitamin D 0mcg (0% DV), Calcium 80mg (6% DV), Iron 3mg (15% DV), Potassium 270mg (6% DV).
The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a serving of food contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
