November 16, 2013
For the record, I haven’t always loved spaghetti squash. If I am being completely honest, it wasn’t so long ago that the mere thought would make my gag reflexes go wild. I am sure it had to do with my one and only experience at a dinner where a well meaning friend cooked some up as a ‘healthy alternative’ for me. As sweet as the gesture was, it was overcooked so severely that even breathing on it prior to eating it almost liquefied it. Ok, maybe not that bad, but my memory sure has me convinced of it.
Not sure when I turned the corner on this one, but after being brave enough to give it another whirl a few years later; it has strangely become a food I often crave. Yes, that is right – I crave spaghetti squash.
It is all in how you cook it!
I cannot stress enough that you have to cook it correctly to like it. Unless of course mush is your thing.
Cut lengthwise, scoop out the seeds, place it on a pan with the cut side on the bottom, and stab the outside of the squash with a fork a few times Bake at 375 for 30-40 minutes. Now here is the catch – these things come is many sizes. If you have a wee one, then you want to be checking it at 30 minutes to see where it is at. If you poke the outside with a fork, it should be soft enough that it indents slightly. You want the noodles to be slightly crunchy – sounds weird, but there is a fine line with spaghetti squash that makes it either slightly crunchy or super mushy.
Here are a few of the many things it goes good with:
- Tomato sauce
- Tomato meat sauce
- Stir Fry’s
- Garlic sauce
- Veggies
- Meat
- Tempeh
Think of spaghetti squash for anything you would use normally pair noodles with.
Why I love it:
- It goes with almost everything
- A 1-cup serving of cooked spaghetti squash has just 42 calories, vs 221 calories in 1 cup of cooked pasta. A difference of 180 calories per cup!
- It is a source of vitamin A, B6, C, K, thiamin, potassium, riboflavin, niacin, folate, pantothenic acid and fiber
Give it a try and let us know what you think! 🙂
