Spaghetti squash with carrot-beet 'nomato' sauce

Losing sauce is one of the small costs of AIP that nobody warns you about, because it sounds too minor to mention. It is not minor at the dinner table. Carrots and beets, cooked low and slow until they turn into something that pours, clings, and reads like real marinara, close that gap without a single nightshade in the pot. It takes about 7 hours in the slow cooker, and almost none of that time is yours. Start it in the morning, walk away, and come back to a sauce that freezes in batches for the weeks ahead.

The color carrying all of that flavor is doing real work too. Carrots and beets are a source of beta-carotene, which the body converts toward vitamin A, a nutrient tied to skin and mucosal tissue health, and part of what a healing gut lining depends on. The beef folded through is a source of iron, for carrying oxygen through a body that is asking a lot of itself right now.

Source the beef well if you can, and let this batch be worth what it took: a big pot of red sauce, ready to freeze and pull out on a night when cooking is the last thing you have in you. Wind it through the squash the way you'd wind noodles around a fork, and give yourself a minute to sit down to it properly.

Ingredients

Spaghetti:

• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp dried parsley
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 4 cups nomato sauce (below)
• 4 cups spinach, chopped
• 1 spaghetti squash, cooked

Nomato sauce (makes about 6 to 8 cups):

• 16 medium carrots
• 8 garlic cloves
• 4 small onions
• 2 medium beets
• 8 bay leaves
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 2 tbsp dried basil
• 2 tbsp dried thyme
• 1 tbsp dried rosemary
• 1 tbsp dried parsley
• 1 tbsp dried oregano
• 1 tbsp sea salt
• Optional: a splash of lime, lemon, or apple cider vinegar at the end, for a bright acidity (the lift a nomato sauce wants)

Method

Make the sauce first. Add the carrots, garlic, onions, beets, bay leaves, chicken broth, basil, thyme, rosemary, parsley, oregano, and salt to the slow cooker. Cook on low for about 7 hours, until the carrots and beets are completely soft. Slow cookers vary, so if the mix looks dry, add a little more broth along the way. Pull out the bay leaves, then blend the sauce smooth. Taste and season, and add a splash of lime, lemon, or apple cider vinegar if you want a brighter, more tomato-like edge. Use fresh or vacuum-packed cooked beets for the truest red; canned beets tend to wash the color toward orange.

Brown the ground beef in a large skillet or pot with the oregano, parsley, basil, ginger, and salt. Stir in 4 cups of the sauce, bring it to a boil, then drop to a simmer and cook for about 1 hour. Stir in the chopped spinach and let it wilt.

Serve over the cooked spaghetti squash. Freeze the extra sauce for up to about 3 months.

Instant Pot variation

The Instant Pot makes the sauce in a fraction of the time. Add all the sauce ingredients to the pot, lock the lid, and cook on high pressure for about 15 to 20 minutes, then let the pressure release naturally. Pull the bay leaves and blend smooth as above. You can also use the slow-cook setting on low for the same 7-hour hands-off result, and brown the beef right in the pot on saute before building the dish. The high-pressure timing comes from the source's comment thread and is not yet tested in our kitchen, so check that the roots are fully soft before blending.

*Adapted from a-clean-plate*