Roasted Spaghetti Squash
Spaghetti Squash is not, contrary to popular opinion, a racquet sport played in a four-walled court with a small rubber ball and a bowl of pasta.
IT IS, however, a delicious winter vegetable, also known as Squaghetti. This oblong squash tends to be fairly large and is usually yellow. Within it is a firm flesh and seeds, similar to that of a pumpkin. Where a Spaghetti Squash suddenly becomes a little extra interesting is in what happens to the flesh, when it is cooked. It becomes ... Pasketti!
Yep, this interesting vegetable separates into easy strands of pasta-like goodness, when steamed, roasted, baked, nuked, etc. It's a fantastic low-carb, totally "real foods" and paleo style pasta substitute. It's a twinge on the sweet side, with a texture similar to a lightly grainy al dente pasta with a twinge of "crunch". It's difficult to describe, but I find it to be absolutely delicious!
One of my favorite things to do is roast it, then sauté the strands with a little bit of garlic, butter, salt and pepper. That's it!
For the most part, use it in any fashion in which you'd use a pasta noodle, which includes side dishes, main courses and even Asian applications and stir fries.
Photo Note: The third photo is taken with Marinara Sauce and Parmesan-Mayo Baked Chicken Butterfly
Nutrition Note: I had a heck of a time finding accurate and trustworthy nutrition for this recipe. It is unclear to me what the USDA is using in their analysis. A standard spaghetti squash weighs between 4 and 6 lbs. and would make about 6 cups worth of spaghetti squash, after the rind, seeds and some water are removed during the cooking process. The USDA doesn't bother listing the fiber content of a raw spaghetti squash, but states it's got 7 grams of carbs per 100 grams (about 4 ounces). The USDA DOES have 10 carbs per cup of cooked spaghetti squash, with 2 grams of fiber, resulting in 8 grams of "net" carbs per 1-cup serving. This isn't super low, but it's reasonable (and tasty!). The challenge is that my recipes are based off of gram weights to do their calculations. As a result, I need to set the value of the spaghetti squash to 930 grams (about 2 lbs.). This isn't an accurate number, but is the only way to get the recipe's math to add up to the USDA's numbers. WHEE!!
IT IS, however, a delicious winter vegetable, also known as Squaghetti. This oblong squash tends to be fairly large and is usually yellow. Within it is a firm flesh and seeds, similar to that of a pumpkin. Where a Spaghetti Squash suddenly becomes a little extra interesting is in what happens to the flesh, when it is cooked. It becomes ... Pasketti!
Yep, this interesting vegetable separates into easy strands of pasta-like goodness, when steamed, roasted, baked, nuked, etc. It's a fantastic low-carb, totally "real foods" and paleo style pasta substitute. It's a twinge on the sweet side, with a texture similar to a lightly grainy al dente pasta with a twinge of "crunch". It's difficult to describe, but I find it to be absolutely delicious!
One of my favorite things to do is roast it, then sauté the strands with a little bit of garlic, butter, salt and pepper. That's it!
For the most part, use it in any fashion in which you'd use a pasta noodle, which includes side dishes, main courses and even Asian applications and stir fries.
Photo Note: The third photo is taken with Marinara Sauce and Parmesan-Mayo Baked Chicken Butterfly
Nutrition Note: I had a heck of a time finding accurate and trustworthy nutrition for this recipe. It is unclear to me what the USDA is using in their analysis. A standard spaghetti squash weighs between 4 and 6 lbs. and would make about 6 cups worth of spaghetti squash, after the rind, seeds and some water are removed during the cooking process. The USDA doesn't bother listing the fiber content of a raw spaghetti squash, but states it's got 7 grams of carbs per 100 grams (about 4 ounces). The USDA DOES have 10 carbs per cup of cooked spaghetti squash, with 2 grams of fiber, resulting in 8 grams of "net" carbs per 1-cup serving. This isn't super low, but it's reasonable (and tasty!). The challenge is that my recipes are based off of gram weights to do their calculations. As a result, I need to set the value of the spaghetti squash to 930 grams (about 2 lbs.). This isn't an accurate number, but is the only way to get the recipe's math to add up to the USDA's numbers. WHEE!!
Prep Time10 mins
Cook Time45 mins
Total Time55 mins
Servings: 6 Servings
Calories: 108.66666666667kcal
Ingredients
- 1 roughly 5-lb. spaghetti squash
- 1/4 cup fresh whole butter softened
- salt and fresh cracked black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 375 F.
- Cut your spaghetti squash into two even halves, with a large sharp knife. Be VERY careful when doing this, as it's got a thick firm flesh and it likes to roll around.
- Once it's been cut into half, scrape the seeds out with a spoon. You can save the seeds and dry them out, if you'd like. They're like pepitas (pumpkin seeds). I usually just throw them out though (I'm lazy).
- Rub 2 tbsp of the softened butter on the exposed fleshy bits of each squash half. Get a nice even layer on both halves.
- Season the flesh with a good bit of salt and pepper.
- Place the two halves, flesh-side-down, into a casserole pan or a cookie tray with a rim.
- Roast in the oven for about 45 minutes, or until soft (larger ones can take over an hour). Stick a knife into the rind and see if it enters easily. When it does, it's done. Remove from the oven!
- Here, you can scrape the strands out with a fork and serve them, as is, or with some kind of sauce. Alternately, you can also cut the halves into individual pieces and let people scrape their own threads from their portion. In all cases, be careful ... they're hot, heavy and a little bit awkward.
- Enjoy!
Nutrition
Serving: 6g | Calories: 108.66666666667kcal | Carbohydrates: 10g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 7.3333333333333g | Fiber: 2g